POSSIBLE NIACIN DEFICIENCY?! HELP

[Sadiemichelle]

I just want to make sure this is the proper one to buy?

 

[Miss Lydia]

That’s it!

 

[loofa]

Okay, so my shaky legged duckling is still shaky after giving the Durvet vitamin b complex since the beginning of the month. It has knobbly knees (hocks?) and legs shake frequently. Also has to stop and rest more often than the others. They have lots of yeast in their food, plus the liquid supplement. It doesn't seem to be getting worse, but it's not getting better either. I've gone back and forth between giving the supplement over treats and tube feeding method (don't worry, I know how to tube feed birds - I'm new to ducks and watched a video to make sure it was the same as with other birds and it is). My other two ducklings that are the same age (4.5 weeks) are doing fine. One thing I've noticed is that the shaky duck is bigger than the other two. I'm wondering if it's a drake, and if growing faster/bigger it had different nutrient needs - but still, it's been getting SO much niacin!

Any advice???

 

[Miss Lydia]

Okay give us how much your giving per duck and what are they feed please. And pics of his knees compared to one of the others.

 

[loofa]

Okay, 100 ml of Durvet given straight to each duck per day (over treats or tube fed). Plus I'm putting another 100 ml in their water, but of course with that I cannot tell how much they intake. About 1 to 2 TB of nutritional yeast per cup of food.

Their food is a mixture of about 35% Scratch and Peck Starter and 35% McGeary Duck starter and 20% oats (to reduce protein level as I read that for pet ducks that you aren't trying to grow fast for eating it's healthier for them to have less protein after about week 3), plus a LOT of nutritional yeast mixed in.
Hang on pictures coming

 

[loofa]

Okay, first two pictures are Clove, my shaky duck. (their wings look terrible right now - puberty combined with some nipping that led to bleeding that led to painting them with blu kote - that situation seems to be under control for the moment)

This next duck, Paprika, doesn't have much knee knobbies

Lastly, this is Nutmeg, who is a bit knobby kneed, but no shaking or other difficulties that we can see - in fact, she is the smallest of the three and shaping up to be a bit of a bully (good thing she's so cute!)

 

[loofa]

Oh, and they are free feeding - they always have food available

 

[Miss Lydia]

I’m not sure about the knobby Knee I’ll have to look at my ducks tomorrow to see who has knobs an who doesn’t. I do know that shakes legs can be from a niacin deficiency and growing fast especially for drakes seems to compound the problem but your not sure if Clove is female or drake yet. Hearing any voice changes yet?

 

[loofa]

voices are changing, but they are still peeping. It's like a mix of peeps and deeper sounds, and the occasional quack (this last mostly just when someone nips someone). I have not been able to discern for sure who is making what sounds because the non-peep sounds are so infrequent.

 

[loofa]

I strongly suspect that Clove is a drake, but we'll see