Pease help! One of my duckling keeps falling backwards, can't walk well.

[Milaandbella]

Hello everyone,
Thank you for reading my post. I'm new to this forum and never raised ducks before but I have read and reread so many helpful advices from this forum and it has been really helpful raising two ducklings.

One of my duckling who is a little over three weeks old keeps falling, legs are weak, has difficulty standing even at times ...I notice he eats a lot and slowly noticed that he can't balance well and keeps flipping on it's back repeatedly which scares me, when I'm not home, he could die. It's neck was week also but getting better after I fed him bran and grounded sunflower seeds.

I am feeding brewer's yeast now as well and peanut bird treats for protein..and now I'm going to try Niacin in the water but I received two different advice about feeding him.

Palmer's feed store said to only feed them twice a day, he'll get so big too fast that his legs are giving out on him and it could be incurable and get worse. And a friend of mine told me you should leave out water and food all day and if his legs are weak, it's due to protein deficiency.

I noticed, if I feed twice a day he does walk better but cries A LOT for food. If I leave food out all day he doesn't cry but eats a lot and his walk is wobblier.

The other duckling is in perfect shape! I don't get it.

What should be adequate feeding schedule?

Also, can I feed him organic protein powder that I drink to boost protein? It has antioxidant, would that be okay to feed him?

Please help. I don't want his condition to get worse.

 

[Mylied]

You can free feed ducklings. Too much protein can be a problem, so stop supplementing and just give him a chick/duckling starter or a grower/starter complete feed. They need a lot of energy to keep up with their growth. A common problem is selenium deficiency. It causes muscle weakness. I usually see it in newly hatched chicks, but can happen to anything. You can give him a drop of baby vitamins without the added iron or make a mix of 1 capsule vitamin e, 1 tablet crushed selenium pill, and a little bit electrolytes mixed up. Give a few drops a couple times a day for up to a week. Mine are usually better within a couple days. The vitamins can be found at any pharmacy or walmart.

 

[karissapaul]

leave the food out all day. legs don't work like that, they get bigger also
i had four little malord ducks for about 5 weeks, 1 ran away, 1 died and then i found another then i had to let them go. ducklings are like that, the one that died just died because it was too weak. things like that happensorry...

 

[Jpat]

Hello everyone,
Thank you for reading my post. I'm new to this forum and never raised ducks before but I have read and reread so many helpful advices from this forum and it has been really helpful raising two ducklings.

One of my duckling who is a little over three weeks old keeps falling, legs are weak, has difficulty standing even at times ...I notice he eats a lot and slowly noticed that he can't balance well and keeps flipping on it's back repeatedly which scares me, when I'm not home, he could die. It's neck was week also but getting better after I fed him bran and grounded sunflower seeds.

I am feeding brewer's yeast now as well and peanut bird treats for protein..and now I'm going to try Niacin in the water but I received two different advice about feeding him.

Palmer's feed store said to only feed them twice a day, he'll get so big too fast that his legs are giving out on him and it could be incurable and get worse. And a friend of mine told me you should leave out water and food all day and if his legs are weak, it's due to protein deficiency.

I noticed, if I feed twice a day he does walk better but cries A LOT for food. If I leave food out all day he doesn't cry but eats a lot and his walk is wobblier.

The other duckling is in perfect shape! I don't get it.

What should be adequate feeding schedule?

Also, can I feed him organic protein powder that I drink to boost protein? It has antioxidant, would that be okay to feed him?

Please help. I don't want his condition to get worse. View attachment 1570797

i wanna hug em

 

[Milaandbella]

Thank you so much for both inputs....I will go out and buy baby vitamins and vitamin E capsule instead of Niacin and try it! And leave food out all day and see how it goes.

Hopefully he will get better!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Niacin deficiency cause leg weakness and is pretty common in Pekins and if feeding chick starter grower it doesn’t have enough niacin in it for water fowl you can get a liquid b complex vitamin from TSC in the cattle dept it will say injectable but in water fowl is given orally. 1 ml daily usually see improvement pretty fast.

 

[Mylied]

Thank you so much for both inputs....I will go out and buy baby vitamins and vitamin E capsule instead of Niacin and try it! And leave food out all day and see how it goes.

Hopefully he will get better!

The baby vitamins have vitamin E in them. So you would just need that or my other suggestion. I wasn't familiar with the niacin deficiency signs since I've only had weak legs and muscles in chickens, not in my ducks. So if Miss Lydia suggests B complex, I'd go with that as well. It won't hurt to give both since they are all water soluble and extra is excreted. (Though of course, don't give too much as one time, just a few drops of the baby vitamins will do the trick.)

 

[Jpat]

this is my favorite. high niacin and lots of extras

I had enough to treat 2 ducklings for a month with one bottle

 

[Milaandbella]

Hello and thank you to everyone for extending their knowledge our way.

Last night was very difficult, I left to buy the baby vitamins and unfortunately it started to rain and they were hanging out in my balcony and when I returned...he was flipped on his back again and not sure how long he stayed that way.

When I returned, he was so disoriented, he flipped backwards ten or more times again trying to clean himself. I got really scared to see him this way and unsure if he'll make it.


I will go back to duck starter feed only and feed him droplets of baby vitamins in the water and seehow it goes.

I feel bad perhaps it was all the additives I put in his diet that was causing his complication.

Let's cross our fingers! Thank you once again to everyone!

 

[Milaandbella]

this is my favorite. high niacin and lots of extras

I had enough to treat 2 ducklings for a month with one bottle

Thank you for sending this suppliement info, pecto didn't have it and bird specialty store was closed so I will try baby vitamins first for few days but if it's not working, I will go and buy this product!