Limping ducks, should we do more?

[Debbie292d]

We are newer to ducks, only having this pair of females for a few months. We guess them to be about five months old. They've been laying eggs now for about a month. Today, they're both limping, but they weren't yesterday. It's not too bad, but I remembered that can mean a niacin deficiency.

They're on Kalmbach's Flock Maker, which is complete for ducks. They free range, so does that mean they're not getting enough niacin due to filling up on bugs, mud, grass, etc.?

I gave them a bunch of frozen peas and put Poultry Cell in the water bucket that's in their coop. Should we do the brewers yeast too or will this be enough if we just keep doing this?



We have some B-Complex drops, so I'll just dribble a little of that on their feed tomorrow.

I ordered some nutritional yeast, so if this happens again, I'll have it, but when winter comes, they won't get much outside of their feed, which is all they should need then, I'd guess. I'm winging it here, so if anyone knows for sure, I'd appreciate it.

 

[Debbie292d]

The nutritional yeast came yesterday, so I sprinkled a teaspoon of that onto their feed last night. We didn't let them out this morning. The worst one had been in the house brooder for two days. She was showing a bit of improvement so yesterday we let her join her sister.

They have Poultry Cell in their water bucket and frozen peas.

From what I've read, this should just take a few days.

 

[Myrkk]

I had this recently with one of my ducks. As well as upping their niacin intake (tabs or nut.yst) also check their foot for any cuts and treat accordingly. For mine there was a tiny cut which I cleaned up and used a herbal prep I keep around the house for using on us. Applied for 3 days and issue gone but I’m upping their niacin intake for the foreseeable just to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s.

 

[Debbie292d]

I had this recently with one of my ducks. As well as upping their niacin intake (tabs or nut.yst) also check their foot for any cuts and treat accordingly. For mine there was a tiny cut which I cleaned up and used a herbal prep I keep around the house for using on us. Applied for 3 days and issue gone but I’m upping their niacin intake for the foreseeable just to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s.

We had checked their feet. That was fun since we hadn't held them in months.

They've been free-ranging here for their life of 5-6 months, as well as many of our chickens, so we presumed if we'd ever had issues in this 2-acre place, someone would have found it by now.

We kept them locked up yesterday, so all they'd get was their feed and water with the boosts we put in. Today, let them go, and one's limp gone, the other hardly noticeable, hugely improved. This has been four days, for reference.

 

[BoundlessLove]

Do they free range with any roosters or toms?
We’ve had a tom seriously injure one of the ducks. Trying to mate her. She still limps.