Bullied Duck

[fluffchucker]

Hi guys,

I have been referred to you from the general forum. Firstly I have to this to say this is a wonderful forum I have never known so many welcome comments.

Secondly please take the time to read and answer the following question.

It's been a while since I made a post but my wife and I bought our chickens and ducks last year and on the whole everything is going well and we have had some egg production from everybody!!! The problem we have is this: We bought 2 ducks Miki a black Swedish and Niki an Appleyard unfortunately Niki has bumble foot on one pad causing her to walk with a limp. The breeder who sold them to us said she just had picked up a bruise knocked £5 off the price and told us it would heal up soon, we didn't know any better. Since then a neighbour diagnosed what it was but the vet we took her to said if he went in to remove it chances are he'd only make things worse and if she fed OK and laid OK then she would be happy enough which she is.

Unfortunately Miki is quite the dominating feather pecking one. And it's not just one or two feathers she really will go for Niki especially down the flanks until she becomes quite bald, as well as jumping on her back as an apparent act of lesbianism. We've added protein to their feed and separated Miki and Niki on more than one occasion as advised but all to no avail. Most recently leaving Niki with our two hens which she was quite happy waddling about with her limp. Whilst forking out £300+ for Miki to have her own private pen but all this did was leave Miki feeling lonely and she stopped laying. (On one occasion we did have to put her back in with rest of the girls whilst the new pen became like a Star Trek sick bay for one of our hens suffering with Coccidiosis but she recovered Miki started the bullying again so we stuck her back in the pen again).

The point being we've tried the traditional separation for a few weeks (or even more recently, months) and had no success as well as other recommendations. I don't want to sell or neck either bird their both good layers with wonderful characters. Would I be better off buying a new duck male or female adding it to the group as a whole or separating Miki again and putting the new bird in with her in the new pen. We would gratefully appreciate anyone taking the time to answer. Kind regards Tom and Ali.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hi guys,

I have been referred to you from the general forum. Firstly I have to this to say this is a wonderful forum I have never known so many welcome comments.

Secondly please take the time to read and answer the following question.

It's been a while since I made a post but my wife and I bought our chickens and ducks last year and on the whole everything is going well and we have had some egg production from everybody!!! The problem we have is this: We bought 2 ducks Miki a black Swedish and Niki an Appleyard unfortunately Niki has bumble foot on one pad causing her to walk with a limp. The breeder who sold them to us said she just had picked up a bruise knocked £5 off the price and told us it would heal up soon, we didn't know any better. Since then a neighbour diagnosed what it was but the vet we took her to said if he went in to remove it chances are he'd only make things worse and if she fed OK and laid OK then she would be happy enough which she is.

Unfortunately Miki is quite the dominating feather pecking one. And it's not just one or two feathers she really will go for Niki especially down the flanks until she becomes quite bald, as well as jumping on her back as an apparent act of lesbianism. We've added protein to their feed and separated Miki and Niki on more than one occasion as advised but all to no avail. Most recently leaving Niki with our two hens which she was quite happy waddling about with her limp. Whilst forking out £300+ for Miki to have her own private pen but all this did was leave Miki feeling lonely and she stopped laying. (On one occasion we did have to put her back in with rest of the girls whilst the new pen became like a Star Trek sick bay for one of our hens suffering with Coccidiosis but she recovered Miki started the bullying again so we stuck her back in the pen again).

The point being we've tried the traditional separation for a few weeks (or even more recently, months) and had no success as well as other recommendations. I don't want to sell or neck either bird their both good layers with wonderful characters. Would I be better off buying a new duck male or female adding it to the group as a whole or separating Miki again and putting the new bird in with her in the new pen. We would gratefully appreciate anyone taking the time to answer. Kind regards Tom and Ali.

@fluffchucker Welcome to BYC

First off female ducks will go through the mating ritual with other females it's very common even if we have a drake it's more dominant than sexual

Saying that though I think if you added a drake and another female to the 2 you have you would be breaking up the dominance issue and possibly have a better flock. If you decide to add 2 more introduce slowly with new ones on one side of fence from the others. This gives everyone time to get to know each other and having the 2 new ones close may stop Miki from picking and plucking Niki Hopefully since her attention will be on the newbies.
Once you have had them next to each other for a few days let them out and give out treats that way their minds are on their tummys not each other. As far as how long it will take till they all get along that depends on the ducks but it shouldn't take too long.

I have 4 female Muscovy's and one of my older females will not leave another alone once they go in for the night so the one being picked on gets to have a stall to herself. During the day they have a half acre to keep away from each other but once closed up the picking begins. This has been going on for a couple months now. I am just hoping eventually it will stop. But she isn't pulling feathers out just getting over top of her being dominant.Chasing her. These girls and their cat fights.
The one limping too is showing weakness that can cause others in the flock to begin picking on them. So you def need to treat Niki's bumble foot so it doesn't go systemic.

