Gooseypoo
Chirping
- Feb 1, 2019
- 43
- 113
- 87
You may remember me from the drooling duck that we wound up having to tube feed after an animal attack (she's doing great now, thanks for all your help!). We thought we had their area secured but found out otherwise when they were attacked again. This time they were found before we lost another bird, but not before one got injured. It was an ermine, and we caught it in the act of killing our 1-year-old Welsh Harlequin drake.
He was more injured than the Khaki Campbell hen was, with worse lacerations about his head and neck, more bleeding, and possibly a pierced esophagus (he was making an awful gurgling sound and spit up foam that first night. Couldn't quack properly and would cough painfully). Despite his poor condition he was still able to walk and preen (the hen couldn't turn her head around to preen properly when she was injured) so that gave us hope for his prognosis.
That night I had noticed a nickel-sized laceration near the top of his left leg but didn't pay it much mind because it looked like a mild abrasion compared to the horrible bleeding wounds around his neck and head. We put all three ducks into a tepid bath after bringing them indoors to clean them off and see how injured everyone was. Despite his obvious injuries he paddled around normally and was surprisingly able to swing his head around to preen and rub. He even leapt out of the tub himself when one of the girls was taken out first. We put them all in the kennel together to ease their trauma a bit.
The next day we kept him in to keep an eye on him and put the girls out while it was daylight since they were ok. In the spirit of brevity (or this is going to be long) we waited until day 2 to tube feed him because of his neck/throat injuries and because he was standing and preening and dabbling in his water bowl on his own (we didn't want to make any fresh internal injuries worse by shoving a tube down there until we were absolutely certain we needed to) and added electrolytes to his water.
The day after, however, he was unable to walk or even get up at all. And his left leg was swollen. I checked it but couldn't find the abrasion I had seen the other night. I wondered if I had imagined it or if perhaps it was on another duck instead? We figured maybe he sprained it leaping out of the bath tub.
We've been tube feeding him all week and he is doing much better overall. He is quacking again, he swims with his girls in the tub when we bring them inside in the evening (until we can ermine-proof their enclosure for good this time). He is not eating pellets on his own yet, but he has managed to gobble down worms and some very small cabbage pieces. That leg, however, is still swollen, and, though he is able to put slightly more weight on it and can paddle it a bit in the tub, it is still pretty bad and prevents him from doing much of anything at all.
Last night someone thought to flip him over and really dig in there. We found that the very top of the leg, just under the feathers, has an abrasion/puncture that appears to be healing, but the top of the leg is yellowish where his other leg is still orange, and of course the swelling. It is apparently infected as it is also warm to the touch.
So while the gruesome and obvious wounds have been healing nicely, this apparently benign one has been festering. What can we do about this leg? We've been putting Neosporin on it, but is there some kind of drawing poultice or something we could apply to it to facilitate the healing? I would hate to lose him to sepsis after all this!
He was more injured than the Khaki Campbell hen was, with worse lacerations about his head and neck, more bleeding, and possibly a pierced esophagus (he was making an awful gurgling sound and spit up foam that first night. Couldn't quack properly and would cough painfully). Despite his poor condition he was still able to walk and preen (the hen couldn't turn her head around to preen properly when she was injured) so that gave us hope for his prognosis.
That night I had noticed a nickel-sized laceration near the top of his left leg but didn't pay it much mind because it looked like a mild abrasion compared to the horrible bleeding wounds around his neck and head. We put all three ducks into a tepid bath after bringing them indoors to clean them off and see how injured everyone was. Despite his obvious injuries he paddled around normally and was surprisingly able to swing his head around to preen and rub. He even leapt out of the tub himself when one of the girls was taken out first. We put them all in the kennel together to ease their trauma a bit.
The next day we kept him in to keep an eye on him and put the girls out while it was daylight since they were ok. In the spirit of brevity (or this is going to be long) we waited until day 2 to tube feed him because of his neck/throat injuries and because he was standing and preening and dabbling in his water bowl on his own (we didn't want to make any fresh internal injuries worse by shoving a tube down there until we were absolutely certain we needed to) and added electrolytes to his water.
The day after, however, he was unable to walk or even get up at all. And his left leg was swollen. I checked it but couldn't find the abrasion I had seen the other night. I wondered if I had imagined it or if perhaps it was on another duck instead? We figured maybe he sprained it leaping out of the bath tub.
We've been tube feeding him all week and he is doing much better overall. He is quacking again, he swims with his girls in the tub when we bring them inside in the evening (until we can ermine-proof their enclosure for good this time). He is not eating pellets on his own yet, but he has managed to gobble down worms and some very small cabbage pieces. That leg, however, is still swollen, and, though he is able to put slightly more weight on it and can paddle it a bit in the tub, it is still pretty bad and prevents him from doing much of anything at all.
Last night someone thought to flip him over and really dig in there. We found that the very top of the leg, just under the feathers, has an abrasion/puncture that appears to be healing, but the top of the leg is yellowish where his other leg is still orange, and of course the swelling. It is apparently infected as it is also warm to the touch.
So while the gruesome and obvious wounds have been healing nicely, this apparently benign one has been festering. What can we do about this leg? We've been putting Neosporin on it, but is there some kind of drawing poultice or something we could apply to it to facilitate the healing? I would hate to lose him to sepsis after all this!
