- Apr 3, 2013
- 11
- 3
- 26
I posted awhile back, then got really busy for awhile...
When last I posted I was trying to get my two young Welsh Harlequins to mingle with my two Khaki hens. Well, two months later, they haven't really learned to get along. The two Welshes, Tenchi and Yotsuba, (I've got a picture of them), are just bullies toward my nervous little Khakis. The last straw was a week ago, when I discovered Tenchi and Yotsuba sitting on the girls' nest, and they had crushed the egg inside. Poor Indiana laid her egg a few feet away.
Obviously this is instinct, because Tenchi and Yotsuba think they're protecting their future young, but it's driving my poor girls nuts. So my Welsh Hooligans been confined to the pen, leaving the rest of the yard to Screamer and Indiana. I'm starting to let them out for brief chaperoned outings, but for the most part they stay in their pen. I think they pout a bit, but they'll get plenty of excitement next week when I bring them to a Pet Education activity for school-aged kids next week. In the meantime, they love it when I toss them wild strawberries from the yard.
And poor Indiana...she's kind of a high-strung personality anyway, and now I'm afraid she's got a serious respiratory problem. She squeaks now, she doesn't really quack. And sometimes she has a squeaky sort of cough. I've been on the phone with a vet in Dallas, TX and I'm taking her to my vet here in north Louisiana on Thursday. From what the Dallas vet told me, if it's Aspergillus then we're looking at long-term treatment and she may not ever really recover. Texas A&M did a study last year on curing Aspergillus in birds, so they may end up being a resource for us. But an X-ray is also likely, to see what her air sacs are looking like. I hope we can treat her. She's such a funny duck, and so lovable despite (or I guess because of) her fussiness.
Has anyone else had experience with Aspergillus or other respiratory ailments in ducks? What about ducks that just don't get along?
Thanks, here's a couple of pictures - the brats up top, Screamer and Indiana below,
Sharon
When last I posted I was trying to get my two young Welsh Harlequins to mingle with my two Khaki hens. Well, two months later, they haven't really learned to get along. The two Welshes, Tenchi and Yotsuba, (I've got a picture of them), are just bullies toward my nervous little Khakis. The last straw was a week ago, when I discovered Tenchi and Yotsuba sitting on the girls' nest, and they had crushed the egg inside. Poor Indiana laid her egg a few feet away.
Obviously this is instinct, because Tenchi and Yotsuba think they're protecting their future young, but it's driving my poor girls nuts. So my Welsh Hooligans been confined to the pen, leaving the rest of the yard to Screamer and Indiana. I'm starting to let them out for brief chaperoned outings, but for the most part they stay in their pen. I think they pout a bit, but they'll get plenty of excitement next week when I bring them to a Pet Education activity for school-aged kids next week. In the meantime, they love it when I toss them wild strawberries from the yard.
And poor Indiana...she's kind of a high-strung personality anyway, and now I'm afraid she's got a serious respiratory problem. She squeaks now, she doesn't really quack. And sometimes she has a squeaky sort of cough. I've been on the phone with a vet in Dallas, TX and I'm taking her to my vet here in north Louisiana on Thursday. From what the Dallas vet told me, if it's Aspergillus then we're looking at long-term treatment and she may not ever really recover. Texas A&M did a study last year on curing Aspergillus in birds, so they may end up being a resource for us. But an X-ray is also likely, to see what her air sacs are looking like. I hope we can treat her. She's such a funny duck, and so lovable despite (or I guess because of) her fussiness.
Has anyone else had experience with Aspergillus or other respiratory ailments in ducks? What about ducks that just don't get along?
Thanks, here's a couple of pictures - the brats up top, Screamer and Indiana below,
Sharon
