Not horses sorry but urgent question on deformed duckling???

C

CM.

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Hi my partners little brother keeps ducks and chickens to sell eggs. He has recently hatched some and one of the ducks has a slightly crumpled looking foot and although I can’t see a physical deformity in it’s back, the duckling is constantly looking up and falling backwards, especially when trying to eat. Can’t find anything on this, but my googling skills are not great. He is just about managing to eat drink and walk combined with falling backwards but not sure on what to do?
 
my friend hatched a couple of quails last year- one came out with a deformed foot- the bottom of the foot was almost facing upwards, behind the leg. essentially the chick was walking on the joint (i would call it a fetlock... but thats probably not an avian term!)

i know that chickens can live quite happily with crooked toes, but as it got bigger it was unable to support its own weight on the leg. :( it was "dispatched" humanely, as it was still only a tiny chick, and couldn't walk or stand.

not sure if that's any help at all. :confused:
 
I'm not 100% sure it's the foot causing the problem as it is only slightly crumpled at the side? Who knows :S
 
Just found something. It is called stargazing, so will see how the duckling is over next couple of days and told them to get some minerals but if it doesn't improve the little fella will have to have what's best done by him. Thanks for advice
 
I suspect the foot has nothing to do with it's falling:( Is it as though it suddenly straightens its legs and flips over backwards? I've seen it in goslings and never found out WHY they do it but have managed to save some by suspending them in little harnesses so they are held off the ground and feeding them with boiled egg yolk mashed with oil and mixed with chick crumbs. It's hard work with a low success rate so unless you want to be very dedicated and feed the little chap and give it physio in a sink of warm water I'd be inclined to despatch it.
 
keep him on his own, let him get stronger and then put him in with the others. ours started like that. he was the 'runt' put 1 week on and its straightened out. let him have a swim in the sink aswell xx

edit: our duck was half dead when he cracked, but yoiu could probably just leave him with the others, its just that ours got picked on :( hope he gets better
 
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Hi,
Before I went out on a hack I went to check on the duckling and it had it's neck bent right backwards, causing the back of the duckling to almost fold backwards like a hinge so he was on his side. The head was shaking/waving around so I picked him up and he just couldn't straighten himself out.

We carried him outside onto the grass and one minute he'd be fine (just looking to the sky) as I first described... But then his back and neck would just go again, causing him to fall over and twitch.

He was then fine again but we decided someone needed to put him out his misery so was waiting for a neighbour to come and do it as I didn't know how to... Went on a hack and got back, my partners younger brother bless him, came out in tears as he did it soon after due to worrying about the duck doing the same thing again.

Couldn't of left the poor thing over night to see if it'd got better as it wasn't getting back up without a helping hand. Would love to know what was the problem though :S
 
I have no advice, but just wanted to say that you did the right thing - good on you and well done for giving it a chance :)
 
We had this with a chicken. Apparently Vit E deficiency, so we syringe fed drops of vit E from capsules 4-6 x a day, and splinted the affected leg. Sort of worked, but chicken died anyway, think had other problems too..
 
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