Fox has not been back. Of course I have walked my property every couple hours.
New symptom though, it seems she has very limited movement, she stands, walks, flaps a little, seldom sits at rest, mostly stands, but if she tries to scratch her chin she cant and I have yet to see her preen her back and spread oil, so no way can she go in the pond...
I put lettuce on ground and it seemed like she wanted it, but just could not put her head all the way down. Make me think there is some really painful muscle damage. However, even if I picked it up she refused.
A friend will be necessary. I have to rearrange the hospital porch so I can add another duck. But she is not going back until I see that she has some ability back...
Thank you and quite timely. I was going to make get in water...
Her condition based on the charting is good. She is mildly dehydrated, but I am amazed it is only mildly.
She is losing weight, but she was a big girl anyways. These Rouen ducks like to eat and they have free run of the property. All her siblings are out there now foraging. As it stands she is still on the good condition side of weight.
I really want to get her a mate. See how she responds. She perks right up if they all come up to the house and start calling her. She will quack and respond...very loudly. So she is strong enough to hurt my ears. I know she is weak from refusing food, but she will eat a bite or two every now and then of tomatoes.
I'm heading out now to get the pain meds listed here, tubing and syringe and the watermelon.
Antibiotics are here, i'll put it in solution and see if i can give it to her orally, i don't have a helper at this time and she is way to fiesty.
I put her sibling in there with her after she nibbled some watermelon. Sibling can fly just enough to jump the barrier so, need to reconfigure. My medic buddy said that so long as I can get some antibiotic in her to let her out. The stress of the confinement is more detrimental and she does not appear to be running any fevers and the wounds are not oozing, discolored or warm to touch. Since she has been completely free range since that night 2 months ago, she really just wants to go home to the pond.
She is strong enough to want to get out and I will have to watch her for distress on the water, but i am prepared to go swimming if necessary. One dose of antib and back she goes.
I know this might be a hard decision and I might end up regretting it, but we discussed Gavage and watched a video, so i know I could do it. I am just torn, I do not want to use Gavage at this point since she is so active and the wounds are cool to touch and i know she is a big girl and has only lost a couple of oz...and is looking better cause she was a piggy.
I do not want to disappoint and make the wrong call, the other ducks are not going to be confined. They will fuss, the duck I got her was her friend on the outside and was the one doing the call response thing with her, so I figured cool, nope, soon as she was in there she ate the watermelon I used to entice her to my hands had a drink and then proceeded to find a way out and I only have 24 inch barricade. So off she flew.
Ok, off to try and dissolve some of the pill in water and get her to drink a little.
Eh...she drank some, so I tried to push the pill orally by myself to no avail...have to wait until someone can come help me later.
She really is tugging at me to let her out. Nothing I have done with these guys from the beginning has been normal, I let them be more free than domestic and it shows. While they imprinted enough for me to be there go to god duck person with food, I am still a frenemy. After grabbing LG today, I may be on there poo list for a while.