What do I do if my duckling has a crooked neck?!

[Farmer In Training]

hey all! This is just in case someone ever looks this up on google.

Hi. I recently went through a long journey with a little duckling named twister. His neck had developed wrong and it was curved. If you have a duckling like this and need some advice, I’m answering some questions I had that I couldn’t find on here.

What do I do?
Stay calm. The duck is fine. If it is eating and drinking, that is a very good sign. Know that there is a less likely chance of the duckling surviving, but make sure you have hope. When we got my duckling, (tractor supply basically begged us to take him, he looked like he was on his death bed and his head was sooo crooked not even 10% up. He just spun in circles but he could somehow eat and drink. ) we gave him vitamin water and snuggled him a lot. After a couple days, (every couple of hours we would help him eat and drink) his neck improved the slightest bit. He was a day old when we got him. We instantly fell in love with him and we were scared he was going to die, but now he is a healthy completely straight necked duckling at only about 4 weeks old.

Should I give him a neck brace?
No. Don’t do that. They need to build their muscles in their neck for their neck to slowly be able to be held straight. Like I mentioned, getting rooster booster or some type of vitamin supplement for
Water definantly helps them.

Is his neck like that cause it developed like that or is he a moongazer?

If they are a moongazer normally just their head is crooked not their entire neck. If their entire neck is crooked or hanging really low and they spin in circles, it probably developed like that. (Don’t worry, it can be fixed on its own. )

So how do I mainly care for it?

For the first week of its life or two, help it eat and drink from time to time and make sure it can eat and drink on its own. They will sleep in a weird position, it’s OKAY. LET IT BE. (Our duckling looked dead every time lol)

What if it’s neck doesn’t straighten out?
Give it about a month. If you see absaloutely no progress, (I highly doubt you will) then you need to consider what is best for the quality of life for the duck. If it is suffering, then the choice is up to you. (I’m sure it will improve with time but in some cases it doesn’t. Very rare though I have never seen it only heard of it )

Honestly, if the duck is going to die it will die. I don’t think you should kill it yourself.

Can it swim?

Make sure it’s neck is pretty straight before allowing it to swim. My duckling couldn’t swim until it was four weeks. (I’m the fourth week his neck went to completely straight. ) If you put it in water to early, it could panick and let its head droop and then you are left with a drowning duckling.

Bubbles come out of his nose when he drinks....

This happened many times to Twister! It’s okay. There really is nothing you can do about it and Twister was perfectly fine when that happened every once in a while lol.

So yeah. I hope I helped.

This is just on here Incase someone goes through the same thing I did. It is the best feeling to watch the little crooked necked duckling turn into a happy straight necked one lol.

Thank you!

 

[Farmer In Training]

Here’s my sweet boy when his head first started to straighten out. (He was about 1 week old. )

 

[Farmer In Training]

And here is him when we first got him. (As you can see his neck was pretty bad. )

 

[Ellie Mae Clampett]

hey all! This is just in case someone ever looks this up on google.

Hi. I recently went through a long journey with a little duckling named twister. His neck had developed wrong and it was curved. If you have a duckling like this and need some advice, I’m answering some questions I had that I couldn’t find on here.

What do I do?
Stay calm. The duck is fine. If it is eating and drinking, that is a very good sign. Know that there is a less likely chance of the duckling surviving, but make sure you have hope. When we got my duckling, (tractor supply basically begged us to take him, he looked like he was on his death bed and his head was sooo crooked not even 10% up. He just spun in circles but he could somehow eat and drink. ) we gave him vitamin water and snuggled him a lot. After a couple days, (every couple of hours we would help him eat and drink) his neck improved the slightest bit. He was a day old when we got him. We instantly fell in love with him and we were scared he was going to die, but now he is a healthy completely straight necked duckling at only about 4 weeks old.

Should I give him a neck brace?
No. Don’t do that. They need to build their muscles in their neck for their neck to slowly be able to be held straight. Like I mentioned, getting rooster booster or some type of vitamin supplement for
Water definantly helps them.

Is his neck like that cause it developed like that or is he a moongazer?

If they are a moongazer normally just their head is crooked not their entire neck. If their entire neck is crooked or hanging really low and they spin in circles, it probably developed like that. (Don’t worry, it can be fixed on its own. )

So how do I mainly care for it?

