Anyone ever have a duck injure themselves this way?

[solarpup]

The other day when we let our duck, Scaramanga, out of his coop, he took off flying toward the front of the yard, then a minute later came flying back and landed in the pond, and did his usual bathing. When he got out, my wife noticed his chest was bleeding quite badly. She took a look, and a tuft of feathers came out, and he had a puncture wound that pierced the skin, tore his fascia, and went down to the muscle. Needless to say, we took him to the vet emergency room, got him 6 stitches, and some antibiotics. He's doing fine now (and he quickly fluffed and groomed his feathers over the wound, and we can't even find the stitches now).

The best we can figure is that after he took off the first time, he landed in our woods, and impaled himself on a stick or a twig during an awkward landing. (He never has been a very graceful lander.) As far as we know, there wasn't anyone with a BB gun nearby, and a hawk would have likely done a *lot* more damage. So, we're guessing it was him landing in the woods.

Anyone else have a duck injure themselves like this? Do I need to clip Scaramanga's wings to keep him a bit more in control? Or was this just a freak accident. Ducks will be ducks kind of thing....

 

[veronicasmom]

In light of the fact that you say he has never been a graceful lander, I would clip his wings to keep him grounded. At least that is what I would do. I am of the opinion better to be safe than sorry

 

[Amiga]

Our Runners rarely get more than a couple feet off the ground, and rarely traverse more than ten feet at most. Landings are wince-worthy most of the time, though Fünf apparently made a perfect two point landing yesterday.

And we have had no injuries except perhaps a mildly turned ankle once or twice (and the cause may have been tripping over something).

I would consider a little wing-clipping if Scaramanga is one who will come out with such a head of steam that he crashes into things like that.

 

[solarpup]

Scaramanga is a mallard, so he can actually get up a good head of steam, and make it over the house. Normally, he and our two other ducks (Le Chiffre and Blofeld) fly off of the front porch (where they have their winter quarters) go around the house, and straight to the pond in the backyard. This particular morning, Scaramanga and LeChiffre decided to take off to the woods instead (leaving Blofeld lost behind). They have this notion that they are mighty hunters, and love to forage in the fallen leaves. (Blofeld once managed to catch and eat a small frog, but mostly it's the occasional moth and worm in the warmer weather.) They seem to enjoy the flying, and we have a very big yard, so we try not to clip them if we can avoid it. Although last year we eventually broke down and clipped them. We're thinking about doing it again this year.

 

[Beratzlaff]

I am not sure of the exact environment you have them in but I would suggest clipping them especially since you aren't hurting them in any way. Yesterday I went and picked up and free duck from craigslist, and she was giving him away because he was lonely after being left behind by all mallards she had raised with him. She said that one day all the mallards just up and left and never came back...

 

[Miss Lydia]

I am not sure of the exact environment you have them in but I would suggest clipping them especially since you aren't hurting them in any way. Yesterday I went and picked up and free duck from craigslist, and she was giving him away because he was lonely after being left behind by all mallards she had raised with him. She said that one day all the mallards just up and left and never came back...

Wonderful you were able to take her lonely duck.

 

[Onlyducks]

Scaramanga is a mallard, so he can actually get up a good head of steam, and make it over the house. Normally, he and our two other ducks (Le Chiffre and Blofeld) fly off of the front porch (where they have their winter quarters) go around the house, and straight to the pond in the backyard. This particular morning, Scaramanga and LeChiffre decided to take off to the woods instead (leaving Blofeld lost behind). They have this notion that they are mighty hunters, and love to forage in the fallen leaves. (Blofeld once managed to catch and eat a small frog, but mostly it's the occasional moth and worm in the warmer weather.) They seem to enjoy the flying, and we have a very big yard, so we try not to clip them if we can avoid it. Although last year we eventually broke down and clipped them. We're thinking about doing it again this year.

I was thinking about not clipping my muscovies this fall. However, after observing how well one could fly, on the day before a major change in weather that would have been deadly had they flown off, I immediately gather up hubby and we clipped all the females' wings. I didn't do the male because he's pretty attached to the females and not likely to leave them. (Plus, if he did, male muscovies are very easy to get—seems most want females.) If you're willing to lose the ducks, clipping isn't necessary. If you do want to keep them, I'd clip.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I always clip my female Scovy's I can't afford to lose any of them,not only because I have grown quite attached but because I have 3 drakes and losing any females would really throw the ratio off balance. I choose to clip.

 

[solarpup]

We will probably clip Scaramanga. He's the alpha of the group. The other two really don't like to get too far from him, and we figure the other two will stay if he does. But given how much they seem to enjoy flying, we'd like to let them keep doing it at least a little. (We clipped all three last season, after they started getting a little adventurous, and before we left them with a duck sitter when we went on vacation – we didn't want our sitter to have to go chasing after them.)