I would not let her on the pond at all till she is back to normal, this is just me but I would be very worried with her being so wobbly. I am glad to hear she is having her friends spend time with them daily though and this will keep them all familar with her and vise versa, but seems she must be confused makes me wonder if she hasn't had some kind of damage to her brain when you talk about her going and standing in the corner but maybe as she spends more and more time with them this will change. She has come far in her recovery so hopefully she'll keep making progress till she is 100% again. I think your doing a great job so just keep on the way you are at her pace. These squatters are they Mallards? noisy lil creatures aren't they? lolThanks to everyone for your advice & support while I've been caring for this little one.
Good News, for the last couple of days I've been putting her into the shed at the side of the pond during the day (door is open with a cage across so she can't get out but can still see & hear the others) with a buddy duck. I changed the buddy over a couple of times through the day so that each duck can spend time with her and she's not a stranger to them. I've then put her into the pen with the rest at night when I feed them so they're distracted by the food and don't realise there's a extra duck back with them. She's eaten the food from the dishes with them but then as the others have dug around searching for more food she seems to have gone and stood away from them looking a little unsure of what to do!!
The weather here today has been very windy so I've kept them all in the larger pen together all day (they won't go onto the water when its wild anyway)
Kept checking on them throughout the day and I haven't seen them picking on her at any point and tonight when I fed them they all grouped around the dishes together and she wasn't pushed out or anything. I couple of the other ducks keep having little squabbles amongst themselves and if she's near them and gets knocked she wobbles and falls easily still.
Just a little concerned that she keeps going and standing alone in the corner & worried if I let her out on the pond then she won't follow the others. When she was in the shed she seemed to stay close to which ever duck was in there with her and now she seems a little confused as to how to act with the full group.
Will this come back with the more time she spends with them all??
Should I keep her off the pond until she does seem to be bonding better with the others?
Miss Lydia, I've still fingers crossed at the moment and hoping not to have to cross that bridge that she'll never 100%
recover - I don't think my other half is keen on the idea of a house duck as a pet
On another note I now have squatter ducks on my pond - these appear late at night and enjoy a good sing song right outside my bedroom window around 3am, then have their morning splash around at 6am before flying off and disappearing again for the day
Good news too!!
Yeah my squatters are Mallards, they let me know they were checking out at 6am again this morning - it's almost as if they're saying 'yipee, another night of free board & lodgings' QUAAAAACCCKKKK!! as they flew over my bedroom - lol x
Thats wonderful news. so happy for you. now go out there and put up a sign saying No Vacancy lolYeah my squatters are Mallards, they let me know they were checking out at 6am again this morning - it's almost as if they're saying 'yipee, another night of free board & lodgings' QUAAAAACCCKKKK!! as they flew over my bedroom - lol x
Glad to report my little girl is improving every day, think the more time she spends with the rest of the flock is helping to bring her along. She's followed the others a bit more today but still has a break by herself at times.
After a few visits the vet did say that her symptoms indicated possible neurological trauma. This was maybe caused by some shock or some from of poisoning in the water (possibly lead or zinc) or even from eating mouldy food she may have found. The blood tests checked that all her organs were functioning, to test for the lead or zinc (i think she said Zinc) was expensive and the vet said that if it was lead then the treatment would be similar to what we were doing anyway & if it was zinc there wasn't much in the way of treatment - hence we didn't bother with any more tests so guess we'll never know whats actually caused her to have a funny turn!!
But I feel that we're through the woods and she'll soon be back to normal
Still keeping a close eye on her thou just to make sure!!
