I wanted to share what happened here- and perhaps it may be useful to someone one day.
I have two three week old ducklings- and a Golden Retriever and a persian cat in the house. Its shedding season. I do my best to keep up with the clouds of dog hair being shed, but it still happens that a cloud of fur will be missed. My ducklings will gobble this hair up every chance they get. I am constantly trying to stay on top of the fur, and keeping them from it. My duckling will also go over and "nibble" on my Golden Retriever all the time. They chew on my hair whenever they can as well.
Last night about midnight, the babies started peepin quite loud. Normally they do that, I cuddle with them, then they settle in to go to sleep. This time sounded a little more persistent, a little more loud. I went in to tell them it was bedtime (lol) and noticed a little hair-fuzz sticking out of the side of my one ducklings bill. I said, "you have to stop eating hair", and pulled the fur out- but it didnt come out. I picked up the baby and tried again. This time, his tongue came out the side of his bill- the hair had wrapped around his tongue so tight, it had cut off the circulation to half his tongue. The end half of his tongue was completely white. I couldnt get it off- and had to have my son hold him, while I used suture-scissors to cut the hair strands that were wrapped so tight around his tongue. It almost seemed like my duckling knew I was trying to help him, because he held perfectly still as I slid the end of the scissors under the hair, against his tongue.
He then drank a ton of water, ate, and acted as if nothing was wrong. It could have been a horrible horrible accident if I hadnt seen that small amount of fuzz sticking out of the side of his bill.
No lesson learned however, because this morning during their 'out-time' he still grabs everything he can and 'bills' it...my ponytail, whatever is on the floor, the dog...
I love them very much, and have no idea how well a duck could live with half of his tongue- and I would have felt so bad.
I have two three week old ducklings- and a Golden Retriever and a persian cat in the house. Its shedding season. I do my best to keep up with the clouds of dog hair being shed, but it still happens that a cloud of fur will be missed. My ducklings will gobble this hair up every chance they get. I am constantly trying to stay on top of the fur, and keeping them from it. My duckling will also go over and "nibble" on my Golden Retriever all the time. They chew on my hair whenever they can as well.
Last night about midnight, the babies started peepin quite loud. Normally they do that, I cuddle with them, then they settle in to go to sleep. This time sounded a little more persistent, a little more loud. I went in to tell them it was bedtime (lol) and noticed a little hair-fuzz sticking out of the side of my one ducklings bill. I said, "you have to stop eating hair", and pulled the fur out- but it didnt come out. I picked up the baby and tried again. This time, his tongue came out the side of his bill- the hair had wrapped around his tongue so tight, it had cut off the circulation to half his tongue. The end half of his tongue was completely white. I couldnt get it off- and had to have my son hold him, while I used suture-scissors to cut the hair strands that were wrapped so tight around his tongue. It almost seemed like my duckling knew I was trying to help him, because he held perfectly still as I slid the end of the scissors under the hair, against his tongue.
He then drank a ton of water, ate, and acted as if nothing was wrong. It could have been a horrible horrible accident if I hadnt seen that small amount of fuzz sticking out of the side of his bill.
No lesson learned however, because this morning during their 'out-time' he still grabs everything he can and 'bills' it...my ponytail, whatever is on the floor, the dog...
I love them very much, and have no idea how well a duck could live with half of his tongue- and I would have felt so bad.