For the first week of its life or two, help it eat and drink from time to time and make sure it can eat and drink on its own. They will sleep in a weird position, it’s OKAY. LET IT BE. (Our duckling looked dead every time lol)

What if it’s neck doesn’t straighten out?
Give it about a month. If you see absaloutely no progress, (I highly doubt you will) then you need to consider what is best for the quality of life for the duck. If it is suffering, then the choice is up to you. (I’m sure it will improve with time but in some cases it doesn’t. Very rare though I have never seen it only heard of it )

Honestly, if the duck is going to die it will die. I don’t think you should kill it yourself.

Can it swim?

Make sure it’s neck is pretty straight before allowing it to swim. My duckling couldn’t swim until it was four weeks. (I’m the fourth week his neck went to completely straight. ) If you put it in water to early, it could panick and let its head droop and then you are left with a drowning duckling.

Bubbles come out of his nose when he drinks....

This happened many times to Twister! It’s okay. There really is nothing you can do about it and Twister was perfectly fine when that happened every once in a while lol.

So yeah. I hope I helped.

This is just on here Incase someone goes through the same thing I did. It is the best feeling to watch the little crooked necked duckling turn into a happy straight necked one lol.

Thank you!

Hey!Thanks for this info...it gives me more hope, lol. My duck is 4 weeks old and 2 days ago all the sudden his neck kinda goes to the side, not really a head tilt...more like it's just off center and makes shoulder look a little low maybe? Walks pretty much fine. Eating and drinking. Swims fine, but yeah, looks dead when sleeping, lol. I hope this gets better. Looked online and spinach was suggested due to certain vitamins lacking that could help. I'll try anything.If anyone has info PLEASE reply.

 

[Djones76]

hey all! This is just in case someone ever looks this up on google.

Hi. I recently went through a long journey with a little duckling named twister. His neck had developed wrong and it was curved. If you have a duckling like this and need some advice, I’m answering some questions I had that I couldn’t find on here.

What do I do?
Stay calm. The duck is fine. If it is eating and drinking, that is a very good sign. Know that there is a less likely chance of the duckling surviving, but make sure you have hope. When we got my duckling, (tractor supply basically begged us to take him, he looked like he was on his death bed and his head was sooo crooked not even 10% up. He just spun in circles but he could somehow eat and drink. ) we gave him vitamin water and snuggled him a lot. After a couple days, (every couple of hours we would help him eat and drink) his neck improved the slightest bit. He was a day old when we got him. We instantly fell in love with him and we were scared he was going to die, but now he is a healthy completely straight necked duckling at only about 4 weeks old.

Should I give him a neck brace?
No. Don’t do that. They need to build their muscles in their neck for their neck to slowly be able to be held straight. Like I mentioned, getting rooster booster or some type of vitamin supplement for
Water definantly helps them.

Is his neck like that cause it developed like that or is he a moongazer?

If they are a moongazer normally just their head is crooked not their entire neck. If their entire neck is crooked or hanging really low and they spin in circles, it probably developed like that. (Don’t worry, it can be fixed on its own. )

So how do I mainly care for it?

For the first week of its life or two, help it eat and drink from time to time and make sure it can eat and drink on its own. They will sleep in a weird position, it’s OKAY. LET IT BE. (Our duckling looked dead every time lol)

What if it’s neck doesn’t straighten out?
Give it about a month. If you see absaloutely no progress, (I highly doubt you will) then you need to consider what is best for the quality of life for the duck. If it is suffering, then the choice is up to you. (I’m sure it will improve with time but in some cases it doesn’t. Very rare though I have never seen it only heard of it )

Honestly, if the duck is going to die it will die. I don’t think you should kill it yourself.

Can it swim?

Make sure it’s neck is pretty straight before allowing it to swim. My duckling couldn’t swim until it was four weeks. (I’m the fourth week his neck went to completely straight. ) If you put it in water to early, it could panick and let its head droop and then you are left with a drowning duckling.

Bubbles come out of his nose when he drinks....

This happened many times to Twister! It’s okay. There really is nothing you can do about it and Twister was perfectly fine when that happened every once in a while lol.

So yeah. I hope I helped.

This is just on here Incase someone goes through the same thing I did. It is the best feeling to watch the little crooked necked duckling turn into a happy straight necked one lol.

Thank you!

Thank you so much! I'm dealing with a 3 week old duckling that has a crooked neck. Sleeps with head on the floor of the tank. It eats and drinks fine but walks a little lop sided...I have rooster booster vitamins in the water and give it extra love. I hope this works out on its own.