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

[Amiga]

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.

Yay, Coach!!!

 

[BantyChooks]

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.

I've given Chrissy pretty near the same pep talk!

 

[Tevyes Dad]

3lbs 10.6oz, so up 0.4oz, I'm calling that a win, but want just a drop of additional insurance, so I put her feed at 50ml (up 5). She is getting more of an appetite for the meal worms (stinker), and she ate a couple (literally under 10 the whole day) pellets of food. Her poop looks like normal duck poop now so all she needs is an appetite. We are going back and forth getting better and worse with the tube feeding, I learn something and it gets better, then she learns a new trick and it gets worse. I can now open her bill in no time, but it is playing dodge around with the tongue that is hard. Once the tube is in though, it is easy and fairly quick and the level of food is still low enough that there is no regurgitation.

 

[casportpony]

3lbs 10.6oz, so up 0.4oz, I'm calling that a win, but want just a drop of additional insurance, so I put her feed at 50ml (up 5). She is getting more of an appetite for the meal worms (stinker), and she ate a couple (literally under 10 the whole day) pellets of food. Her poop looks like normal duck poop now so all she needs is an appetite. We are going back and forth getting better and worse with the tube feeding, I learn something and it gets better, then she learns a new trick and it gets worse. I can now open her bill in no time, but it is playing dodge around with the tongue that is hard. Once the tube is in though, it is easy and fairly quick and the level of food is still low enough that there is no regurgitation.

Glad that she's getting a little better, and thanks for documenting your experience, I think it will really help other people.

-Kathy

 

[Tevyes Dad]

She got fed again (50ml) pretty much uneventful. If things go as expected in the morning, I may add 10ml of Greek yogurt to her syringe to up the probiotics a bit. I know I'm asking for a mess on the other end, but maybe that will help her get her appetite back.

 

[casportpony]

She got fed again (50ml) pretty much uneventful. If things go as expected in the morning, I may add 10ml of Greek yogurt to her syringe to up the probiotics a bit. I know I'm asking for a mess on the other end, but maybe that will help her get her appetite back.

Here is some tubing info I found helpful:


-Kathy

 

[Miss Lydia]

She got fed again (50ml) pretty much uneventful. If things go as expected in the morning, I may add 10ml of Greek yogurt to her syringe to up the probiotics a bit. I know I'm asking for a mess on the other end, but maybe that will help her get her appetite back.

I hope it helps.

Hows the bottom looking?

 

[Tevyes Dad]

I hope it helps.

Hows the bottom looking?

Me too. Yesterday right after a poop I saw a single poop clinger like what she had in the beginning. It looked about 1/3 as long as those were. But she pulled it back in. With them bonding to the tissue, I would guess that they are like scabs: rip them off too early and a new one will grow back even larger. I am guessing as long as she is freely pooping (she has no complaints currently) that it is best to let the underlying tissue heal, then like a scab the clinger will fall off on its own. If I didn't look right when she pooped, I wouldn't have even known she had it. The surrounding tissue looks healthy a very light pink, not red or inflamed so I'm hoping that's a good sign. Tuesday I will cut her stitches and Tuesday/Wednesday I will take her in for the vet to look at.

Her weight was 3lbs 10.2 oz again. Yvonne weighed her yesterday and she said it was 10.6 when I pushed the recall on the scale it said 10.2, but if there is some squirming going on there can be an ounce of fluctuation. So I'm not sure if the up and down 0.4 is scale accuracy, operator error or a small gain and backslide. (At least she hasn't lost any weight since Thursday). I did give her the extra 10ml of yogurt this morning so I am expecting some special

poops this evening. She now devours worms (up to about a handful - this should be unlimited), she ate 5 - 10 peas which is better than prior attempts this week. She's will eat a couple of food pellets here and there, but mostly isn't interested. She is still alert and engaged, but is somewhat more wary of me because I am the meanie with the syringe.

Also, I am guessing from living in "people" temperatures, she has been molting the last 4-5 days. This is not the greatest thing indoors. After a bath she preens herself and drops a dozen or two feathers over 1-1/2 hours and we carefully gather them together to throw out then... Tippy-toes flap, flap, flap - feathers behind the sofa / appliances, in the next room <sigh>.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Here is some tubing info I found helpful:


-Kathy

Thanks again. This reference recommends a 30ml/kg feed vs the video which noted a 50ml/kg crop capacity. Based on 30ml/kg, Casey should be getting 49.6 ml so I'm pretty close. If she doesn't start eating / putting on some weight, I may step her up to 3 feeds. The 60ml she got this morning (including her yogurt) went in fine without regurgitation, but I could hear the level rising in her esophagus (rising pitch noting diminishing diameter) so I know that is probably close the limit for a single easy feed.

 

[casportpony]

Quote: You're a pro! Listening for that is one of the things I do, but that is super hard to explain to people. Tubing - part science, part art...

-Kathy