Help! Casey (My Duck) has a prolapse! First time treatment for me.

@Tevyes Dad , this place makes an 8 gauge
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http://www.ssneedles.com/product/feeding_needles

-Kathy
LOL, that is almost the same set. But an 8 gauge is slightly smaller than a 10Fr. I bet in Stainless a 16 (what I have now in tubing) would be perfect because the walls would be thinner. For now I think I'm good.

I fed Casey her last antibiotic with another 30ml of smoothie and she pooped her first real poop in about 2 wks (probably from the last feeding). So going forward, her medication is done and hopefully she will decide to eat in the near future. So here is what I'm thinking for her feeding:

My ducks go through about 25 lbs of food / week (self choice). So 7 days / week/ 15 ducks gives me an average of almost 4 oz / day / duck. I'm thinking that Casey is one of the smaller ducks so is probably on the low end plus I will still give her free choice meal worms (some), food and lettuce (unlimited). So I should probably tube feed about half of that. I measured that out and it comes to 1/3 of a cup of dry food - almost 80ml - so probably 90ml of mush (the water won't increase the volume that much since there is lots of air around the pellets.) So I'm figuring on feeding her 2 feedings of 45 ml each per day.

Also for consideration, she weighed 4-1/4 lbs last May and is currently 3-3/4 lbs, so she's down 1/2lb or 12% - she was fattened up for winter so she probably lost a bit more than that, but I doubt she weighed over 4-3/4 lbs 3 weeks ago (or even that much). I will monitor her weight much more closely now. Does this level of feeding make sense to you Kathy? My guess is just based on we get 2 buckets out of a 50lb bag and go through about a bucket/week so just a guess.
 
Start weighing her at the same time every morning and if she loses weight, increase her amount of food. 45 ml twice a day seems a little on the low end, but better to give too little than too much until you get a feel for how much her crop can hold.

Have you seen this video?
http://lafeber.com/vet/tube-feeding-birds/

-Kathy
 
Start weighing her at the same time every morning and if she loses weight, increase her amount of food. 45 ml twice a day seems a little on the low end, but better to give too little than too much until you get a feel for how much her crop can hold.

Have you seen this video?
http://lafeber.com/vet/tube-feeding-birds/

-Kathy

Yes I saw it from Banty's thread. Thanks. My goal is to not have her lose any more weight and to gain some back but still be hungry enough that I will know if she recovers her appetite on her own. She is already showing MUCH more interest in the meal worms, so I hope I can get her to eat some food normally too. Tomorrow will be her first day without antibiotics and she is still getting probiotics in her water so hopefully her gut gets back to "normal" quickly. Also with her 2 30ml feedings today she is seeming to show more interest in food so I am hoping to have a ravenous duck taking care of her own weight shortly. But I will baseline her weight tomorrow before feeding (easiest to reproduce and probably the lowest of the day), give her the 2 45ml feedings plus the opportunity before each feeding to eat on her own. Weigh her Friday morning then go from there. I appreciate all the help. From the video (I wasn't sure if the ratio would apply to ducks), her crop should hold about 85ml so the 1/3 - 1/2 of that would be 28 - 42 so today I was near the low end of that range (by dumb luck) and tomorrow I will be near the high end. If she doesn't start eating then I will probably go to 60 (the capacity of the syringe) then feed her more times / day if this isn't sufficient for her weight (I also would rather feed her an extra time than have her regurgitate her food and possibly aspirate some of the regurgitated food.)
 
Oh, wow!!! I just found this thread!! Poor Casey, Yvonne and Tony!
:hugs :hugs :hugs :hugs

Absolutely lovely pics of MamaDux and Casey, great job taking care of Casey too!!

I have not had the unfortunate 'pleasure' of dealing with a prolapse, so I wouldn't be any help there, but I have tubed before (nowhere NEAR Kathy's exlerience though!) and I am always about support! Sorry I am so late to the party... :(

Am super glad you have a good vet and that Casey is getting better! :fl it continues and I will be checking in...

Also glad to see Allie is ok as well... and duck-in-a-cup was hilarious! :gig


ETA: also very glad your girls are good for the vet and you both are doing amazing caring for her!!!
 
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OK, I just fed Casey her first meal and I will log weights here so I can't cheat and will know where they were. Last night's weight was done with a food scale since Casey is under 5 lbs and it was handy and it was after she had been fed and drank. Today's official weight was done on the baby scale we use for the ducks (I had to bring it inside and let it warm up.) So her official first weigh in, morning, no food, no water, pooped is 3lbs, 10.2 oz. I'm still getting my technique down so it still takes a little time to get the hose around past her tongue, (little stinker raises it right up against the roof of her mouth.) , but once it is past her tongue, it goes very easy into her esophagus so I put it all the way down so that the syringe tip (as well as the hose over it) is out the left side of her bill so between using a slow even stroke (about 4 seconds for the 45ml) and her bill acting as a wedge, I don't think I have to worry about losing the hose in the duck (I am very conscious of it none-the-less.) I did order another tube so I can keep it longer than "from the bottom of the crop to the lips"
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in the future. She still seems in good spirits. She is perfectly quiet when in the dark in her kennel (has been since day one) unless we walk by and talk to her, then she will answer back. When we let her out she preens, flaps her wings (on tippy toes) and chats with us and drinks a lot. She is funny when we bathe her. All the rest of my ducks would sit in the tub until the water evaporated if I am in there with them. Half of the ducks will try to fly out of the tub if I leave the room though. Casey does a very thorough wash exhibiting every normal ducky water move for about 5 minutes. Then she wants to get out and preen. In the summer, she spent hours in the pool with Allie, Latte and Tevye. Must have been for the social interaction.

