Niacin deficiency?

[NewAtThis8]

That toe looks a little concerning I'd keep an eye on it. Keep up with what your doing.

I’m not doing anything with Heimlich- think I should also be soaking his?

 

[Miss Lydia]

If that is his toe that looks swollen I would keep up with Epsom salt soaks and watch it it may not be bumble but it kind of makes me think it is. Soaking and using a drawing salve or @CoriM uses Iodine and soft tooth brush on her ducks bumble.

 

[NewAtThis8]

If that is his toe that looks swollen I would keep up with Epsom salt soaks and watch it it may not be bumble but it kind of makes me think it is. Soaking and using a drawing salve or @CoriM uses Iodine and soft tooth brush on her ducks bumble.

Thank you!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thank you!

Be sure to update!

 

[CoriM]

Sounds like I’ll be putting together a first aid kit this week! I already ordered neoprene shoes- figured it’d help if I had to apply any salve / topicals and also was researching whether they could wear them most of the time as a preventive measure. My run is sand, but they have a small wading pool inside that does have river rock surrounding and wonder if I messed up there.

I don't think you messed up with the river rock, if it's the tiny pebbles also called pea gravel. I have that around my ducks pond as well, and switched it out when I first had them because I was so afraid it had caused a couple of cases of bumblefoot, but found that they still got it when I had sand there instead of pebbles, so I put them back. It's very round on the edges.

 

[CoriM]

Yes, I use colorless iodine and just scrub the scab with a soft toothbrush dipped in iodine a couple times a day, keeping the duck out of water for half hour afterwards. For small ones that don't really need surgery you can keep this up for a week or two and they usually get better. It's hard to keep up, but I do like to check my ducks feet every couple weeks to try to catch any scabs when they're small because it's much easier to treat this way.

 

[NewAtThis8]

Yes, I use colorless iodine and just scrub the scab with a soft toothbrush dipped in iodine a couple times a day, keeping the duck out of water for half hour afterwards. For small ones that don't really need surgery you can keep this up for a week or two and they usually get better. It's hard to keep up, but I do like to check my ducks feet every couple weeks to try to catch any scabs when they're small because it's much easier to treat this way.

Thank you!! I’m neurotic about them so I’m checking feet, eyes, bills, skin, you name it all day every day . Sounds like this is the ideal scenario as if they progressed to needing surgery I just don’t think I’d be equipped to do it! I’m hoping to manage them as they’re small and try to control the causes- my vet said he worried they’d be prone due to their size, so I guess even if their environment is fine, their weight can contribute? We did have pea gravel surrounding at first, but had issues with erosion and the chickens digging it up so we got true river rock surrounding and those do sometimes have more jagged edges.. maybe I’ll fill it over with more of the pea gravel. That’s the only thing I can think of that’s sharp in their area. The gate has hardware cloth on the bottom so if someone isn’t careful when opening the gate it could catch on a foot though.

 

[NewAtThis8]

Happy to report that Stan is really looking good today. He’s still leaning a little to his right side as he walks but there’s no stumbling, he’s getting around more / wanting to move around more and feeling more like his spicy self. I still don’t know if it was niacin or the tiny tiny bumble but we are going to the vet for his recheck today! In the meantime, a soft bristle toothbrush has been acquired, colorless iodine is in the mail from Amazon and so are the little (or not so little) neoprene shoes so we can get Heimlich taken care of before his feet become a problem. Thanks everyone for the help and quick response! I really love these ducks and just want to do my best to make sure they live happy long lives. Hopefully will have another update in a few days to say he’s back to 100%

 

[Miss Lydia]

Wow what an awesome update. So good to hear Stan is feeling so much better. Let us know what the vet says about him.

 

[NewAtThis8]

Wow what an awesome update. So good to hear Stan is feeling so much better. Let us know what the vet says about him.

So the vet said he looked great. We think that it was niacin deficiency vs the secondary bumble foot because he gained a half a lb in a week as once I noticed the issue I was making sure they were both eating and getting the niacin supplements by bringing their food bowl in with me to their run multiple times a day vs their feeder. It seems during their molt / lately they haven’t been eating out of their feeder thus possibly weren’t getting their duck food in at all over the past couple of weeks, meaning also no niacin. Molting is new for me too as they went through their juvenile molt at around 1.5~ months old and coincidentally that was when Stan developed his issues the first time. We are going to finish out his anti inflammatory meds and just keep them on the food and regimen they’ve been on.