Any experience with lead poisoning please?

[WannaBeHillBilly]

It is never ridiculous to sit somewhere and massage or pet your duck! This is Bazilla Duck giving me a High-Three after her bumblefoot treatment:

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And if your dog is jealous, just feed him some nice meal-worms!
And yes, i love to eat collard greens and most of the other kale-relatives, except for Brokkoli, but nobody likes me after eating those. Not even Beano helps!

 

[KCNC06]

I introduced Phoebe to my other house ducks yesterday. My house ducks HATE ducks. Our ducks don't care for the house ducks either. Not the point though. Phoebe has been hanging out with them today. She's been "walking" around our bedroom all afternoon! Not perfect walking, more like a mix of crawling, low walking and wing walking, but still - she's getting around on her own!! AND she got her beak tucked under her wing!!! I'm so happy for her!!
Did I mention that I've been trying the vitamin c chelation idea? I found an article about a study testing vitamin c against one if the normal chelation medications, it sounded like it had really good results in their test rabbits. I don't give it every day and give extra calcium a few hours after vitamin c. Maybe that's part of the reason she's doing so well? Who knows. I'm just happy that she's recovering.

 

[KCNC06]

I made Phoebe's wheelchair yesterday. Her first attempt in it wasn't super successful but that wasn't a surprise. Second try was great for eating and drinking, she ate a lot more once she was able to stand on her own (without me holding her up). Today we tried the wheelchair again and she was walking all over the kitchen like a pro!
In addition to her mobility improvements and being able to preen a little more, her voice seems to be getting stronger every day. She didn't make any sounds at all the first week we had her inside. Like she'd open her beak to quack or hiss and nothing would come out. Now that she's talking more I'm more confused about whether or not she's really a she. I thought she was a "she" because she has freckles on her beak like some of my other girls, I haven't noticed freckles on any of my drakes and thought the hormonal freckles were a female thing. She also goes into that submissive posture when I put my hand on her back. And "she" doesn't have a drake feather. Her voice is throwing me off though. Does it sound a little boyish? She doesn't talk much, definitely talks more when my other ducks are talking about something so there are two talking in this video. The louder one is Pipsqueak.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I cannot really hear Phoebe talking because Pipsqueak is soo loud! Here is a short video of Limpy Drake, when he was very young:

He was injured at that time, but his voice is clearly different from a young duck. From what i hear, i do think she is a "she".
Nice wheelchair, Phoebe seems to like it! And it will help her to train her legs and gain back her strength. Those green speckles in the duck bill will also occur in drakes. They are far mor frequent in ducks, you are correct with that, but i do have some drakes with a lot of green speckles in their bills, Limpy has a lot of those. My assumption is, that they get more speckles when they age, similar to black ducks getting more and more white feathers with age. Or humons getting more and more grey hair - if they still have hair…

 

[KCNC06]

Haha! Yes, Pipsqueak is always very loud! Especially when she's worked up by something truly horrible like seeing a duck. She even flips out if she sees her reflection. She has a sister who is a duck...not sure what she sees when she looks at her sister. I'm pretty sure she has mental problems.

My blonde roots are apparently digging into my brain lately. It explains why it took me so long to realize I could just get one if our drakes and compare his voice to Phoebe's. Phoebe definitely sounds like a girl compared to Big Chunk.

I tried getting her to talk for me again this afternoon. She wasn't very talkative but did show off that she could stand on her own and even took a step or two before she fell over. Seeing her fall over probably looks sad, but the fact that she can stand on her own and even take one step is very exciting to me!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Phoebe is definitely a girl! That deep QUACK is not coming from a drake! She is a Pekin duck, is she? Only my White Layer ducks have this deep QUACK, all my other girls are quacking at a much higher pitch.
And yes, as bad as it is to see her legs just caving in, she is looking so much better than what you described last week. I am sure she will be back on her legs sooner or later, maybe a bit more "laid back" than the rest of the flock, but walking on her own legs again.

 

[KCNC06]

All of my white ducks are white layers or offspring of white layers. I'm guessing hybrids like white layers don't produce "white layers" though. Maybe they start going back to whatever breeds were used to make the hybrid? Pipsqueak and Phoebe have the same drake dad, not sure about the mother because I had (have) three white layer hens and don't know who laid eggs that we hatched last year. Most of last year's babies are normal white layer size, ducks only weigh about 4 lbs and drakes are around 5-6 lbs. But a couple ducks and drakes are much bigger. Probably closer to like 8 lbs. Very weird since they have the same parents.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Some of my largest drakes are hybrids between - uuum, yeah, White Layer ducks and Buff-Orpington Runner hybrid drakes. (?) I don't know exactly. But Leroy Brown Drake (Bad Bad Leroy Brown…) stole my peanut butter samich from the ~2½ foot high table! No clue how heavy he is but he is a big big boy! - Who sadly doesn't like to be on camera…
The descendents of the White Layers here are all very interesting looking ducks, most of them have these beautiful bluish-grey feathers with a black lace, except for Brownie Drake who is mostly brown with an almost black head.
@Magnolia Ducks calls these hybrids »Franken Ducks«
What brought you to the White Layer Ducks? - My wife wanted to have some completely white ducks, but i was hesitant to get Pekins due to the leg problems they often develop.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

I also had a Leroy Brown. Baddest hen in the whole damn town.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I also had a Leroy Brown. Baddest hen in the whole damn town.

I didn't know that! - But you said "had"… No, no, no i don't ask!
Coyote or Bobcat? (I did ask! )

I heart that song on the radio a couple of minutes before i sat down with my peanut-butter samich and an ice-tea. Misty Duck distracted me and Leroy stole my samich and they both ate it in seconds. First i thought "Bonnie and Clyde", but Misty was already "Misty", so as this drake is 6'4" tall (in duck-units) he got his name…