Newly Hatched Duckling can't lift its head or stand

[flamethrower]

Hi All and thanks for reading my post, I am a first time duck hatcher (using an incubator) we have just had our first 3 Call Duck youngsters escape from thier eggs with the rest showing good signs of progress towards following. 2 of the ducklings are very bright and energetic and are jumping around just fine the 3rd however isn't so great. The 3rd duckling cant lift its head up and just lies on its side trying to move around, it seems to have plentyof energy and loks bright enough.
Question is,is it kinder to cull now or could the duck recover i.e. is it just knackered after fighting its way out of the egg or has anyone else seen similar symptoms in a duckling or chick that survived?
Thanks

 

[duckyfromoz]

Hi there...

Sorry your first post had to be in this section. Sometimes they do just need a little more time to recover form hatching...Give it a little more time before making that decision - the little one may improve in time. Some powdered vitamins in the water may help it perk up a bit. If it hasnt made any improvement in 24- 48 hours I would start to wory that it has sustained an injury to the neck while hatching- or just suffered some kind of developemental problem during incubation.

I hope things turn out OK for your little one. Only the trongest survive...so Its doing well to have gotten this far already- Hopefully it will be strong enough to pull through this rough start to life.

 

[flamethrower]

Hi Thanks for your reply, the little fella had fully recovered by the next morning we now have 8 call's and 11 Aylesburys all healthy and running around in thier pen.
Simon