My mush came out great today, so I will throw the recipe here: I took 1/2 cup of All Flock Pellets and put them in the blender. I then nuked 1 cup of water for 1 minute (water doesn't get hot spots, don't nuke the mix) and dumped it in and blended on high for about a minute. The newly mixed mush was right around 120F, by the time I weighed Casey, let her drink some water, let her ignore her free choice food, and drew the mush into the syringe, it had fully softened but was still fairly thick and was 90F - 100F. Bon Appetit!
 
OK, I just fed Casey her first meal and I will log weights here so I can't cheat and will know where they were. Last night's weight was done with a food scale since Casey is under 5 lbs and it was handy and it was after she had been fed and drank. Today's official weight was done on the baby scale we use for the ducks (I had to bring it inside and let it warm up.) So her official first weigh in, morning, no food, no water, pooped is 3lbs, 10.2 oz. I'm still getting my technique down so it still takes a little time to get the hose around past her tongue, (little stinker raises it right up against the roof of her mouth.) , but once it is past her tongue, it goes very easy into her esophagus so I put it all the way down so that the syringe tip (as well as the hose over it) is out the left side of her bill so between using a slow even stroke (about 4 seconds for the 45ml) and her bill acting as a wedge, I don't think I have to worry about losing the hose in the duck (I am very conscious of it none-the-less.) I did order another tube so I can keep it longer than "from the bottom of the crop to the lips"
gig.gif
in the future. She still seems in good spirits. She is perfectly quiet when in the dark in her kennel (has been since day one) unless we walk by and talk to her, then she will answer back. When we let her out she preens, flaps her wings (on tippy toes) and chats with us and drinks a lot. She is funny when we bathe her. All the rest of my ducks would sit in the tub until the water evaporated if I am in there with them. Half of the ducks will try to fly out of the tub if I leave the room though. Casey does a very thorough wash exhibiting every normal ducky water move for about 5 minutes. Then she wants to get out and preen. In the summer, she spent hours in the pool with Allie, Latte and Tevye. Must have been for the social interaction.

My mush came out great today, so I will throw the recipe here: I took 1/2 cup of All Flock Pellets and put them in the blender. I then nuked 1 cup of water for 1 minute (water doesn't get hot spots, don't nuke the mix) and dumped it in and blended on high for about a minute. The newly mixed mush was right around 120F, by the time I weighed Casey, let her drink some water, let her ignore her free choice food, and drew the mush into the syringe, it had fully softened but was still fairly thick and was 90F - 100F. Bon Appetit!
@Tevyes Dad Thank you so much for sharing all of this. I hope I never have to do any of this but I know where to go for info.

Hopefully Casey's appetite will start picking up now that she is finished with her meds.
 
@Tevyes Dad Thank you so much for sharing all of this. I hope I never have to do any of this but I know where to go for info.

Hopefully Casey's appetite will start picking up now that she is finished with her meds.
I was trying to explain it to Casey last night. Yvonne was chuckling. It went something like this:

Hey Casey...
That's it... Nibble on that lettuce... But you know what's even better than lettuce? Duck food! OK, Casey, you actually have to swallow the piece of lettuce, not just chew it a couple times... Here you go... GOOD GIRL! Bet that tastes really good... You know what would go really good with that??? Some Duck food!... You know your meds are all done now right? So if you eat Duck Food on your own, I won't have to give you any more of those syringes you don't like... That's it, drink up. Now follow it up with some Duck food... No... You're just going to nibble on that piece of lettuce huh? Nice poop! Hey, that means you have more room for some Duck food...

And so on... She never did eat any so she got the syringe. Poor girl. Of course the whole time I was talking to her, I was using silly voices and Casey was looking at me with one eye, then the other, then both eyes, head high, head low, head tilted (look spider on the ceiling!) She's such a sweetheart.
 
@Tevyes Dad Thank you so much for sharing all of this. I hope I never have to do any of this but I know where to go for info.

Hopefully Casey's appetite will start picking up now that she is finished with her meds.
Thanks for squaring my brain Patti, I added "My Duck" to the title so that if all goes well (or not) and I document each step and miss-step, perhaps someone in the future might get some help from it.... Even if they didn't know Casey=K.C.=Khaki Campbell=Duck
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