I noticed one of my Pekins standing bow legged not long after the cute fuzzy stage. That was about 2-3 weeks ago. Ever since I have been swimming it (I don't know the gender yet) daily, and exercise it in the back yard whenever the weather is good. I have provided vitamin supplements from the start, and feed 16% all flock crumbles. Nothing I am doing seems to make any difference, and now my Rouen (which I'm pretty sure is male by his behavior) is bullying it and encouraging the others to do the same. It's appears to have dysplasia of the left hip and is as bow legged as an old cowboy. It's right foot overlaps the left almost completely to the point that it scratches up its left foot while it walks, and has a serious limp. What can I do besides swimming it?
A series of pictures from the book, Nutrition and Management of Ducks, with permission of the authors, showing a normal duckling (A) and ducklings (B,C,D) that were fed Niacin deficient diets.
How can this happen? If you are not using a balanced chick starter designed for broiler chicks or game birds, you may have problems. If you are using a chick starter developed exclusively for laying chickens, it probably does not have enough niacin. Do not make their diet exclusively whole grains, like Chicken Scratch. On very rare occasions, the lack of niacin could be from a mistake at the feed mill.
So how much niacin do waterfowl require? It should be at least 55 parts per million (ppm). This is the same as 55mg per kilogram of feed or 55mg per 2.2 pounds of feed. Oftentimes this is not on the label but if you contact the manufacturer of the feed, they should tell you the minimum guaranteed level in the feed. You can go to our website for a complete list of waterfowl nutrientrequirements.
A bottle of Niacin tablets, 500 mgs per tablet.
How can I supplement niacin? Niacin can be easily purchased at a nutrition or drug store. Typically the pills contain 500 mgs of niacin per tablet. Assuming a duck is eating about .35 lbs per day (this is how much a Pekin is eating at about 3 -4 weeks of age) , they need 10 milligrams (mgs) of niacin a day. So, theoretically, one pill has enough niacin for 50 ducks. But if you are grinding up a pill and spreading it over pelleted feed, much of it will sift to the bottom and not be consumed. Add a little water to the feed and it will “stick” to the pellets.
An alternative is to add it to their drinking water (assuming they have no swimming water). If they drink 100% of the water you give them, you only need to add one 500 mg tablet to every 8 gallons of water. But we both know that does not happen. If you think they are wasting half their water, then add one 500 mg tablet to only four gallons of water. For your own calculations, go to the table on our website on daily feed and water consumption of ducklings.
Two broiler chicks, the one on the left was fed a niacin deficient diet.
Photo courtesy of DSM Nutritional Products.
Are there alternatives to pure Niacin? If you are concerned with the possibility that other vitamins may be missing, too, you can purchase Vitamin B liquid supplements. The GNC product I found had 20 mg of niacin per dropper full. This is enough for two ducks that are 3-4 weeks old. This might be the best way to administer niacin if your birds are exhibiting leg problems. By administering the niacin to each bird, you will know they are getting the required niacin.
A feed ingredient that is rich in niacin is dried brewers yeast. There is about 5mg niacin per 15 grams (one tablespoon) of human grade brewers yeast. Livestock grade brewers yeast is not as concentrated. There is only about 1.5 grams niacin for each tablespoon of livestock grade brewers yeast.
If you are not sure if your problem is due to inadequate niacin, give them some sort of additional niacin as soon as possible. You will not harm them if you give them too much niacin. And if they quickly recover, you know you found the problem.
What if only a few of my birds have leg problems? Variability within a flock is normal. Each bird varies on how well it forms niacin from tryptophan, either due to genetics or the different microflora in their gut. It would not be unusual to have a single flock of birds, with some exhibiting a niacin deficiency and others walking perfectly normally - but all eating the same feed.
Glory, a duck that was rescued by Majestic Waterfowl Sanctuary, arrived with leg problems due to a niacin deficient diet.
How long does it take for recovery? Except for the extreme cases such as the picture above, improvement is normally seen within several days and there can be complete recovery. But this requires adequate niacin within 24 hours of the first sign of a problem.
Is it possible that this particular duck needs a higher dose than the others? I have been giving them all a supplement containing Niacin from the start, and out of 6 Pekin, and 8 Rouen only the one duck has anything wrong with it. It looks very much like example B.
Never mind. I just read over it again and answered my own question.I will feed it an extra vitamin ration daily, and will report back with any changes. Hopefully I will have good news to report in a few days.
Some ducklings just don't process the nutrients from food as well as others. So I'd give your duckling more niacin
Copied this from above:
If you are not sure if your problem is due to inadequate niacin, give them some sort of additional niacin as soon as possible. You will not harm them if you give them too much niacin. And if they quickly recover, you know you found the problem. Nutritional yeast is another great way to get Vitamin B3[niacin into them] and is very safe.
Sorry it took me so long to report back. I am happy to say that within a week my duck made a full recovery, and now I cant tell there was ever a problem!
