Muscovy Duckling, born with bald head, balance issues, cloudy eyes

[emmabellybutton]

Okay there's a lot to say hah
I have a 3 week old muscovy duckling who was born with a bald spot. When he was born up until now we've noticed that he's got some funny neurological things going on, he has a hard time with balance and spacial awareness, he'll look around the room over and over but he's not looking at anything, like he's dizzy? We have been closely monitoring him and even though he slept more than his playmate the first week, he's super active, loves to play, and is the biggest cuddler I've hatched so far. So that's all one thing that I'd love to know if anyone else has had experience with and how their duckling grew up and if they are still happy.

The other thing I noticed today is that he had one eye closed. My first assumption is that it's a little cut from the tall grass he was in today, there's no sign of blood, puss, oozing, or foam, just a little swelling. I rinsed it with saline solution and have him separated in a dark cozy box to rest and will continue to monitor and rinse. I saw one thread said to use Vetricyn but I saw another saying its not safe for eyes? Any advice on this? He seems to crash hard when he gets sleepy but still keeps trying to be active, no runny nose or coughing or anything so far. Also is it okay to give your duck something like VetRX or a homeopathic runny nose remedy preventatively just incase? Or should you only use it when you see sure fire symptoms?

The last thing I noticed when I was rinsing his eye is that he has cloudiness in his pupils, which I think are cataracts? This is new, and I'm not sure what to do or if there is anything I can do. Any advice would be SO appreciated!

Photos below (he's the light brown/yellow baby) are his bald head when he was born and today. Don't have photos of his eye, didn't want to stress him too much and there's no discharge or anything, just a little swollen. You can also kind of see how he's smaller than his regular developing sibling, the yellow/black baby but it's more obvious in person

 

[Miss Lydia]

@emmabellybutton what are you feeding your ducklings and are you adding any niacin to their feed? if so what? They are at the age where Niacin deficiency starts to really show up. This could be what you are seeing or it could be genetic or an incubator temp problem if hatched in a bator, hard to know for sure but niacin deficiency is easy to rule out, by adding some liquid B complex to their treats or feed it usually only takes a week or less to see a difference in them if this is what you are dealing with.
Love Muscovy

This explains what I am referring to and what to get that may help.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/niacin-deficiency-in-waterfowl.1367557/

 

[Miss Lydia]

http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/mmissue62.htm
info on cataracts

 

[emmabellybutton]

@emmabellybutton what are you feeding your ducklings and are you adding any niacin to their feed? if so what? They are at the age where Niacin deficiency starts to really show up. This could be what you are seeing or it could be genetic or an incubator temp problem if hatched in a bator, hard to know for sure but niacin deficiency is easy to rule out, by adding some liquid B complex to their treats or feed it usually only takes a week or less to see a difference in them if this is what you are dealing with.
Love Muscovy

This explains what I am referring to and what to get that may help.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/niacin-deficiency-in-waterfowl.1367557/

They've been on chick starter and they've had niacin since their first meal, I've been using Brewer's yeast for their niacin supplement, do you prefer a different form? Not sure if this is entirely helpful but they have constant access to water that they can stick their whole head in too. I do wonder if maybe its because of the incubator, or because these eggs were under hens for the first 20-25 days and then moved to an incubator. (A family I work with left for a trip and told me they had just started letting her sit on the eggs but all of a sudden babies were trying to hatch so it must have been going on for a while and I put all the rest of the eggs in an incubator because 2 fully formed ducklings failed to hatch) Both those babies in photos above were very difficult hatches, they had a really hard time with being pretzeled and shrink wrapped, luckily I have a woman I know that we call the poultry midwife and she guided me through it along with these forums haha

And thank you! I'll read those articles

 

[Miss Lydia]

Thank goodness you stepped in to help these ducklings.

Here is more info about which is better Brewers yeast or Nutritional yeast, I use Nutritional yeast unless one starts having difficulty with shaky legs, off balance. Then I go to Liquid B complex it works faster and that is what we want.

 

[emmabellybutton]

Thought I would update this thread just incase it helps anyone else in the future who stumbles on it. I did end up taking little Eagle to the vet and was told that the cause of his eye being shut, the lethargy, and the cloudiness in his eyes were all from ammonia poisoning from their poop. They weren't getting enough air flow and his sibling was sleeping on top of him so he was breathing too much ammonia. The day after I fixed these things, he immediately got better! So lucky and lesson learned.

Also since last I posted I found out that we were given bad info about what breed the parent ducks of these ducklings were and found out that they are actually Muscovy and Magpie mules. The vet said this might explain why Eagle has a bald spot, it could be the muscovy genes making room for the feather loss/caruncle growth but that he may never grow caruncles, just may get a few more bald spots as he grows older, we'll see!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Great news thank you for updating. Would love to see some recent pics of your little Eagle.