Shakey legs

[Chubby-mummy]

I've got 3 5 weeks old ducklings. One of the ducklings has shakey legs, lays down when feeding and sometimes walks on nooks. Heard alot about niacin Deficiency. We added brewers yeast to their food and been giving peas for treats, but she still seems super shakey. Been looking up the liquid that people show on here but it's all from America, or says is for cattle. Does anyone have a link or know of a brand from UK that's safe for ducks?

 

[Miss Lydia]

You can buy human B complex pills just crush them and add to their feed. Here in the US we can buy liquid B complex for humans too.
@BelovedBirds is in England hopefully she can help.
Once one has a deficiency the b complex vis the best to treat with. Just make sure what you buy has niacin in it.

 

[ruthhope]

you can use Vit B caps -- be sure they are not "non flushable" or marked "no flush"

https://www.hollandandbarrett.com/shop/vitamins-supplements/vitamins/vitamin-b/niacin/

cut the capsules: you should aim to give 25mg, once a day. The suitable caps in the link are 100mg and so the content of one cap is 4x the dose. You might find it easiest to add the full content of a cap to 4 mls water measured using a small plastic syringe. Then use 1-1.25 mls soaked into a treat such as dried meal worms. You are unlikely to harm the duckling by giving more than 25mg per day as niacin is water soluble and will be excreted by the duck's kidneys

 

[BelovedBirds]

I've got 3 5 weeks old ducklings. One of the ducklings has shakey legs, lays down when feeding and sometimes walks on nooks. Heard alot about niacin Deficiency. We added brewers yeast to their food and been giving peas for treats, but she still seems super shakey. Been looking up the liquid that people show on here but it's all from America, or says is for cattle. Does anyone have a link or know of a brand from UK that's safe for ducks?

Hi! My duck, Sprightly, had a niacin deficiency when she was a baby- First thing I noticed was her legs shaking, and tripping over her feet when trying to walk. Her legs got pretty pigeon toed and started to bow.
I had the same issue as you, not being able to find the B complex other people use. The B complex they use is durvet, its a cattle injectable one but people give it orally, about 1ml of it on a treat daily until improvement.
I actually found it, but delivery time was long, and when ordered it got lost in transit and I had to be refunded.
So instead I used niacin capsules, I found them on amazon with a good delivery time. Make sure they are flush effect ones, not non-flush or flush free, you want the flush ones. They're available in stores or online.
I broke the capsules open and tipped the powder into the water, 100mg capsules should be mixed into one gallon of water. This can just replace their usual drinking water. It wont hurt any other ducklings to recieve the extra niacin. I also used 1tbsp of nutritious yeast to every cup of feed, alongside the niacin water, and I saw some improvement after a few days, after a week or two her legs were very strong and her toes were facing forwards again. After she was better, I stopped adding niacin to the water but continued adding nutritious yeast until they went on adult feed with the right amount of niacin in- (they still get some niacin rich treats from time to time though, as a boost). No problems since. Fast forward to now, she's an adult and her legs are nice and healthy!

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

I just noticed the shaky leg in one of my 3.5 week olds last night
I have used nutritional yeast from day 1 and all the others have been good
Sometimes one needs a bit more