Seizures in ducks?

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

Hi Jamie, I had a very similar experience a couple weeks ago. One Welsh Harlequin hen (out of a hatchery order of 14), also 7-8 weeks old. She had what I assume were seizures, where she'd retract her head back, and take a step or two backwards very awkwardly. Then I could set her on my lap and gently stretch her neck out, and she'd come back to consciousness. Her head was noticeably smaller (shorter?) from top to bottom than the others, so that was where I suspected the problem was from. (She was an odd duck in general, like not quacking much and looking away from whatever caught the others' attention.) Like in your case, it began with a single seizure, which I didn't see begin so I thought she had bonked her head on a wall. Later she was having as many as three in an hour, and I decided it was better to put her down from an animal welfare perspective.

I wonder if we got our ducks from the same hatchery. I don't want to trash talk on them publicly without very *very* good reason, but I think they'd probably appreciate the feedback from the field so they can take a close look at their breeding lines. Please PM me if you want to have this conversation.

Thanks for posting! Bryan

 

[TwistedTayy]

I have an 8-9 week old welsh harlequin doing this… just started tonight at 3am. I had her inside in a brooder for leg issues and she’s been improving until she started doing this. She has been on nutri drench for the leg issue. And definitely separated from all environmental issues outside. I managed to get a video. She was unresponsive to both physical and audio stimulus but it stopped when I picked her up and moved her. She is a tsc duckling that I got to try to sneak under a broody hen that failed to hatch eggs… I also have two others but they are showing no symptoms and the rest of my welsh have had no symptoms.

Is this what you saw?

 

[Stipenvlerk]

I have an 8-9 week old welsh harlequin doing this… just started tonight at 3am. I had her inside in a brooder for leg issues and she’s been improving until she started doing this. She has been on nutri drench for the leg issue. And definitely separated from all environmental issues outside. I managed to get a video. She was unresponsive to both physical and audio stimulus but it stopped when I picked her up and moved her. She is a tsc duckling that I got to try to sneak under a broody hen that failed to hatch eggs… I also have two others but they are showing no symptoms and the rest of my welsh have had no symptoms.

Is this what you saw?

Since when do the leg issues exist?
How are her eyes looking?
Could you send this video to a vet?
I would definitely not rule out a contagious source of the problems yet. Better to be safe than sorry...

All other birds are perfectly fine?
I'll tag @Miss Lydia @Wyorp Rock

 

[Miss Lydia]

That's sad. Okay Nutri drench isn't going to help with leg issues you need liquid B complex TSC carries one called Durvet and it will say injectable but we pull off the foil pull out the stopper and pull out 1ml put it over a tasty treat just enough she eats the whole thing and gets all the B complex. This may help with her seizures too. Not saying Nutri drench isn't good stuff I use it at times but for leg issues, the Liquid B complex is the best and fastest.
What are you feeding your ducklings? Have you been supplementing with a form of niacin? besides Nutri drench?

 

[TwistedTayy]

That's sad. Okay Nutri drench isn't going to help with leg issues you need liquid B complex TSC carries one called Durvet and it will say injectable but we pull off the foil pull out the stopper and pull out 1ml put it over a tasty treat just enough she eats the whole thing and gets all the B complex. This may help with her seizures too. Not saying Nutri drench isn't good stuff I use it at times but for leg issues, the Liquid B complex is the best and fastest.
What are you feeding your ducklings? Have you been supplementing with a form of niacin? besides Nutri drench?

They are fed on mazuri wf starter (I did research last year and it has the highest levels of niacin available). They are supplemented with Anthony’s fortified nutritional yeast (also highest concentration I could find). Adults fed kalmbach all flock. They were also free ranging on grass. I only started on a couple days ago (the day she had that bath in my other thread). She has been inside since weds last week resting. I believe the leg issue is due to a small fracture. If anything I have been over doing niacin. I said “leg issues” because I didn’t want to go into the whole story. Not ruling out nutritional deficiency but if it’s niacin she’d have to be on it for her whole life.

 

[Miss Lydia]

This link brings up metal poisoning as a possibility of seizures any chance she could have ingested metal? That is one of my biggest worries when we get heavy rains I find a screw etc that has washed up.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/duck-seizure.283685/page-3

 

[TwistedTayy]

This link brings up metal poisoning as a possibility of seizures any chance she could have ingested metal? That is one of my biggest worries when we get heavy rains I find a screw etc that has washed up.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/duck-seizure.283685/page-3

That’s definitely the first thing I considered but she’s been in the brooder almost a week with no outside access. So it feels like a stretch.

Now that I’m awake I think I figured out what’s going on (although it’s still just a theory)…

Yesterday she was doing MUCH better and even standing. I think her injury (fracture or whatever) was closer to her spine than I had thought and with her feeling better I think she tried escaping the brooder only to exacerbate the injury. I posted to a poultry vet group on Facebook and they suggested vit e and selenium. I’m also going to move her into a dog crate to further restrict movement.

That’s the only explanation for her improving and then going so downhill. If she hadn’t already been under observation inside in a brooder, I would absolutely be thinking heavy metal toxicity or niacin even. You know, lol the basics.

 

[TwistedTayy]

She’s doing much better today. No more seizures and she’s standing so going back to daily water therapy and going to start thinking about moving her back to the flock… probably in a pen of her own but look no touch. She could easily be reinjured by another duck either hurting her due to reintroduction or by accident. But leaving her in the house at some point will become counterproductive to her recovery since she’s a flock creature. Not sure I’ll ever know why she was seizing but on Facebook I got lots of replies saying that over the last couple years this has been common among tsc welsh ducklings so maybe there is some genetic issues happening. It’s too bad because she’s gorgeous.