Weak legs in Pekin

[peawinkle]

I have a 2 week old Pekin who has started crawling around instead of walking. He will walk some but mostly crawls. As you can see from the picture he is big! I don't know if he is having difficulty standing up because he is so heavy, weak legs, or spraddle leg. His legs don't splay out the side when sitting but he does sometimes extend both legs backwards (like a dog sometimes lays).

This is what I have done/changed so far:

1. Changed bedding from dog pee pads to rubber drawer liners so he could have more traction.
2. Adding Brewers Yeast to their food.
3. Warm baths at least twice a day so he can strengthen his leg muscles.

Questions:

1. I have 4 ducklings (only one is having leg problems) - How much Brewers Yeast should I be giving them? I have tablets which I crush and put in the food.

2. Should I be limiting the Pekins food - can he get too fat?

3. Is there anything else I should be doing?

 

[nayeli]

Your doing really well. I just asked a similar question (you can click my name and follow it)... THey recommended Poultry Nutri Dent. It can be from a vitamin defeciency.

 

[nayeli]

Nutri Drench*

 

[peawinkle]

Thanks Nayeli. I did see your post about your own ducklings but I didn't want to hijack your thread with questions about mine.

I'll definitely be following your thread.

I'll go to the feed store tomorrow and see about Nutri Drench. In the meantime I'll just keep giving them Brewers yeast in their food and let them swim in the tub for exercise and cross my fingers!

 

[peawinkle]

I uploaded a video so you can see how my Pekin swims. Do you see how he has his legs farther out? I also noticed today that he sits a lot lower in the water and his legs NEVER stop moving as if he isn't bouyant at all. My other ducks will move their legs and then just float.

 

[Amiga]

Looks a bit like spraddle leg to me. Is their bedding slippery at all, or was it for a while? Vitamins, especially the water soluble B vitamins can help, and you may want to consider a hobble.

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

Bath time - supervised - is great for building muscle, improving circulation, relieving the stress of weight on the legs. Keep that up, please! Gorgeous little cutie!

 

[peawinkle]

Looks a bit like spraddle leg to me. Is their bedding slippery at all, or was it for a while? Vitamins, especially the water soluble B vitamins can help, and you may want to consider a hobble.

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

Bath time - supervised - is great for building muscle, improving circulation, relieving the stress of weight on the legs. Keep that up, please! Gorgeous little cutie!

Thanks Amiga. I started with dog pee pads (for convenience) in the classroom brooder. Maybe because he is so much bigger than the others it was too slippery for him. I have him on towels and/or rubber drawer liners now. If I start the water soluble B vitamins do I continue with the Brewers yeast in their food?

 

[Amiga]

The brewer's yeast has the B vitamins in it. How much are you giving them? I forgot.

Here is my best guess on brewer's yeast equivalents - in terms of mg per tablespoon, and comparing that to straight niacin or B Complex capsules dissolved in water.

Okay, two tablespoons of brewer's yeast contains 10 mg of niacin, based on this page http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/custom/1323569/2

The guesswork is in how much water a duckling actually ingests in a day. If a duckling actually drinks a half a cup of water a day, it would be getting (16 cups in a gallon, 32 half cups in a gallon . . . . 150 divided by 30, more or less) 5 mg of niacin from water with 150 mg niacin per gallon. Which would be about a tablespoon of brewer's yeast.

Storey's Guide recommends a hobble, by the way. Do you happen to have that book? I think you can find excerpts online, and there's the podiatry page I sent.

Please take a look at that…sometimes they need a brace to recover, as well as the vitamins.

 

[peawinkle]

The brewer's yeast has the B vitamins in it. How much are you giving them? I forgot.

It comes in tablets so I'm crushing up a tablet when I mix up the food for all 4 ducklings. All total I would say I'm giving them 1.5 teaspoons a day - started Thursday night.

 

[Amiga]

I would triple that amount. Three teaspoons is a tablespoon.