I went out yesterday to get the eggs from the chicken coop, and was distracted by a large (1 or 2 tbsps) amount of blood in the mud of the duck run... I hopped the fence (temporary fencing due to driveway issues) and grabbed the nearest duck... sure enough, 'dorothy' had a cut/tear right next to her left toe on her left foot... the inside edge of the nail has a cur tight next to it, like splitting the webbing 1/4 of an inch... and was just BLEEDING... so I hauled her inside, tried to apply pressure, you understand of course that these are not indoor, people loving ducks like Netties, these ducks are convinced that any minute we are about to eat them... though we consider them pets.... anyway, dorothy was less than enthused by my ministrations, so i popped her into the bathtub INDOORS (don't tell my husband!!!), which the kids had left full of water following a morning bath... it had a little bit of mild, hypoallergenic, organic bubble bath in it (you couldn't see it anymore, but i did put a squirt in when the girls had their bath), so i was careful not to let dorothy drink any.... i sort of swished her around in it, hoping that the cold water would slow the bleeding and help clean out the wound.... then i drained the tub, with the duck still in it, rinsed it out, and refilled it with lukewarm, clean water.... once it got so high that she had to float, she swam a little (mostly to avoid me) and i tried to sort of move her wings and get the water to wash all of the icky barnyard crap off of her.... then I dried her off (on my husbands sage green towel... which is now stained with duck blood....) and put a bit of neopsporin on her cut, wrapped her foot (i kind of just folded it up accordion style all toes next to each other) in a clean paper towel, then taped it with 1st aid paper tape... Then (sorry guys, i know this is long) I put her in a clean storage tupperware with pine shavings in it and an upsidedown laundry basket on top for a ventilating lid, and put all that in my daughters' room (it's my little one's duckie)... the girls were great, and left dorothy alone (i insisted that she needed quiet and peace to heal).... so this morning, when i went to change her water and give her food, she'd kicked off the bandage, but it wasn't bleeding anymore, and she refused to eat... so i thought I should put her back outside.. SO, i rewrapped her foot, looser so the foot is flat, put the foot inside a modified corner of a plastic padded envelope, the put the wrapped foot in a plastic bag and taped it.... so she's outside with her ducky friends, and was totally willing to eat with them, and I removed their pool, and just filled a bowl for drinking... is this going to be enough? What do I need to watch for? Anything I forgot????
