Is my duckling sick?

[Henrietta02]

thanks so much for the advice. So i think what i will do is buy some peas and try to find some vitamin b complex. i think it is best to put it in the water because she is only drinking water right now. I cant get her to eat. What is the best Vitamin b niacin form for water? the pills or the liquid? I'm a little nervous. I don't want to overdose them...

 

[Miss Lydia]

Liquid and you can't over dose it's water soluble and what they don't need they will pee out.

 

[Table4Six]

Ducklings do need more niacin than is found in regular chick starter and giving them a vitamin B complex wouldn’t hurt either. However, I wouldn’t be too worried about their size difference, Pekins are very fast growing ducks and are a larger breed in general compared to small Khakis who are bred primarily for egg laying. It is natural for the Pekin to be larger. Beautiful ducklings btw.

 

[Miss Lydia]

The leg weakness sounds like niacin deficiency and once it's noticed the liquid b complex works the best. 3ml daily for human brand 1 ml daily for cattle at TSC.

 

[Henrietta02]

i bought the b complex with 20 mg of niacin. how much do i put in the water? will it hurt the pekin who really doesn't need it? i hope this works shes not eating only drinking...

 

[Miss Lydia]

Won’t hurt your Pekin she needs it too. Go with 3 ml in a quart of water unless you can get her to take it by using a needless syringe and just tiny drops till gone. Use room temp water not cold.

 

[Henrietta02]

or do i directly drop it into her beak?

 

[Miss Lydia]

You can try it that way just tiny drops never shoot it in don’t want her to aspirate it.

 

[Sea Wolf]

Take the food and wet it so it is like gravy. Ducks do not like to eat dry food.

 

[PirateGirl]

You've gotten some good advice. If the B-Complex you bought comes with the dropper in the bottle, you can try and give her one dropper full 2 times a day. You may or may not have success with her taking it directly, but if you can do this for the first few days it might give her a little boost. Continue with the B-Complex until she is 5-6 weeks old. This is when the fastest growing is happening and when ducklings seem to struggle the most. Everyone's metabolism is different, so it's normal that some ducklings need the B-Complex and some do ok without it. You can also look for poultry nutri-drench to add in the drinking water for about a week, this is just an overall multivitamin in case there is anything else that she may be lacking.

I would not worry about the size difference, full grown, Pekins are HUGE compared to KCs. My KC girls are smaller than some of my chickens and full grown are only 3-4lbs, but a Pekin adult can be over 10lbs. Good luck. I hope she perks up soon.