Urgent! My Runner Duckling's neck is crooked

[kycklingmamma]

I have three fawn and white runner ducks that were born monday march 2nd, they are in other words a week old.
One of them is tilting her head when she is looking at you, almost as if she can't see you with one of her eyes. Could she be blind on one eye? Her neck is actually looking crooked
Please help me resolve this issue as I am very worried about her.
Petra

 

[streemers]

if she is blind in 1 eye the eye should be kinda foggy. dont know what to say about her neck. might just end up with a runner that has a little extra style

 

[kycklingmamma]

I looked at her eyes and they look the same, neither one is foggy.
I did take her out of the brroder and had her with me, and she even walks with her head crooked, wierd, She wasn't like this earlier. I did read on a blog that ducks need niacin added to un medicated chickfeed to compensate for the extra calcium (or something like that). Do you think I did this to her and then I guess her 2 sisters as well, although they are not showing any signs of crooked-ness.
Like I said any help would be greatly appreciated.

Petra

 

[DuckLady]

It may be a simple fix.

I have had luck with supplementing vitamins. Ducks need more niacin than chicken and niacin defieciency that can cause wry neck.
You can sprinkle brewers yeast on the food or if you don't have any one hand, a few drops of PolyViSol twice a day for 3 or 4 days usually does the trick. Or you can get avian vitamins. (Most households have polyvisol on hand so that will get you by)

Sometimes ducklings have trouble absorbing it at first from their feed.

The other thing is it might be a strain or injury which will heal with time. Either way the vitamins won't hurt..

 

[kycklingmamma]

Hi,
I have been sprinkling brewers yeast on their food, but only a little bit once a day> how much should I put on their food/ I do have some polvisol, and I will give it to her right now?
I just spoke to the hatchery that she came from and they are saying that she is not getting enough protein ( she is on nonmedicated chick starter 20% protein) do you think that is correct? Should I up the protein?

Again thanks for all you help.

petra

 

[kycklingmamma]

I have some updating to do.

She seems to be getting worse, and I only say that because she is walking in circles, looses her balance, but other then that she is Ok.
Does anybody see that she will get better or would the humane thing be to put her down?
I am struggling in trying to figure out what to do. We have finally tracked down real duck starter, not chickstarter, and my hubby is on his way home with it now. We have also been given her polivisol vitamins twice daily, as well as nutritional yeast.
What else do I do?


Petra

 

[DuckLady]

You are doing what you can! The vitamins will take a couple days to make a difference. If she is not in pain, I would give her a few days and see if there is improvement.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[kycklingmamma]

Thank you for your kind words and encouragement.
We love our little Lilly, so therefor we are willing to see this through. I am keeping up on the vitamins and my hubby just brought home the Mazuri waterfowl starter, ie good feed.
I figure it might be few days to a week before we know if improvements are to be had.
will keep updates coming.

 

[streemers]

good luck and i hope it helps your lilly bird. let us know how she is doing....