Pekin Duckling suddenly ill- Help please

[Heather Odegaard]

I have a 6 week old Pekin duckling that was happy and healthy just 5 days ago. Now she is showing severe symptoms of something neurological.
She was a friends 4h project along with two other Pekins. They lived on school grounds in a little Ag barn in their own cage. Friend realized they got big fast and wanted to rehome them. We took them in. We noticed Friday night they were pigeon toed and walked heavy. Started niacin (brewers yeast on food, peas and pepitas, B3 in their water). After a day or two, one of the females started showing weird symptoms. Trouble walking, beak stuck in the ground. We separated her from the other two and brought her in the house. She chips away, eats and drinks when being heavily managed. Now rolling over from weird neck movements. She shakes and tremors, can't stay balanced, and he head wobbles like she has Parkinson's. Can anyone help us? She is just the sweetest and we want to fix her if we can. Also want to make sure the rest of our flock (old and new) are safe. Thanks!! I tried to post a video but couldn't.

 

[Isaac 0]

Welcome to BackYard Chickens, sorry to hear about your duckling. Could you answer a few questions, and provide us with some info regarding the duckling so we can help with more efficiency?

Could you post a video of the duckling trying walk? To post the video you'll need to upload the video to a video platform like Yotube or Vimeo, then copy/paste the link here. Could you post a few pictures of his poop?

What brand of B3 powder have you been using, and at what dose, for how long? What are you feeding him? Is she eating and drinking much? Did these problems happen overnight, or slowly over the course of a few days? What kind of pen are they being kept in?

 

[Heather Odegaard]

Welcome to BackYard Chickens, sorry to hear about your duckling. Could you answer a few questions, and provide us with some info regarding the duckling so we can help with more efficiency?

Could you post a video of the duckling trying walk? To post the video you'll need to upload the video to a video platform like Yotube or Vimeo, then copy/paste the link here. Could you post a few pictures of his poop?

What brand of B3 powder have you been using, and at what dose, for how long? What are you feeding him? Is she eating and drinking much? Did these problems happen overnight, or slowly over the course of a few days? What kind of pen are they being kept in?

 

[Isaac 0]

Would you mind answering the other questions as well?

"Could you post a video of the duckling trying walk? To post the video you'll need to upload the video to a video platform like Yotube or Vimeo, then copy/paste the link here. Could you post a few pictures of his poop?

What brand of B3 powder have you been using, and at what dose, for how long? What are you feeding him? Is she eating and drinking much? Did these problems happen overnight, or slowly over the course of a few days? What kind of pen are they being kept in?"

 

[Heather Odegaard]

Welcome to BackYard Chickens, sorry to hear about your duckling. Could you answer a few questions, and provide us with some info regarding the duckling so we can help with more efficiency?

Could you post a video of the duckling trying walk? To post the video you'll need to upload the video to a video platform like Yotube or Vimeo, then copy/paste the link here. Could you post a few pictures of his poop?

What brand of B3 powder have you been using, and at what dose, for how long? What are you feeding him? Is she eating and drinking much? Did these problems happen overnight, or slowly over the course of a few days? What kind of pen are they being kept in?

We are putting 100mg in 1 gallon of water. Food is bomgaars non medicated chick feed. 1.5 tablespoons of brewers yeast in 1 cup of food. Mealworms, thawed frozen peas, strawberries and oatmeal. Currently in a large tub with wood chips. Before sick, in a chicken coop small shed/ barn. She was with 2 other Pekins. They are new so we kept them separated. Other birds free range so the 3 Pekins had the run to themselves. Symptoms were sudden a couple days after noticing pigeon toed walk. It is like she is having seizures. She is doing much better. Only 3- 5 seizures a day, but at night they get more frequent and last longer. She tremors, her head goes down, beak in the ground, flops over on her back, beak chatters. During the day she walks around almost like nothing is wrong. At night it gets bad.

 

[Heather Odegaard]

Would you mind answering the other questions as well?

"Could you post a video of the duckling trying walk? To post the video you'll need to upload the video to a video platform like Yotube or Vimeo, then copy/paste the link here. Could you post a few pictures of his poop?

What brand of B3 powder have you been using, and at what dose, for how long? What are you feeding him? Is she eating and drinking much? Did these problems happen overnight, or slowly over the course of a few days? What kind of pen are they being kept in?"

 

[Heather Odegaard]

100mg per 1 gallon of water. Normal interest in food

Would you mind answering the other questions as well?

"Could you post a video of the duckling trying walk? To post the video you'll need to upload the video to a video platform like Yotube or Vimeo, then copy/paste the link here. Could you post a few pictures of his poop?

What brand of B3 powder have you been using, and at what dose, for how long? What are you feeding him? Is she eating and drinking much? Did these problems happen overnight, or slowly over the course of a few days? What kind of pen are they being kept in?"

I can't get the video to work. Ive replied to the other questions twice but cant tell if my answers are posting

 

[Goosebaby]

You could try giving durvet b complex and poultry nutri-drench, they may be deficient in other b vitamins besides niacin or other vitamins in general.

Another possibility could be metal poisoning, lead or zinc poisoning can cause neurological symptoms, is there any chance they may have been chewing on something they shouldn’t and swallowed bits of paint or metal?

Could they have gotten into any stagnant water by any chance also?

 

[Heather Odegaard]

100mg per 1 gallon of water. Normal interest in food

I can't get the video to work. Ive replied to the other questions twice but cant tell if my answers are posting

Using the niacin since last week Wednesday. Brewers yeast started a week ago monday.

 

[Heather Odegaard]

You could try giving durvet b complex and poultry nutri-drench, they may be deficient in other b vitamins besides niacin or other vitamins in general.

Another possibility could be metal poisoning, lead or zinc poisoning can cause neurological symptoms, is there any chance they may have been chewing on something they shouldn’t and swallowed bits of paint or metal?

Could they have gotten into any stagnant water by any chance also?

No paint or lead anywhere. Only water access is the water we give them. Will look into durvet b and nutridrench.