Peking duck- is not walking well and is Fat!

dsparsonnet

In the Brooder
Jun 11, 2015
10
1
39
I have three TS ducks that are about 3 mos old and are quite large.
Two of them are fine, but one is apparently overweight and having trouble walking.
I am a newbie and don't know why one if the three is experiencing this complication. Seems ok other than this. They all eat the same food and graze on our grass.
Any advice??
 
What do you feed?
They were raised on Dumor Poultry Grower/Finisher (15%) and shared the leftover lettuce, veggies, carrots and a few boiled eggs w the chickens when they got a little bigger- they now come and go to our spring lake which this year has a lot of hydrilla but I don't see them eating a lot of that- usually digging in sand and finding morsels there. The other two have no problems and are normal sized and eat the same. Not sure if the fat one is really fat or if something else is going on!
Unfortunately we live in an area where there are NO vets that (FL panhandle) that handle anything other than dogs and cats mostly. Very frustrating!
 
A fat Pekin is not a healthy Pekin just as with any breed it can cause laying issues as well as leg troubles. Start with cutting back on their feed. Tell us do you have feed out at all times. No treats unless romaine lettuce or some other veggie that is mostly water. Your not starving but assessing what they are eating and also what kind of exercise do they get ? Maybe try feeding only once a day or 2 small meals of feed a day as much as they can eat in say 15 mins. If they are foraging other wise. Getting the weight off and supplementing with some Niacin/Nutrituional yeast can go a long way on getting her back to walking good again. I would not give any cracked corn or whole corn right now if that has been part of their diet since it is fattening. @dsparsonnet

Sounds to me like you have a Jumbo and 2 reg Pekins. As you know these 2 breeds where developed for meat and grow supper fast so that by 10-12 weeks they are ready for processing, so their poor legs can really take a beating on the weight. Which is another reason to be careful what you feed her and the other 2 also so they don't get over weight. Does her legs bow also? They never expected this breed to become so popular as a pet duck but their sweet personalities have won us all over.

Niacin supplement is 150 mgs to 1 gal of water mixed well or 1 Tablespoon of nutritional/brewers yeast per cup of feed.
 
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I had a really fat muscovy male that had issues with not only walking but mounting the girls. Literally could not get on.

He came as an adult and I guess they gave him free choice of feed. I made him work. Only fed at night like the rest and he had to fight for a spot or else he wasn't eating. After about 2 weeks he slimmed down.

Check the bird's body--are you sure it's fat or could it be swollen?
 
Hi and thank you for your help-
I think it's a female- 4 months if that.... no eggs- I am going to isolate her and she if she's the one with totally watery stools... if so I'm thinking she could be missing a lot of minerals due to that- but I do always supplement chickens and ducks (and Sabastapol geese) with an Electrolyte Vitamin compound.
Yes- since I started this reply- she has had several stools- all which were almost total clear liquid.
I just gave her Corid solution which I will do for 5days to see if it's ovvodosis- then go from there.
I think I have niacin- so might try adding that?
 
A fat Pekin is not a healthy Pekin just as with any breed it can cause laying issues as well as leg troubles. Start with cutting back on their feed. Tell us do you have feed out at all times. No treats unless romaine lettuce or some other veggie that is mostly water. Your not starving but assessing what they are eating and also what kind of exercise do they get ? Maybe try feeding only once a day or 2 small meals of feed a day as much as they can eat in say 15 mins. If they are foraging other wise. Getting the weight off and supplementing with some Niacin/Nutrituional yeast can go a long way on getting her back to walking good again. I would not give any cracked corn or whole corn right now if that has been part of their diet since it is fattening. @dsparsonnet

Sounds to me like you have a Jumbo and 2 reg Pekins. As you know these 2 breeds where developed for meat and grow supper fast so that by 10-12 weeks they are ready for processing, so their poor legs can really take a beating on the weight. Which is another reason to be careful what you feed her and the other 2 also so they don't get over weight. Does her legs bow also? They never expected this breed to become so popular as a pet duck but their sweet personalities have won us all over.

Niacin supplement is 150 mgs to 1 gal of water mixed well or 1 Tablespoon of nutritional/brewers yeast per cup of feed.
 

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