 

[fluffchucker]

Hi Miss Lydia,

Thanks for taking the time to reply my first thought being how to convince the wife that we need to buy not 1 but 2 new ducks LOL!!!

I would like to have Niki's bumble foot removed but as I say our vet of choice is reluctant to perform the operation but I guess we might have to look elsewhere.

Tom and Ali.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hi Miss Lydia,

Thanks for taking the time to reply my first thought being how to convince the wife that we need to buy not 1 but 2 new ducks LOL!!!

I would like to have Niki's bumble foot removed but as I say our vet of choice is reluctant to perform the operation but I guess we might have to look elsewhere.

Tom and Ali.

If you can post a pic of her foot we might be able to help you treat unless it's really infected then she may need intervention from a vet and oral antibiotics.

Good luck convincing the wife. lol

 

[fluffchucker]

Ha ha well posting a picture shouldn't be too much of a problem but we're in England so you'll have to wait until tomorrow cause it's dark now and all the girls have gone to bed. Must admit after a bit of a chat with wifey she's happy to buy a drake to start off with. Unfortunately we already have one free loader in the form of one of hens coming off the lay for ages.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Ha ha well posting a picture shouldn't be too much of a problem but we're in England so you'll have to wait until tomorrow cause it's dark now and all the girls have gone to bed. Must admit after a bit of a chat with wifey she's happy to buy a drake to start off with. Unfortunately we already have one free loader in the form of one of hens coming off the lay for ages.

@fluffchucker How are things going?

 

[fluffchucker]

Yeah pretty good had a couple of hours at the weekend in the garden to do needed repairs to the girls run, dug over the ground for worms so the girls could forage for, gave the neighbour a load of chicken crap and cleared out the shed. Ended up doing everything in allotted babysitting time whilst my wife's father was round except taking any photo's of a duck's foot. However we may have been a bit hasty in the diagnosis of bullying as apart from one jumping on incident we haven't witnessed any further feather plucking which is the thing I find most distressing just by the way Miki attacks Niki. However maybe a good period of separation has done Miki some good but am thinking of taking Niki to the vets this weekend. We would like to know aside from which would have the best success rate but also the quickest healing time (the Epsom salt route or the surgical route) as chances are Niki will be recuperating in our conservatory LOL!!!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yeah pretty good had a couple of hours at the weekend in the garden to do needed repairs to the girls run, dug over the ground for worms so the girls could forage for, gave the neighbour a load of chicken crap and cleared out the shed. Ended up doing everything in allotted babysitting time whilst my wife's father was round except taking any photo's of a duck's foot. However we may have been a bit hasty in the diagnosis of bullying as apart from one jumping on incident we haven't witnessed any further feather plucking which is the thing I find most distressing just by the way Miki attacks Niki. However maybe a good period of separation has done Miki some good but am thinking of taking Niki to the vets this weekend. We would like to know aside from which would have the best success rate but also the quickest healing time (the Epsom salt route or the surgical route) as chances are Niki will be recuperating in our conservatory LOL!!!

Great to hear. I hope they continue to get along.

As for which will be best as far as the foot will depend on how bad the infection is and if it's spread. Epsom salt soaks and clear iodine are great for bumble if it hasn't gotten far along. Please let us know what the vet says.

 

[fluffchucker]

hhhmm I do fear it might be quite far along 1st of all we got fobbed of by the bloke who sold them to us making out it was nothing more than a bruise. Then the 1st vet didn't want to do anything but never mentioned that we could treat her with Epsom salts etc quite annoyed by that. In recent years I have become quite a fan of don't buy a pet unless you can afford to pay the vet bills.

 

[Miss Lydia]

hhhmm I do fear it might be quite far along 1st of all we got fobbed of by the bloke who sold them to us making out it was nothing more than a bruise. Then the 1st vet didn't want to do anything but never mentioned that we could treat her with Epsom salts etc quite annoyed by that. In recent years I have become quite a fan of don't buy a pet unless you can afford to pay the vet bills.

Most of us here in the US don't even have vets that will look at poultry unless it's an avian vet and they are few and far between. and very costly so we do our best to treat our own birds.
if you decide to start the soaks don't let her drink the water although ES is very good with swelling and things like that it is also a laxative. I use a small bucket put the warm water and ES mix together then stand my duck /goose or chicken inside and hold onto them so they don't get out. I put both feet in it's easier than 1. I use half cup of ES to half gallon of warm water and try to soak for 5 mins if she'll stand longer let her. Then you dry and apply the clear iodine you do this until you can very carefully peel the scab off with your finger nail you want it to come of easy so as not to pull healthy tissue. Once open there will either be the plug of pus or an empty hole either way just get the plug out and pack with antibiotic ointment with out pain relief or keep using the clear iodine. It's not an over night healing but it can work. many have used it here.

I am sorry you were sold a duck with foot trouble but at least you care enough to try and help her get over it.