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This is how I usually hold her when I'm wrapping her. And she weasels backwards out of a towel with ease, little squirt. She's a handful just with soaking and I worry that if I try to cut i could harm her badly if she tries to pull her antics. Unfortunately after 5-10 mins the scab is still very hard and I haven't been successful in getting her to let me soak her longer than that. This is similar to how I wrap my ducks only I take the 4 inch roll and cut two larger pieces for the webbing and a smaller one to go up around the talon and ankle then back to the foot to secure it. I wrap around both parts of the webbing because they're crafty and have pulled the gauze out and actually the entire wrap off at times, this is with it being snug lol. If I only wrapped one side of the foot there's no doubt it'd be almost an every day occurrence.... These ducks I tell yaI totally understand - the vet can drain the bank account so fast, and we don't always get the results we hope for. You can keep trying what the vet has suggested for awhile, but if you don't see big improvements in a week I would try another route. Everyone has a first time for doing these medical things with our ducks - frustration with the vet, and knowing my girls depend on me, were motivators for me to try to learn to take care of some of these medical issues on my own. In this case, it's not that difficult and I'm sure you can do this. Soak her foot in luke warm epsom salt water for 5 minutes until the scab is soft, then I would just use my fingernail to gently pull the brown scab off. I would kneel on the floor and tuck the duck under my arm (wrap her wings in a little towel if she's going to be difficult) and put her over my knee, then pull her leg gently back to work on the bottom of the foot. Work the scab off and try to squeeze any puss out, then apply the salve thickly. Have a pre-cut little gauze pad to put on that. The wrapping of the foot can be tricky with a wiggly duck, but once you get the hang of it, it works well. I cut two strips of one inch vet wrap about 16 inches long. Use the first one to kind of criss-cross the wound area, wrap once around the ankle, making sure nothing is too tight. I try to hold the webbing in the normal walking position - spread open, because you want her to be able to walk normally when it's wrapped. Use the 2nd piece of vet wrap to wrap around and hold everything in place. Here's some pictures of how I've done it. Usually I go between both toes with the wrap - this bumble did not need that. View attachment 3703005View attachment 3703006View attachment 3703011View attachment 3703012View attachment 3703013
I had another vet I consulted with tell me if I try to do it myself there are important vessels and nerves that I could hit, if I lanced it and the one she saw said by trying to remove the core myself could damage tissue in the foot. She squirmed a lot just when I was trying to get some of the fluid out when the scab opened a little bit on its own and I was barely putting any pressure.
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