What is wrong with my 8 month old Harlequins leg?

[azhenhouse]

My Harlequin still has problems with her leg, and I am at a loss. I don't know what could be wrong. One morning when we opened up the coop for the ducks to come out, Sugar, our Harlequin crawled out using her wings. This was my posting back on September 1.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=7305852#p7305852

Here I am a months later, and the poor girl still isn't better. At first I thought it was a Niacin deficiency. However, I now believe that she broke a bone in her leg, right at the elbow. I believe that three over zealous Saxony drakes might have been the cause of that break. I have had her isolated in a small area of the duck coop with vet wrap around her leg, forever. I tried a splint but that did not work for her.

She had not been in water for a few weeks, and I felt like it would be good for her to have a swim in the tub. It was after that swim that she started falling over, again. That is when I realized that she is not getting better. I don't know if me removing the old vet wrap, and putting new wrap on messed up her leg, or what? She seems to otherwise be doing fine. She eats, drinks, sleeps, talks to the other ducks when they come in the coop, and lays an egg everyday.

I just don't know what else to do. She is such a beautiful and friendly duck. I don't want to cull her but I don't think it is good for either one of us to keep going like this. Help!!!

 

[duckyfromoz]

A duck that is in pain or stressed is less likely to be laying an egg day- so she must be relatively comfortable.

After so long- the vet wrap is unlikely to be doing any good for her, If the leg was broken- the bones will have healed long ago. Does she use the leg at all or is she still continuing to use her wings to take the weight off the leg when she tries to walk?

 

[azhenhouse]

Quote:
She can stand, scratch, pull herself up, and walk on it. However, if she is startled, gets too excited, turns to fast, etc., it will give out on her. Then she struggles to get back up.

 

[EmAbTo48]

I think it sounds like she has improved a great deal from before that's a plus!

I think if she is able to live happily, yes she might stumble a bit, she should be fine. A duck in pain will not move, not eat, not drink and usually will just end up starving itself to death. She doesn't sound like shes in pain at all. If your able to I would find a few more females for your flock 3 on 1 is a BAD idea

Otherwise if you want make her a house pet with your family. However, until you are able to find more females I would keep her separated from the rest. Maybe at least let them see her through a fence or what not.

If the drakes did cause this, having her with them will just continue to cause the leg more problems since it isn't having time to heal. She might have broken in it and if she did she might forever have this stumbling because the leg is slipping out, but I agree it should have had time to heal by now, unless the drakes were on her all the time.

I also would allow her more swim time. Since she has improved some more time in the water might help the leg gain strength and stretch the muscles out.

 

[azhenhouse]

Quote:
After this incident I separated all the Saxony ducks from the Harlequins. I also have my other Harlequins separated from her, and her mate (a Harlequin drake). He spends most of his time with her in the coop talking to her between a wire fence. If I let her out of isolation will he hurt her by trying to mate with her? That will be the first thing he'll do. I guess I should just try it and see what happens.

You mentioned the leg could be slipping out, and that is what seems to be happening. Will that get better?

 

[EmAbTo48]

Quote:
After this incident I separated all the Saxony ducks from the Harlequins. I also have my other Harlequins separated from her, and her mate (a Harlequin drake). He spends most of his time with her in the coop talking to her between a wire fence. If I let her out of isolation will he hurt her by trying to mate with her? That will be the first thing he'll do. I guess I should just try it and see what happens.

You mentioned the leg could be slipping out, and that is what seems to be happening. Will that get better?

How long have you had her separate from all the drakes? If you haven't I would try doing that for at least a week see if it helps, with bath time once a day and if she looks even better then continue to do this for another week. She will be lonely but if they can see each other she will live

Then I would try reintroducing her to just her mate and see how it goes. I would not ever let her be reintroduced to the whole flock for quite a while if her leg continues to slip it could cause a lot more problems especially if she is mated too much by other drakes without you knowing. Also depending on how her mate is if hes an aggressive mater I would add another female with her and him to help limit the amount of mating. But if hes a calmer drake it should be fine.

The leg slipping out could be just a muscle reaction which could go away just fine but if she broke the leg it could be like this forever and you may periodically have to separate her if she seems to look bad again and just keep doing that over her life. I doubt it’s causing too much pain to her, but I am sure it’s hard to watch your duck have to struggle.