Broken duck bill

[chicks are life]

Did you see the pics?

 

[chickens really]

Did you see the pics?

Yes I did....Although that was not what I was asking?...I was asking if they caught the Duck and were able to see how severe the injury is? Could be infected? Maybe its tongue is severed too?.....

 

[spiritbrook]

They cut more than that off when they debeak chickens, so it will work fine for most things. Ducks dig through dirt to get their food, he needs to be in a pen and not able to do anything except eat grain and drink clean water until you are sure it is healed. The tongue is the important part, hopefully it was not injured. He'll learn to use the lower bill by itself to dig in dirt and feel for things in the water. If there are any spurs of bill that might catch on something you might need to tidy up the bill some. It's mostly like fingernail and easy to trim. I see something looking a little pointy on his right side (your left as you look at him) that might need to be tidied up. It is better just to take off the point a little bit and not much more than take too much off. You can always catch him later if it looks like more needs trimmed. If you think you might want to build him a new bill end then don't trim it. I don't think he needs it though. You wont know for sure until you have him in a pen and watch him. If you see that he'd digging around with that bill now then he'll probably be just fine. The important thing is to make sure there are no open wounds and give the nerves/vessels clean area while they heal.

I'm glad I don't have snapping turtles. But I would look to make sure it wasn't some type of debris that he got his bill into and that a turtle hasn't decided to make your ducks area their home. They will eat babies if they every hatch any.