Adult duck with probably wry neck - check my plan?

[Shelly-P]

Hi, Sunday, a predator tore open the chicken wire at the top of our run and killed all but one of our ducks and one of our chickens. The remaining duck (Paddles) was in the duck pool and would not get out. She seemed fine but traumatized. Monday evening, I brought home another duck to be her pal. They gave each other a little quack and the new duck jumped in the pool with our current duck. They both seemed happy.

A bit later, i accidentally scared them out of the pool by walking too close. They ran up the hill and hunkered down. Last night, I noticed that Paddles didn't seem to be eating or drinking and her head was just on her back like when she sleeps. Not sideways, just not lifted. She was able to run away from me when I tried to get close, but she didn't lift her neck. This morning, she was the same.

My plan at this point is to get some vitamins E, B, and selenium, mix in with somescrambled eggs. I'll get my son to help me catch her, fence her off from the others, put bits of egg in her mouth, maybe dropper some water with vitamins in too. Should I somehow splint her neck with a bit of pool noodle? Anything else I should do?

All I can think is that she is low in vitamins from hiding in the pool for over 24 hours and not eating? Or injury when I scared her out of the pool. Not sure.

Would love any additional thoughts. Thank you!

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi!

Gosh, so sorry for your loss!

I doubt one day of not eating is going to cause her physical ailments, but if she was on the brink already, perhaps you're right then.

For B-Complex, she could have at least 1/2 of a human pill per day. There's enough selenium in the scrambled eggs that you don't need to give any more than that. I would put Poultry Cell vitamins in her water, and sprinkle some nutritional yeast in her food. She would probably go for a mash, which is wet chick or all-flock crumbles. You might have to support her head so she can eat. If she can't, you could put a raw egg yolk in that mash, a few drops of vitamins, dash of yeast, and get it to the consistency that you can make balls out of it, a little larger than a pea. You can feed her those. Hopefully, within a few days, she should show some improvement. I sure hope so!

I would also replace the chicken wire with 1/2" hardware cloth so whatever that was can't get at them again.