Duck foot injury / illness, need advice

[Jenbirdee]

@Jenbirdee @Miss Lydia @Canadian Wind

The ventilation does need to be fixed, I need better ventilation on their side of the duck house. It’s a bit hard to explain but essentially I converted a greenhouse to be their duck house / coop. It‘s currently sectioned off in 3 groups, the runner ducks being on the most right side.
Their vents were closed off as raccoons were getting in from that spot, but that was way back in the summer (2022 I think) before I had anyone in full time so I forgot about it now that they’re out here.
(First winter being outside & first year being full time in general)

-10 c is about 14 F , and where I am it can get to -40 even. My dehumidifier just arrived so I’ll be putting that in their side as well while I figure out how to make a new vent space. They do have a front and back window that are currently closed, but they don’t yet have hardware cloth.
I’ve ordered an ointment / vetericyn on prime so hoping it gets here fast, otherwise I’ve been using aloe Vera after epsom soaks because it apparently helps with frost bite? (Just in case that’s what it is)

Just as I noticed their feet I’ve been removing their food and water at night, I wasn’t sure if they’d find random stuff to eat at night if they didn’t have water but that is more risky. But yeah, they did have it nightly until now so I can see that’s apart of it.
(By finding stuff, they would pick at the styrofoam insulation in spots I didn’t have it covered lol but I‘m certain I’ve got all or most spots covered now).

As for their bedding, it’s all just straw. It gets a bit sharp / hard when it gets chillier outside so I’m thinking that might have irritated their feet as well.
Lately the blend may have things like foxtail which I guess can also cut / poke their feet. And with all the added humidity / water it just all became a huge thing.

The reason I feed them inside is because their run isn’t winter proofed, so I can’t have them eat / drink outside at the moment. I clean the straw every other day but I got sick myself recently, so I let it slip for a bit and was just spot cleaning. Clearly that was a bad move but I’m going to clean every day for their side until I can get different feeding / watering buckets. They're just rubber dishes basically so I‘m going to try the buckets where they can only get their mouths / heads in. Hopefully this will stop that splashing around.

For now, the 3 of them are inside while I treat them until I get more medicine / ointments. The other 4 are looking good and can stay outside, with an epsom soak here and there.
Sorry for the massive text!

My ducks are split up now too for random other reasons I have 8 outside and 4 inside its a circus act I have to move everyone to get the geese through and the chickens are stealing the ducks house during the day in frigid weather and ducks are NOT happy about that LOL
I hope you can get everything sorted out well and ducks feet heal up nicely Let us know how it goes!

 

[Miss Lydia]

@Kerya In this weather everything is harder to do. Looks like you have caught it early so maybe change out bedding I don't know if you can get pine shavings there but I like it, it is softer on the feet. I use heated buckets in winter and to keep mine from climbing into them I put a scrap piece of wood in the middle they can still dunk their heads but there is less mess. I cannot put water inside because my Runners are the worst for making a huge mess and the few times I tried it did not go well. The wood in the middle of the bucket basically just keeps anyone from trying to use the buckets as their personal hot tub. We do what we can to keep things as dry as possible, You definitely don't want raccoons in your green house turned duck house. Hopefully, you can get all this worked out before next winter.
Let us know how the feet are doing after you have been soaking and treating for this week.

 

[Canadian Wind]

Where in Ontario are you located? I'm about 45 minutes north-west of Perth, in North Frontenac.

About the styrofoam: it's a duck thing. Mine love it! They've torn and eaten my styrofoam insulation to bits! So far, none seem to have been hurt by it, but it worries me. If I catch them at it, they get shoo'd away, yet they always return. They are obsessed with it!

 

[Kerya]

Where in Ontario are you located? I'm about 45 minutes north-west of Perth, in North Frontenac.

About the styrofoam: it's a duck thing. Mine love it! They've torn and eaten my styrofoam insulation to bits! So far, none seem to have been hurt by it, but it worries me. If I catch them at it, they get shoo'd away, yet they always return. They are obsessed with it!

