Help Needed with Call Duck

[Lambydoodle]

Hi

I have kept chickens for a while now but am relatively new to keeping ducks.

I had a problem with a female call duck with an infected eye and the vet said it could be anything and gave me antibiotic drops. So far they are not helping.

I have been watching to see why she looks a little under the weather and think I have the reason.

My other femal call ducks are sitting on nests under the duck house. She is the only female wandering around and the males will not leave her alone.

This morning I have removed her and put her in a separate pen to recover, she has feathers missing from the top back of her head and she was bleeding and her feathers on her back looked a mess.

She is fine in there for a few days but I know she will want to be back with the other ducks and also the pen she is in does not have a pond and is very small so I cannot keep her in there indefinately.

Will the males calm down and leave her alone shortly?

The ducklings are due to hatch shortly so the other mother ducks will be out and about but I am afraid she will still suffer too much attention from my two over amorous males.

I only have one pond so cannot keep her separate forever.

Any advice would be appreicated please.

Thanks X

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

No they won't. Drakes will breed a single duck until she is dead if given the chance. It is not reccomended to keep multiple drakes of any duck breed with limited numbers of ducks. You will need to pull the drakes into a new pen, or provide her a new pen with food and water ect.

 

[Lambydoodle]

Thanks - I think i new what the answer was going to be! Will have to have a think about what to do with my female, they have got on fine together for a year but this is the first time the other females are sitting on nests so perhaps that is making the difference.

 

[DutchChic]

She doesn't need a "pool", per se....a roasting pan, cake pan, something of that nature that holds enough water for her to clean herself, will work. I have a couple of extra males that are penned up with a roasting pan and they do fine.

 

[Lambydoodle]

Thanks - think I am going to halve the pen/pool area for now. am worried that her eye is not improving with bathing and antibiotics so will probably return to the vet. It is very hard around the outside of the eye and I have never had this before with a duck.

 

[DutchChic]

One of the extra drakes I have penned up lost his eye earlier this season. I saw a dominant drake get ahold of him in the eye area, and I had to separate them. It looked infected the next day so I started treating it. After a week or so, it became obvious that he was going to go blind in that eye. At that point I gave him antibiotics orally because the eyeball actually ended up rupturing...ugh...and I didn't want him to die from a systemic infection. Now, although he no longer has that eye, he is doing fine.