Wobbly Duck

[JenFrain]

Good evening everyone. I have a wobbly duck and she seems to be getting worse. I noticed this past weekend that her head was swaying back and forth when she was running. Now she’s falling over and can’t preen herself. I ordered some niacin and mixed it With water and have been giving it to her with a medicine syringe. I also gave her some b complex. When should I see a difference? I’m planning to call a vet near me tomorrow to see if they will see her.

 

[CoriM]

How old is she? What is her diet? How about the other ducks in your flock? You wouldn't know about whether the vitamin B complex helps unless you understand the underlying problem. Sounds like a vet may be a good idea.

 

[JenFrain]

12 weeks tomorrow. I have two females, both hatched the same day. The other is fine. They’ve been on nature’s best crumble from day 1. Getting ready to change to layer feed. They free range for a few hours a day during the week and most of the day on Saturday and Sunday when I’m off work. I have them inside the garage tonight, but they are normal in their pen during the day and coop at night.

 

[CoriM]

I'm not familiar with that food. Is it specific to ducks? Normally when I have ducklings I start them with a "starter" food, then switch to "grower" and then move to an adult feed. It's possible they missed some of the essential nutrients for baby ducklings. I would make sure they both get 1 ml of liquid vitamin B complex over treats or food every day. Then make sure their adult food going forward is for ducks. Purina makes a duck formula. I order Mazuri waterfowl through Chewy.com. When they do begin laying you'll need to provide a bowl of oyster shells on the side. They will eat that when they need the added calcium. Also, so many things can go wrong with ducks, you might want to consider adding a couple more females to your flock as you never want to have a lone duck...that would be devastating to them. And if you end up with one being male, you will need a few more females for the proper mating ratio. You should always have 3-4 females per male.

 

[JenFrain]

The for is specific to ducks. It’s organic with 18% protein and supposed to have the amount of niacin. I read up on it before they hatched, but I guess I should have chosen a different food. I’m note to this and thought I did enough research ahead of time. I guess I didn’t. I hope I can fix her.

 

[CoriM]

I bet you will.