Swollen Hock on a 5 wk old Khaki Campbell

[DB_Tex]

My smallest campbell out of my little bevy had a bit of a limp a couple days ago, and today on close inspection I notice her hock is swollen, hard, and hot. I suspect injury rather than infection (I think the bigger girls shoved her out of the pool or something.) She was walking on it straight until today, albiet slowly with a little hop-limp, so I wasn't worried about it, but I don't want her to grow into using her leg at the odd angle she was hobbling on today. Any suggestions to help her healing process or make her more comfortable? I don't have any avian or farm vets out my way that will spend the schedule time to treat a 10$ duck so any care she's going to get is going to have to be home remedy style from her ducky-mama

She's always been a lot smaller than the others, but I don't want to have to cull her unless she's in a lot of pain, which is what the vet will tell me to do.

 

[DB_Tex]

Still lookin for suggestions

 

[evansacres]

Sorry I don't have anything for you but you may want to do a search for "Duck sore leg" or "duck limping" and some other posts will come up that might be of some help.

I know that there have been several posts recently about sore legs etc. so there are answers out there for you

 

[DB_Tex]

She seems to be a little better today and the swelling looks down.. I guess I just take my caretaker duties too seriously lol.
I should listen to myself the first time when I said she just got bumped by the big ones and she'll be fine.

The only thing I could really find in the searches that could be a "cause" besides a one time injury was niacin deficiency and there's no way that's the problem-- they all get a steady supplement of niacin-rich gerber baby food mixed in. These guys have a mobile pen in the back yard to free range and sometimes they just get a little carried away with all the running and the swimming. One of the bigger ones dislocated her hip about 3 weeks ago and that healed back up fine once I got it back into place and this is nowhere near that catastrophic.
It's like children, your favorite is always the one that needs you most at the time and this one is the runt and always has been.

I'll just shift my worry to one of the new hatchlings I've got that isn't thriving

 

[Oregon Blues]

Perhaps a bit of a tendon strain. There is not much you can do except allow her time to heal.

You don't want to give her pain killers, because then she will walk on it before it is healed. If she is using it to put weight on, it is not broken.

You might try to keep the other ducks from shoving her around until she is feeling better, but if you separate her, she will probably fuss and fret and do more harm than good. Things like multiple feeders and multiple water sources will spread the ducks out and help to prevent shoving.