I’m about 40 minutes outside the Peterborough area, in the “bush” haha.

But for real though, I wonder why they like it so much! They’re such menaces, they wouldn’t stop making holes as I was trying to add the walls lol

 

[Kerya]

@Kerya In this weather everything is harder to do. Looks like you have caught it early so maybe change out bedding I don't know if you can get pine shavings there but I like it, it is softer on the feet. I use heated buckets in winter and to keep mine from climbing into them I put a scrap piece of wood in the middle they can still dunk their heads but there is less mess. I cannot put water inside because my Runners are the worst for making a huge mess and the few times I tried it did not go well. The wood in the middle of the bucket basically just keeps anyone from trying to use the buckets as their personal hot tub. We do what we can to keep things as dry as possible, You definitely don't want raccoons in your green house turned duck house. Hopefully, you can get all this worked out before next winter.
Let us know how the feet are doing after you have been soaking and treating for this week.

I’ll make sure to update this thread and maybe tag ya with the progress on their feet. I cleaned out their bedding just before having a large nap lol.

I do wish I could find some pine shavings, it sounds better. I’m either bad at using google or don’t have a great farm store yet as I haven’t come across any. Someone else recommended horse pellet bedding too, as it gets soft and soaks up some moisture
(I’ll have to try the wood block trick until I get a different type)

Either way, thank you for the help, I appreciate it !

 

[Kerya]

My ducks are split up now too for random other reasons I have 8 outside and 4 inside its a circus act I have to move everyone to get the geese through and the chickens are stealing the ducks house during the day in frigid weather and ducks are NOT happy about that LOL
I hope you can get everything sorted out well and ducks feet heal up nicely Let us know how it goes!

Thank you for your help! I’ll make sure to update you as their feet get better

I love that your flock sounds a bit silly too haha, it seems there’s no avoiding some goofy duck / goose / chicken jenga

 

[Canadian Wind]

I’m about 40 minutes outside the Peterborough area, in the “bush” haha.

But for real though, I wonder why they like it so much! They’re such menaces, they wouldn’t stop making holes as I was trying to add the walls lol

So not too far. I'm in the 'bush' too.

For the pine shavings, you might be able to find them at a hardware store. I don't recommend the pellets or blocks, as they only expand when wet.

There should be a Peavey Mart near Peterborough. Where do you get your duck food from?

 

[Kerya]

So not too far. I'm in the 'bush' too.

For the pine shavings, you might be able to find them at a hardware store. I don't recommend the pellets or blocks, as they only expand when wet.

There should be a Peavey Mart near Peterborough. Where do you get your duck food from?

I can check the hardware stores next time I’m out, there IS a peavy mart I can check too! I’ll look for pellets though, thank you !

I get my duck food from a Starfra Feeds though,

 

[Canadian Wind]

I looked at their website, and they do carry bedding.

 

[Kerya]

I keep forgetting to update this! I didn’t want to bother anyone with a ping but pretty soon after (1+ week) the spots slowly started getting less dark in colour & started shrinking. By week 2 it was more noticeably healing, colour was getting less black and closer to regular colours.
About now Zipper & Timbit seem healed! No more spots / black colour. They have a bit of a bump in those spots still but more like callus’s (nothing inside it).
Muffin still has the scab thing on his foot, but it’s not dark in colour either. And Still shrinking every day.

Their shoes didn’t stay on long but the weather warmed up again after posting initially. I think that really helped them!
it’s about to start getting colder again so I’ll give them one last epsom soak before it does and I think they should be good!
I’ve been spraying them with vetericyn every day at least once as well, so soon they should be perfect!
Hopefully it doesn’t get crazy cold like last year and I think we won’t run into this again

Thanks everyone for the advice (again) ! I’ll try and get updated feet pictures of them later , for now this is Muffin in his epsom bucket From the 24th.