Wobbly duck who doesn't preen

[TwoDogFarm]

I have a duck that I am a little concerned about. We got her about a year ago as a duckling, but she has always had a little bit of problems with wobbly legs. I always thought she was nervous because this happened when I would take her away from her brothers and sisters and put her in the grass. But now that she's older, it's starting to cause her more problems. She's having trouble standing up and sometimes when I'm in there with the flock, she will try to use her wings as crutches or stabilizers. I'll hear her flailing around and she always tries to get somewhere by herself when this happens.

At one point, we separated her from the rest of the flock and gave her a round of antibiotics to see if that would help, but it didn't. Another time, we separated her and gave her electrolytes for about a week, but she's still having issues.

This morning, I just realized something else about her. I've noticed lately that she always looks really matted. Her feathers don't look very healthy and when I pet her they're very stiff. That's when I realized that I haven't seen her preening like my other ducks. All of them look very fluffy and healthy, but even after she was in the water a week ago, she still doesn't look so good.

Does anyone have any ideas what could be wrong with her or what I can do to help her out? She's a very good little duck and one of the only ones of my flock that actually seems to like being picked up and petted. I just want to get her better.

 

[needlessjunk]

I think she didn't have enough niacin in her diet as a duckling. Some are more prone to leg issues than other and ducks need more niacin than chicks. So if they were fed a chick starter they would need additional niacin added to their feed. I don't know what you can do now though. How about bringing her in for a warm bath and see how she reacts. You can try giving her niacin now and see if that helps her at all. It won't hurt that's for sure. Brewers yeast added to all of their feed will help. Maybe another round of poultry vitamins. Is it really cold where you are right now? That may not be helping things.

 

[blondiebee181]

Agreed about the niacin thing...ducks are supposed to get more niacin as chicks than chickens to help in proper leg growth and development...I am also unsure if it will help at this point in her life or not, so I am hoping that Amiga or MissLydia will chime in...they are good with waterfowl, you could try PMing them. It certainly can't do any harm though, so I would at least try it. I believe the correct dosage is a 100mg tablet of No-flush niacin per gallon of water. Grind the tab into a powder and sprinkle it in...it won't hurt chickens.

 

[Amiga]

Hmmm, somewhere I got the impression that plain niacin, not the no-flush or timed release kind is recommended for ducks….definitely niacin, though.

 

[Kaessa]

Everything I've read says DON'T use no-flush niacin. Use regular niacin or brewer's yeast.

 

[blondiebee181]

I might be confused....for some reason I was thinking no-flush, but it's been a couple years since I used it.

 

[TwoDogFarm]

Where can I get niacin? I haven't seen it at my local feed store. Is this something I need to order online?

 

[Amiga]

It depends on where you live. I found mine at the local drugstore - capsules, open them up and sprinkle into the water. I reckon you could find it at a big box grocery store, pharmacy, GNC, places that sell supplements.

 

[TwoDogFarm]

It depends on where you live. I found mine at the local drugstore - capsules, open them up and sprinkle into the water. I reckon you could find it at a big box grocery store, pharmacy, GNC, places that sell supplements.

So this is something they sell to people?

 

[needlessjunk]

Yes, people niacin or brews/nutritional yeast will work. The niacin will be with all the vitamins. Brews yeast or nutritional yeast will be with the vitamins or the health food section. Niacin tablets you put in their water, brews yeast you sprinkle on top.