- Jun 11, 2011
- 3
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Hello, we have 2 ducklings that were born with foot problems. One is able to get up and walk, just not very good but the other one's feet are curled up and it can't get up on its feet at all. Just wondering if there is anything we can do in the short term to help them.
Here's a little background on our situation, we have been getting a little crash course in egg hatching.
These ducks are not going to be kept as pets. They are wild eggs and the mother duck was hit by a car. We brought her to the Wildlife Rehabilitaion Center but unfortunately she had to be put down. At that point, we weren't sure what to do with the eggs. The WRC doesn't take eggs and incubate them, but they told us they would gladly take the ducklings once they were hatched if we wanted to incubate them. We brought the eggs in and put them under a heat lamp and then borrowed an incubator from someone the next day, so the eggs were without incubation for at least one full day if not longer and we never knew exactly how old the eggs were. There were a total of 9 eggs and from candling we determined that one of them had died early on. The first duckling hatched on Wednesday night, then one on Thursday night, and 3 hatched yesterday. These first 5 ducklings are all doing great. We had 2 hatch today, these are the ones that have the foot problems. There is still one that hasn't hatched yet, but it does have some cracks so it's getting ready to hatch. I'm kind of suspecting that this one may also have problems. I'm sure the lack of incubation is at least part of the cause of all this. As soon as the last one hatches, we will be taking them to the WRC where they will be raised with other ducks and the healthy ones will eventually be released into the wild.
So, I'm just wondering if there is anything we can do to help the ones with foot problems until we take them in to the WRC.
Thanks!
Here's a little background on our situation, we have been getting a little crash course in egg hatching.
These ducks are not going to be kept as pets. They are wild eggs and the mother duck was hit by a car. We brought her to the Wildlife Rehabilitaion Center but unfortunately she had to be put down. At that point, we weren't sure what to do with the eggs. The WRC doesn't take eggs and incubate them, but they told us they would gladly take the ducklings once they were hatched if we wanted to incubate them. We brought the eggs in and put them under a heat lamp and then borrowed an incubator from someone the next day, so the eggs were without incubation for at least one full day if not longer and we never knew exactly how old the eggs were. There were a total of 9 eggs and from candling we determined that one of them had died early on. The first duckling hatched on Wednesday night, then one on Thursday night, and 3 hatched yesterday. These first 5 ducklings are all doing great. We had 2 hatch today, these are the ones that have the foot problems. There is still one that hasn't hatched yet, but it does have some cracks so it's getting ready to hatch. I'm kind of suspecting that this one may also have problems. I'm sure the lack of incubation is at least part of the cause of all this. As soon as the last one hatches, we will be taking them to the WRC where they will be raised with other ducks and the healthy ones will eventually be released into the wild.
So, I'm just wondering if there is anything we can do to help the ones with foot problems until we take them in to the WRC.
Thanks!
