Walking on hocks, niacin deficient, should I cull?

[Chickenfeeder22]

Hi all,
I have a month old rouen duck who has been walking on his hocks for about 3 weeks now. We got him and 3 others from TSC and in the beginning he was the strongest, but after a few days he was weak and couldn't walk. Granted this is my first time raising ducks so I didn't know about giving him brewer's yeast or niacin. Once this happened we gave him brewer's yeast and then moved to niacin pills. After about a week and a half, after posting on here, I found out I was giving him the wrong type of niacin (time-released niacin). I have since moved to B-12 and Nutri-drench for poultry. I took him to the vet (after 3 weeks of blowing me off) and he didn't seem to know what was going on. He claimed my duck has been like this since he was an egg which I know is false since he was the strongest when we got him.
The duckling walks on his hocks and other than the frustration of walking on his hocks he seems fine. He's developing normally and eating and drinking just fine. My question to all of you is: should I cull him or can he still live a long and happy life even though he's walking on his hocks? Or, even better, does anyone have any other ideas of what I can do to try and heal him? I have spent hours researching and have literally lost sleep over this trying to find the answer but I can't find anything. Like I said, he's been like this for about 3 weeks now so I don't know if it's too late to fix his legs. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

So sorry about your duckling. I would go for B complex so he is getting all the B vitamins, not sure at this late date much can be done but I sure wouldn't give up till he does.

Here is a link to info on leg issues maybe you can find something in it that can help. Wrapping in vet wrap might help. Do you think it's the tendon in the back of the leg?

https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

 

[Ravynscroft]

I would talk to @Amiga first before making amy decisions if possible... I believe Amiga has had experience with a similar situation and can also give tips about hydrotherapy to help...

 

[apricotvalleywf]

As suggested, I would try hydrotherapy and see if there is any improvement. Unfortunately even for a production Rouen, they are large birds and need the strongest legs possible.

 

[Chickenfeeder22]

So sorry about your duckling. I would go for B complex so he is getting all the B vitamins, not sure at this late date much can be done but I sure wouldn't give up till he does.

Here is a link to info on leg issues maybe you can find something in it that can help. Wrapping in vet wrap might help. Do you think it's the tendon in the back of the leg?

https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

Thank you so much for this link!! It was a huge help!!! After reading I think he may have splayed leg. All the signs point to that. I plan on starting therapy today along with putting electrolytes in his water. And making a chick chair to give his legs a rest. Hopefully with all this we will start to see a little bit of improvement.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sure hoping so too. Please keep us updated on his improvements.

 

[Chickenfeeder22]

Sure hoping so too. Please keep us updated on his improvements.

Okay, I've got him in the chick chair, tried therapy but it didn't go that well. Thinking I'll give him a couple of days in the chair and we'll see if there's some improvement. From what you can tell, did I bandage up his legs okay?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Go back to that site I gave you and look at chick shoes is his feet laying flat? if not make the chick shoes. Can he straighten his legs out completely? Are you giving him water therapy? warm water how does he do in warm water?

 

[Chickenfeeder22]

Go back to that site I gave you and look at chick shoes is his feet laying flat? if not make the chick shoes. Can he straighten his legs out completely? Are you giving him water therapy? warm water how does he do in warm water?

His feet have been like that ever since he started walking on his hocks so I'll go ahead and make the shoes. Is water therapy just putting him in warm water or is it doing the physical therapy in the water? I've been putting him in warm water about 2-3 times a day for about 20 minutes each time. He can straighten out one leg completely but the other hurts him when I tried to straighten it out.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Doing physical therapy in warm water and also observing how he swims if he can move around your doing great sure hope it pays off. Maybe massage to while in the water or right after when his muscles are still warm. Coconut oil or almond oil for massage.