Duck can't use one leg, how to help?

[Sunny Side Up]

Quackmore is a one-year-old Khaki Campbell drake. He lives with another KC drake, 6 KC hen ducks, and 2 Pekin hen ducks. They also share the yard with and sometimes interact with 9 Runner ducks, (2 drakes & 7 hens). The drakes are always busy chasing the hen ducks around for mating, and sometimes clash with each other over one duck's attentions.

The other night when we were putting everyduck in their houses for the night we noticed that Quackmore had a severe limp. He can't place his left foot on the ground, but hobbles around by just dotting the foot on the ground for balance. I examined the foot & leg and saw no injury or swelling. All the parts of his leg seem to bend as they should. And wow, he sure can get around FAST despite his problem. I put him in the pool and it seemed like he was able to use it to swim, but it was dark and difficult to see how much he was using his affected left leg.

I tried to put a little liquid baby vitamin down his throat, he wasn't too pleased with that.

He's been staying confined to the pen with just one other duck hen for company since yesterday. He is willing to go around with his flock, hobbling fast when they move around, and is awfully hard to catch. Yesterday morning I let him out of the pen to see what he would do and we had a really difficult time catching him to put him back. But I couldn't leave him in the yard, the 3 other drakes were taking turns mating with him! I guess it's just their way of asserting their authority over him, making him submit to them. But I don't think he needs that hassle.

I hope it will help to keep him confined so that he can rest his injured leg as much as possible. He and his hen duck du jour seem content together in the pen with their little pool there.

Please, what else can I do to help him? I tried to search "slipped tendon" but couldn't find a definite answer. Do you think that could be Quackmore's problem? How could I determine if that's the problem, how to I treat him? He and I thank you for your input!

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Can you get a couple of pictures of him standing and his leg and foot both? If the tendon isn't slipped he may have injured the pad of his foot. He could have bruised the leg also.

 

[dumb_cluck]

Check the bottm of his foot for "bumblefoot". It is ugly looking and is usually at the heal.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

When I have a boy or two here to help me, I'll get some photos to post. We can then also more easily catch him and I can examine him more closely in the light. I looked carefully at it the other night and couldn't see any signs of injury, swelling, bruising, etc. I want to try moving that leg again and see how it compares with the other. Quackmore has that typical KC personality, even after a year of good feeding & gentle treatment he still flees from me as if I were a fox. I don't want to aggravate his injury any more by making him run around away from me. With the boys to help we can be more efficient in capturing him.

When I last looked at Quackmore he was just standing on his good right leg, his left leg was bent at the correct angle, his toes just brushing the ground. When he moves he'll hop on his good leg and just dot the bad one briefly on the ground for balance. When he really wants to move fast he'll flap his wings. But he's really speedy with just 1.5 legs working!

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

It could be any number of things. He could have sprained his leg or it could be broken up high where you wouldn't be able to feel it. Although, if it were broken, he would be struggling very hard to walk. You may want to keep him isolated so he doesn't move around much, to give it a chance to heal on its own. My vet has told me that ducks are very sensitive to pain. She prescribes metacam whenever i have a duck or chicken that might be in pain. You would need a vet to prescribe that.

We have a Cayuga who has been plagued with weak legs, even though we top dress the food dish with brewers yeast every day. Our vet put her on metacam to help. Then found her really struggling one day. X-rays revealed she had broken her leg way up high near the pelvis. How she did that, we have no idea. We couldn't afford surgery, but our vet said it will heal on its own. We isolated her for a while, then finally turned her out with the other ducks. She still gets the daily metacam, and can't walk as fast as the others, but she is doing fine.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Last night I held Quackmore and checked his leg thoroughly. There isn't any sign of injury, infection, or bruising, all of his bones & joints I could feel felt the same on both sides. When I bent each leg his foot would curl the same way on both sides. When he walks slowly I notice that he does reach forward with the injured foot, but doesn't place his full weight on it when he steps on that side. It would be difficult to capture it in a photo, maybe I could figure out how to take & post a video. In my "spare" time.

Now, to make things even more interesting, I noticed that the other KC drake, Sir Quackly, is also limping. Also on his left side! Moving so similar to Quackmore I had to check to make sure that he was still confined to the pen.

