Young Duck went suddenly lame

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I don't know about spraying with the hose. I do it if my naughty drake is harassing me and it's handy. However, they also like the hose. So, it's not really discipline.
Limpy won't come to you even for a treat? Probably doesn't want any more stuff shoved down his throat.

I am officially the 》evil human《. When I approach the duck porch, everybody tries to get out of my way. When the Duckies see my wife on our porch, they come running and ask for treats. Maybe next time when I clean the duckhouse I put in fir-needles instead of straw.
And my crazy ducks love to be in the water, running around in the rain, but when the 》evil human《 grabs the garden hose they all take off quacking. I have never sprayed them with the hose...
Unthankful rascals!

 

[Miss Lydia]

How’s Limpy?

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Sorry for the delayed update, i am totally occupied by preparing »Duckburg« for the coming winter. - Hmm, maybe i should create new thread to show you what i'm doing? Took the following two videos last night, but fell asleep while they were uploading to youtu.be.
Herding the duckies back to their platform, you can see Limpy walking with the others.

After being locked up on their platform, they expect their supper, cracked corn softened for some hours in water, garnished with some mealworms.

Limpy is joining them, eating normally as any other duck. His left leg looks strangely limited when he's walking, but if i have him belly up on my lap i can move both of his legs freely and he doesn't seem to experience any pain when i do so. But he is doing so much better compared to the Memorial-Day weekend! This morning all five Duckies were bathing together in their Kiddie pool and even Limpy got out without my help.
Thank you all for your support and help!!!

Edit: I am still the »evil human«

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sure is much better, can you share all you did to help Limpy get to where he is today?

 

[Fields Mountain Farm]

Silly ducks...
Im so glad Limpy is doing bettter!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Sure is much better, can you share all you did to help Limpy get to where he is today?

OK, to this day we do not know for sure what was causing this lameness.
It could have been avian botulism, though i have not found a source for this (no rotten water, no carcass,…).
It could have been a poison insect, caterpillar, mushroom or plant that he ate.
It could have been a lack of some nutrients, minerals or vitamins.
Or it was just a stray alpha-particle…
It was not any kind of injury, there were no cuts or bruises on the legs, Limpy did not show any signs of pain when i moved his legs (apart from his permanent »murder« screams).
First, the vet gave Limpy a shot of steroids in the chest muscle, then we gave him 14 days of intensive care:
Limpy received a warm bath everyday for about two weeks in the afternoon to relax his muscles, clean up the little stinker and feeding without being freaked out on somebody's lap. While in the water we observed that he was moving his legs fine but out of the water they were too weak to support him.

He received the following medicine, all pills:

Addressing possible toxins:

• Activated Charcoal, six hours before/after anything else - twice daily, 10 doses
  
• Milk Thistle Extract, Mother Nature's detox - daily, 21 doses

Addressing a possible bacterial infection:

• FishMox - Amoxicillin for fish 250mg - every odd day, 7 doses

Addressing deficiencies:

• Centrum for Adults - A Multi-Vitamin - every odd day, 10 doses
• Vitamin B complex, daily 14 doses
• Tryptophan, essential amino-acid, precursor for Niacin, daily, 14 doses
• Calcium, Magnesium, Zink - every odd day, 7 doses
• Iron 65mg - every even day, 10 doses
• Vitamin C 1000mg - daily, 14 doses (makes the duck hungry!)
• Two teaspoons of glucose in a quart of water to drink
• Salt-Sticks during hot days

After two weeks Limpy was much better, so we dropped all medications, except for the Vitamin B, now as a liquid in the drinking water and the Milk Thistle (for another week).
I have gained so much experience »feeding« pills to my duck, i should probably create the »Pill Stuffing Team«, similar to @casportpony's »Team Tube Feeding«. At the end of those two weeks Limpy didn't had a chance to resist, sometimes he barely noticed that i gave him his Milk-Thistle.
In the end he will likely always be a special needs duck, but he is as independent as possible. Please see pictures of some of the Medications we used below.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Looks like Limpy has improved quite a bit!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Looks like Limpy has improved quite a bit!

Yes he has! He's a tough cookie…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Hi Friends,

have to warm up this thread again. Limpy Duck is no longer eating!
I examined him yesterday in the evening, his feet are looking fine, no signs of bumblefoot, his legs are feeling cold to the touch as it should be in that weather and he was fighting me to the death, scratched my left arm really bad.
Then i had him on my lap trying to feed him some mealworms and tomato-wedges. He was stirring around in the container, drank some water and pretended to be sated. I encouraged him to eat some more, another fight broke out and he finally pinched me in the nose and escaped.
I observed him later on my DuckyCam and saw that he went straight to bed, did not participate in cleaning out the supper-bowl (cracked corn, tomato-wedges and meal-worms) and i have not seen him eating today too.
He is loosing a lot of feathers during the last two days, the other four have done that two weeks ago, so he might just be late with molting. (?) Do ducks refuse to eat during their molt?
I need to get his weight and then have to decide weather to tube feed him or not. Tube-feeding already sounded scary to me, but after reading this article i don't know if i really should give it a try…

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

They don't eat as much during molt. If he is that vigorous and attacking your nose, I would just keep an eye on him.