Anyone out there with duck advice?

[KeithKimDuck]

My one-year old drake (Peking) had been attacked by an aggressive Muscovy.

His leg is grossly swollen and it appears that the upper-most joint (leg to body) has been dislocated about 1/2 inch. I have been treating him with antibiotics and homeopathic salve (topical) in order to keep him comfortable. It has been too long (6 weeks) and I see no real improvement. Rather, the leg is becoming more swollen. He cannot use it at all. Any suggestions out there in DuckLand? I'm in no rush to put the poor thing down

; but - also - do not wish to see him suffer for a prolonged period of time. He has been isolated in a large coop with fresh hay, fresh feed, and water changed 2x a day. His leg is swollen approx. 5x its normal width from top to foot. Foot has normal appearance. Thank you kindly.

 

[dave_Cash69]

dont make muscovy drakes mad,
ive learnt this the hard way

 

[ShadyGlade]

Is the leg broken? Did you palpitate to feel for broken bones or chips? Does the swollen part feel hot to the touch? I personally don/t use antibiotics in waterfowl because it seems to slow their healing time (in my personal experience-read opinion here). But I have noticed that ducks tend to heal with a granular tissue sometimes that is like the "proud flesh" in horses. Is it possible that he is healing but that the tissue is thickening/scarring?

 

[KeithKimDuck]

Thanks to both of you for taking the time to comment back to me.

No, leg isn't hot. Just so very swollen and useless to him. 5 times its usual girth. He had been injured once; (we thought he had been grabbed by a predator and had escaped; perhaps a raccoon)I treated him back to health and released him to the pond where the Muscovy (drake) then tried to "finish him off". We were absolutely shocked. Hadn't known it was the Muscovy. We rescued him, with all of his old injuries gravely worsened. Muscovy knew instinctively where to get him. I have palpitated the whole of the leg and the upper joint is out of position, no compound fracture or fracture that I could determine.

Yes, I absolutely agree with you re: antibiotics. I - generally - will steer clear of them and treat ONLY naturopathically. But I felt so awful about putting him back into the pond with the very Muscovy that had tried to kill him before, that I've been in the panic mode.

Thank you much for your advice re: glandulars. It most certainly is worth a shot! I had been so anxious so save this drake that I had been using just a little d.s.m.o. on him in an effort to restore circulation and neural paths. Thank you again. I am grateful for your kindness. Kim

 

[ShadyGlade]

Good luck to you and your duck. We've had some survive major traumatic injuries. Keep us posted on his progress.

 

[ChickenToes]

If it's still swollen after 6 weeks, it would lead me to believe that the leg has healed that way and just has a lot of scar tissue.

 

[KeithKimDuck]

Thanks to all of you for your prompt and kind responses.

Per "Shady", I did re-palpitate the leg (difficult due to swelling) and - yup - found that the joint-bone has actually erupted through the skin of the leg. Yikes. Anyone out there who has had the guts to reset a duck or chicken's fractured or broken leg bone? Any way to sedate the fowl or calm the fowl sufficiently so that it will not have a heart attack

due to pain levels when bone is reset by me? I'm not truly certain who will have the heart attack, me or the duck.

Kim

 

[ShadyGlade]

I'm sorry to hear that you found a compound fracture. Setting the bone after so much time is probably not going to be possible because both broken ends have probably already begun to heal. The choice becomes can you keep him separated for possible the rest of his life? I'm not trying to scare you, and it may not come to that. I have had birds recover after very bad breaks. But setting a leg on a fowl is not the hard part, keeping the bones in position long enough to heal is the tough part. At this point (weeks after the injury) your best bet is probably to try to get the bone back under the skin so the hole will close. I have a guinea that walks in a side winding kind of step from a compound fracture (she was stepped on by a horse we think). It doesn't phase her at all now and she free ranges with the rest but for most of last summer I didn't know if she'd ever heal.