I'm guessing that they're getting injured during all the activity they engage in throughout the day, chasing down hen ducks in order to mate with them, scuffling with the other drakes to be the winner. Sometimes all 4 drakes, the 2 KCs and the 2 Runners, will all be chasing after the same hen duck, running & bumping against each other in their effort, it looks like they're playing rugby. Perhaps this is causing these KC drakes to get bruised or injured.

I'm hoping that it will help to keep the drakes confined to their pen will give them time to rest & recover. I leave a couple of hen ducks in there with them for company. They may prefer being there too, out of the way of all the other drakes. They have a little pool and their own pan of food.

Is there anything else I could do to help them, any other symptoms I should be looking for?

 

[Goldslu22]

I have the same problem. We have a Pekin who all of a sudden yesterday won't walk on her leg at all. She tucks it way under her wing. If she try's to stand she falls over, even sitting she is leaning not wanting to use it at all. I felt and moved the leg and itdidn't seem to hurt her. It is very swollen above the foot where the leg attaches to the foot. We have her isolated.What can we do to help her? It almost feels like there is fluidin in, it is very soft to touch. Thanks

 

[nymphadoraliz]

I have the same problem. We have a Pekin who all of a sudden yesterday won't walk on her leg at all. She tucks it way under her wing. If she try's to stand she falls over, even sitting she is leaning not wanting to use it at all. I felt and moved the leg and itdidn't seem to hurt her. It is very swollen above the foot where the leg attaches to the foot. We have her isolated.What can we do to help her? It almost feels like there is fluidin in, it is very soft to touch. Thanks

A week ago we had the same problem with our duck. She was limping really bad and her ankle was swollen. I went and used some sports wrap and put a short dowel alongside the leg. I had to play with it a bit the first few hours, but after about 4 days I was able to take it off and she is getting around fine with a slight limp.

She must have strained her ankle somehow as she couldn't put pressure to my hand like she could with the other foot. It didn't appear broken but she could barely put any weight on it.

First we'd put the dowel in the front but it looked like it would hurt her as it was pressing right on top of the webbing, but she was able to hobble around with it there.

I put it to the side and she was back to not walking on it. I tried it in the back and she would only step backwards on it and I think it was because she felt she was tipping over?

So I returned to it pressing against her webbing and she kept hobbling around again. It might have been causing discomfort but it gave her the stability to be able to get around. I took it off 2 days ago and you now can barely tell she was ever limping!

 

[chickens really]

Sounds like a sprain to a toe or leg?...It takes about 6 weeks to heal...Too many randy Drakes in one place....

 

[CrazyDuckLady88]

Hey everyone! I see that this is an older post but I figured I'd reply anyway I'm case anyone else comes looking for similar answers.

My 1 year old Pekin, Mother Ducker (Mama,) had a similar issue to what many of you are describing. Back in February we noticed she started to limp a little. We've had other ducks limp and left it alone and they healed just fine within a day or 2 and we assumed she would do the same. After a few days she became lame and even abandoned her nest. I thought it was just a sprain and tried every at-home method I could find. I finally took her to the vet after her leg began to swell and got warm in April. Come to find out she actually had a bone infection! The vet did a joint flush and prescribed antibiotics with an anti-inflammatory and pain reducer. I felt AWFUL that she had an infection and I failed to know and properly take care of her. We kept her inside in a crate to reduce her movement and would bring one of the other ducks in with her at night to help avoid depression from isolation. The antibiotic was helping but not as well as we had hoped so I took her back in for another joint flush in May. A few days later she was still limiting using her leg but we let her start staying outside with 2 of the ducklings in their new, more spacious house and yard. After about a week she began to hobble around from one spot to another but spent most of her time just laying in the sun or floating in the pond. She would use her wings to balance but still stumbled a lot. I wasn't happy with how slow the healing process was going so the vet recommend adding a second antibiotic. She's been on the 2 antibiotics for a month now and is doing SO much better. She spends her days with the rest of the ducks and seems much happier. She still has a pretty strong limp. I've been working with her daily to help her regain strength in her leg. Little by little she's getting better. We may do 1 more joint flush to fully eliminate the fluid. We're expecting a full recovery by the end of July!!!