Duck hen neck is bleeding badly-could a drake do this?

[SunnyD]

I'm in a hurry for your opinions and advice on this so I'm going to make a long story short. I have a sexually aggressive mallard drake that typical sleeps in same fenced area as female Tufted Duck. Last night, the drake was trying to mate with anything on 2 legs so I put outside the fence, away from my chickens and geese as well as his normal ,bed partners. This morning lour tufted hen is GONE! Thinking that a fox had gotten in and taken her, I was real surprised later to see her by the lake with the others! She was injured. Her feathers were missing all the way around her neck leaving about a one inch gap and there was lots of dry blood all the way around her neck as well. The injury looks as if it was just deep deep enough to cause all the bleeding. This evening she seems to be getting and fine and her usual self. Two questions: is it possible that the drake banned to stay outside the Premiere poultry fence grabbed her and inflicted this much damage or should I be looking for another predator. other predators are around as I have come up missing an adult Peking and an adult large hen in the past month. second question. Do I need to try to clean the wound and put Blue kote or something on it? If so what would you suggest? She looks terrible (blood) but seems to be feeling fine. Thanks for your help!

 

[froggie71]

First of all without seeing the wound, it does sound like a wound that a drake could inflict. We just recently had two drakes fighting and they did quite a bit of damage to each other, including ripping our the feathers of the other drakes neck/back area. I would wash the wound out (I just let the drakes take a bath in the tub and just made sure they got all the dirt out), let it dry and then applied blue kote. That is exactly what I did and both boys are fine now and back to living together. Good luck.

 

[Shadowhills Farm]

Can you post pics of the neck?

I would first wash it out with Hydrogen Peroxide to get the dirt and germs out. Then use Sterile Saline to rinse the area, and then put some Neosporin (WITHOUT the Pain Killer) over the wounds.

Maybe put some of the wrap gauze on it and tape it. I've heard vet wrap can tighten, so I don't think it would be safe to put that around her neck.

 

[Sweetfolly]

Oh, the poor thing!

Quote:
That's exactly what I'd do. I always have about 10 bottles of Hydrogen Peroxide on hand - hydrogen peroxide, saline rinse, and then antibiotic ointment - that's been our vets advice for wounds on all of our animals, from the ducks to the rabbits to the dogs. I don't think you're going to get any sort of bandage safely on her that would stay, and it'll probably heal more quickly without it anyway.

And yes - being that the wound's on the neck area, it sounds a lot like something a pesky Mallard drake could inflict. That's why, even though I could really use the pen space for one of my breeding trios, I refuse to let my Mallards have any contact with any of the other ducks and they have a pen all to themselves - although, I do have a Campbell drake who's been picking on one of my girls this week who may have to go live with them! I HATE the beginning of the breeding season! The drakes get so much more violent than usual!

 

[SunnyD]

Hey Ya'll. thanks for the quick replies! I didn't want her to go too long without help. I appreciate you taking the time out of a busy day to help a fellow enthusiast.

 

[froggie71]

How is she doing? Ducks usually bounce back pretty fast. Hoping for the best.