Spastic duckling

[jonibc]

Our Welsh Harlequin ducklings are not quite 3 weeks old. We lost 2 the first 2 days we had them for reasons we could never determine. In the past week, one of remaining ones has started pushing herself backward across the brooder box and rolling her head around, mainly back and forth on her back. She can get up and walk normally and eat and drink but this spastic behavior is happening more and more often. She also looks up at the light a lot. I read a post on here that sounded similar and people had suggested maybe food was getting stuck in the duck's throat and said to put it into water and let it swim so it could dunk its head and clean out its nostrils. I put her in water and she floundered all over the place and fell under the water and flipped upside down. She couldn't swim. I'm thinking she has some kind of neurological problem. Any other suggestions or ideas? So far, ducks are not easy!

 

[rainplace]

I'm pretty new to ducks, but it sounds like you have a sick little duck. It sounds like there may have been something wrong in general with most of them. I'm so sorry. It's not always like that.

How many do you have left?

 

[becky3086]

What are you feeding them?

 

[jonibc]

We have 9 left including the spastic one. They are triple the size they were when we got them and all seem healthy except that one. We feed them Dumoor non-medicated starter and give them some greens each day- cucumbers, collards, Swiss chard, zucchini, whichever we have the most of.