Duck hit by car with possible broken jaw and blind

[fawne]

I have a duck that has a broken jaw. The bill is not broken. Her eye is gone on the left side of her face and she is not eating properly. This is day 3 of this hell when I found her on the side of the road. The farmer that had her told me to take her home. She was a free range duck and is not used to humans.

She is allowing me to pick her up. She is allowing me to feed her with a syringe. She is hesitant at first but after some soft words she allows me to do this.

I know that the jaw is broken because when she swallows she can barely move the jaw.
She is hesitant to open it though I have seen the mouth open once.
I have not seen her eat on her own at all however she did take a drink by her mouth one time when I put the water to her.

It is not easy to feed her with the syringe it takes what seems like forever and not much food gets into her mouth. She will not open her mouth for food.

On another note she appears to be getting stronger. She appears to want to live. She was hit by a car.

Any suggestions would help.

Regards,
Nicole Spence

 

[Amiga]

I have ground water which is very healthy. I have put the duck into the bath tub with warm not hot water. It appears that it can swim. Has gotten her to drink water on her own, which is an improvement. She isn't moving fast. I don't think her wings are broken. I am pretty sure that the car hit her in the face and front upper half of her body. What am I able to offer her? At the moment I am feeding her oats with a small amount of sugar in it so that she can gain energy. I also have chick starter and corn. I have offered her nectarines but she refused them. All of my ducks eat leaves (for some weird reason) and there are plenty in the pen. I am saddened by looking at this duck, because i would like her to be able to have a life. I may at some point let her go if she appears to be getting along okay but I do not want her to be unable to fend for herself if she is blind in one eye. As far as nursing care, I have been in nursing for 15 years, and have cared for alot of birds. I am currently seeking advise from another party that knows alot about water foul. I am not sure about a vet? I don't think there are very many in this area that deal with water foul. I live in the middle of nowhere but I am sure that if I can find one that I will be taking her to see one if conditions deteriorate. At this point I feel that putting her down would be a mistake due to the fact that she is primarily showing more and more signs of wanting to live.

I agree with you about giving her a chance if she's working on recovery. Ducks can come back from very awful injuries. I have heard of it time and again. Much of what we can do is offer nutritional support, safety, warmth, and encouragement. Glad to see you understand all that.

Some unpasteurized apple cider vinegar in water is good for electrolytes and probably some other compounds, cooled nettle tea would also provide some nutritional goodies including minerals. Go with your instincts.

Please check in with us as you can. This is a good forum, with caring members who freely share their experiences, knowledge, opinions and feelings. Sounds like you have quite a bit to share, also.

Praying for you both.

 

[Amiga]

The best thing is a vet's help.

Meanwhile, keep up with the feeding. What are you able to give her? I would try to incorporate some poultry nutri-drench, as it has a few vitamins and some calories in it.

You could also alternate with poultry vitamins, electrolytes and probiotics.

Warm baths are usually good for ducks' spirits, and you can get a close look at her for other injuries. For example, look for signs of difficulty using her wings or legs, and how she holds her tail.

A safe, warm, relatively clean place with enough fresh water are good, too.

 

[fawne]

I have ground water which is very healthy. I have put the duck into the bath tub with warm not hot water. It appears that it can swim.

Has gotten her to drink water on her own, which is an improvement. She isn't moving fast. I don't think her wings are broken. I am pretty sure that the car hit her in the face and front upper half of her body.

What am I able to offer her? At the moment I am feeding her oats with a small amount of sugar in it so that she can gain energy. I also have chick starter and corn. I have offered her nectarines but she refused them.

All of my ducks eat leaves (for some weird reason) and there are plenty in the pen.

I am saddened by looking at this duck, because i would like her to be able to have a life. I may at some point let her go if she appears to be getting along okay but I do not want her to be unable to fend for herself if she is blind in one eye.

As far as nursing care, I have been in nursing for 15 years, and have cared for alot of birds.
I am currently seeking advise from another party that knows alot about water foul.
I am not sure about a vet? I don't think there are very many in this area that deal with water foul. I live in the middle of nowhere but I am sure that if I can find one that I will be taking her to see one if conditions deteriorate.

At this point I feel that putting her down would be a mistake due to the fact that she is primarily showing more and more signs of wanting to live.

 

[fawne]

An update:

This duck has recovered fully. She is now living amonst the other ducks. I have looked up online to find out her breed and when I found out that she is part mallard and part canadian goose (yes really) that really suprised me.

In the first 48 hours or so of having her she laid an egg. Being that I was very suprised by this I could not understand what to do with the egg. A friend of mine suggested that I feed the egg back to her, but I thought that would be unwise because one can just feed the duck some other egg instead of the one that she laid herself which probably contained a baby.

At the time she was the only one of her kind in the pen. She ignored the other ducks and seemed very lonly.
A male mallard flew over the pen and she started crying out to the duck.
It was a loud and the mallard male swarmed around the pen about 15 times because it could hear her cry.

This made me very sad for her. Being away from her flock, being in a pen from the wild, and being injured. So I went to craigslist and I found a male mallard duck which was 10 dollars. I picked it up. The male was beautiful. It was very large and had been in the pen at its home alone for a long time.
I brought her the male mallard and I put it in the pen. She has made a full recovery. She now has a husband though I have yet to see them mate. They are like glue stuck to each other and he protects her from everything. He is a very good drake.

She has produced no more eggs. She is eating. The eye has healed up but when it was tested she was unable to see very much out of it as compared to the other side.

This in itself I am proud.

The baby was born 2 days ago. It had a hard time coming from its shell. I had to help it out, which I did not want to do. It is now in the brooder. I am having difficulty with feeding. I am waiting for it to become stronger. I am hoping that it survives so that they can become a family.

 

[cluckitall]

Congratulations! I'm glad to hear she's making such a good recovery!

 

[Zombified]

Awww, congratulations! This brought tears to my eyes. What a good, strong duck! Hopefully the duckling makes it as well.