My duck cannot move his neck or walk

[woknrouen]

About 5 days ago I noticed my 5 yr old male duck could not straighten his neck. I looked into it and thought it might be wry neck and gave him vitamin. Over the next few days he began getting worse and I took him to the vet. They said they wouldn't know 100% what was wrong unless they do a CT scan which would be 1000s of dollars. The vet doesn't think it was vitamin deficiency, or a toxins of any kind otherwise my other duck would be showing similar symptoms. They said it could potentially be bacterial and gave me antibiotics. I have given him the pills for 2 days now and today he woke up not being able to walk and just falling over. I do not know what to do at this point. Any advice would be helpful.

 

[Debbie292d]

I have just two ducks, and one started limping badly. The other, not so much. I gave them nutritional yeast, about a tablespoon in a gallon bucket of feed. I also now regularly give them frozen peas, sometimes thawed first unless it's hot outside.

It took a few days and she improved. She was totally fine in about two weeks. We continue the nutritional yeast.

I think if you try that, you'll see a difference. I'm not sure if that'll help her neck too.

For wry neck, though, the addition of Vitamin E and some scrambled eggs for the selenium would help. If you're giving something like Poultry Cell to them, that's got E and selenium in it, but she may need more of those. You could give her a whole E gel pill. She might eat it, but if she doesn't, you'll have to catch her, open her beak, and pop it in. I'd do this for a couple of weeks and should see improvement.

 

[Jenbirdee]

There are other things that can cause stiffness and paralyses. Look at this chart and see if your duck matches any symptoms I was thinking botulism but you’d have to have some water puddles that have been standing a long time and I think it actually kills them pretty quickly so it’s probably not not anyway it’s good to have this chart on hand
http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/diagnostic chart.htm

 

[Debby Duck]

I have three ducks they roam free during the day in the pond out back but come in at night. Just recently two came down with similar symptoms, stumbling when attempting to walk, wobbling, lethargy, just sat in a corner and didn't want to move eat or drink. No neck issues except for weakness.

At first it was one, took him to the vet and they ran a lot of tests, X-rays etc. She somewhat suspected botulism but wasn't sure because he wasn't as severe as another duck that was there with it. But since everything else was ruled out, he was treated for botulism. He got one of the last of the vaccines she had for it along with antibiotics and fluids. He stayed overnight one night and the next day he was right back to his old self, walking, eating, preening. So I was able to bring him home.
That same day though I had to bring duck number two in because he was showing the same signs. They kept him overnight gave antibiotics, fluids but no vaccine because they had no more. It seems no one here has any. So since they are closed now for Sunday I brought him home so I could watch him. He hasn't changed much I'm keeping him in, and he stays curled up in a corner. He ate a little bit of his kale in water when I brought it to him. Mostly the water though.
Even though the vet is not convinced that it was botulism. I feel like it is, because the one duck who got the vaccine had a turnaround in one night, whereas the other duck who had everything else except the vaccine is still not well. Also I don't know what the living conditions are for the duck that was already there with botulism. I just know that I watch my ducks closely and I know exactly what they should be looking and acting like. I know immediately if something is off and I act on it. So I brought them in as soon as symptoms appeared. I'm worried about him and hoping that some of the vaccine arrives next week. Apparently there is a very big shortage of it right now.