hi all, first post, my wife has 4 indian runners (3f/1m), all about 7 months old.
one of the females has been limping heavily for about a week, sometimes barely able to place her foot down & when she has it down she tends to have a wider stance than usual, pushing the foot foot out to the right slightly.
we have checked for any signs of injury, increased heat in the leg or anything that looks amiss, of which there are none.
currently we have her separated during the day, trying to encourage a peaceful environment so she may rest it.
she is still eating well although all 3 females have stopped laying similtaneously, probably time of year etc.
my initial thought was she may have whacked the leg on something during one of their mad runs around the garden or she has strained something (tendon etc), which the breeder who we bought the ducks from has confirmed as a possibility, he also was adamant that the vet would be unable to confirm anything but would be happy to keep taking our money, hence my post on here.
appreciate any advice given as my wife is starting to worry.......many thanks.......mark

Sorry to hear about your Runner duck.
She has probably strained it, the vet would be able to tell if anything is broken and you likely give you Metacam to ease the pain for a week or so. f the lameness continues then I suspect they would order an x-ray. If she can still get about then give her a few days to see if it improves. Is she still eating?
They would have stopped laying at this time of the year due to day length change and the molting season, perfectly normal and healthy for them to do.
Let me know how she gets on
zo
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hi zoe, thank you for your informative reply, really appreciated.
lorretta (the duck) is still eating well & as the weathers ok at the mo we're putting her in a 8x4 pet run during the day, that way she's still happy & having contact with the other ducks/chickens/dogs/cats etc but its not so big she would try to run & cause more injury (we had kept her inside on her own but she was definately getting a bit miserable & not eating as much).
my wife has said she will take her to the vet prob by the end of the week, our own vet knows very little re: poultry but there is a fairly informed vet in the next town.
thanks again, we will update the thread when we have news.
..........karen & mark x

Fab, look forward to it. One more thing I forgot to mention, make sure she is on really soft ground and her night time quarters are deeply bedded. What substrate are they on day and evening? Try and keep her off concrete totally. Also as much time on water as possible, but I know Runners are sometimes not keen on swimming so much.
zo
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