My blind (or partially blind) duckling

[reba353]

At this time I have 4 little welsh harlequin girls. One poor little duckling from day one was just a bit off. Her name is droopy, an affectionate name after the way her eyes drooped when we got her. The biggest sign that something was wrong was when we gave them a bath, droopy can only swim in circles or backwards. When a person, or chicken, approaches three scatter but one is left all alone. She recently got pecked by a chicken enough to draw blood because she didn't know what was going on. Her siblings look after her and snuggle with her until something scary arrives and then it's every duckling for themselves. She is also smaller than the rest of the ducklings which we related to having trouble finding the food or getting to it with her sisters around. Droopy is such a sweet little girl but I am worried about what her standard of living will be like...

You can't see it very well, but the corner of this eye is clouded with white.
I would put in a video of her attempting to swim if I knew how.
She is the sweetest thing and my favorite of the babies *shh*
I just wish I knew what to do for her.

 

[localife]

Well, I have no great advice, but I also have a duckling with special needs (leg issues) who is my favorite of the lot (and also a Welsh Harlequin!), so I understand the challenge of trying to decide if quality of life will be adequate to justify raising her. I know it isn't easy to know what's best... ((HUG))

Is it an option to have her checked by a veterinarian, to help establish exactly what's going on with her eyes?

 

[reba353]

It it unlikely that I will take her to a vet. I'm not even sure if there is a vet nearby willing to work with ducks or how to find one.

 

[buff goose guy]

if you call around to vets nearby ask if they do ducks, thats how u find a duck vet

 

[Smurfbrew]

You could try vets around town that may have a avian specialist. They mostly see parrots and the like, but, it doesn't hurt to call around. I didn't even know my vet's office where I take my cats had one until I asked. He had actually seen a few ducks before, so I am really lucky!

 

[Amiga]

I would start her on extra vitamins right away. Are you giving them brewer's yeast in their food or plain niacin in their water? What kind of feed are you using?

I would also start using a mild saline solution on her eyes twice a day.

 

[reba353]

How much would it cost to take her to a vet?

 

[Smurfbrew]

How much would it cost to take her to a vet?

It's really hard to say. You could ask what they charge for an office visit before you take her in. My most recent trip cost $170.00. That was for the visit plus two types of medicine for an infection in her knee joint. So, it's not cheap!

 

[JeriLynn135]

I got a free check up for my ducks, but for eye problems im not certain. It largely depends on your area.

 

[Fawkes]

Could it be a congenital cataract? Or maybe it was caused by an eye infection? That can make the eye cloudy, but I believe it can sometimes go away if treated. I don't know, just some thoughts.

Like Amiga said, I'd start using saline solution and giving extra vitamins. It might also be necessary to keep her separate at least a little bit so she can eat and rest without being disturbed. Do they free range outside or are they penned? If they're free ranging unsupervised I'd be concerned about predators since she won't react properly if, say, a hawk swooped down.

I have a duck that was attacked as a duckling and lost her eyesight in one eye. As a duckling she was more nervous of things and if nipped at by another duck she would often turn in a circle instead of running away. But when she got a little older she stopped the turning in a circle thing and became very confident and the other ducks never pick on her now. You would hardly even know that she doesn't have full eyesight.

So there's hope that she'll still have a great quality of life even if she never regains the use of that eye I've had/have other ducks with eyesight in only 1 eye too and they've all got along fine, which is kinda remarkable considering ducks use their eyesight so much! Of course, that's only because they were kept in an enclosure - we have tons of predators around here so they wouldn't have survived for long if they'd free ranged.