Female duck with wound -- please help with questions

[JeanLynott]

We have six Pekin ducks that hatched on June 15. Recently, we discovered that 5 out of 6 are males. We made plans to rehome the female tomorrow. But today, we noticed that the female has a large wound on her side. I have a few questions:

• How should we treat this wound? Does she need veterinary care? It's not bleeding but it seems deep -- maybe half inch. I couldn't get a good photo of it.
• Do you think that the 5 male ducks caused this? We have seen them bob their heads at her and sometimes they bite each others' necks but they haven't seemed to be aggressive.
• We tried to separate her previously from the males in a nearby pen with chickens but she became frantic. Should we remove her from the pen with the males even though she becomes distraught?
• She is eating and walking fine.
• Should we rehome her tomorrow or keep her home until she hopefully heals. Her new owner only has females.

Any other tips would be much appreciated. We feel terrible that she's hurt. We've been watching her closely and we thought things were under control.

 

[Fuchsia]

Hello, welcome to BYC!
I am sorry about your hen, I hope she gets better soon
@Isaac 0
@sourland

 

[JeanLynott]

Hello, welcome to BYC!
I am sorry about your hen, I hope she gets better soon
@Isaac 0
@sourland

Thank you! Me too.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I’d wash the wound with warm salt water and trim the feathers back so you can get a good pic and clean it better. It’s hard to say what may have happened. But if you don’t clean it and keep something on it to keep the flies out of it your going to have maggots in the wound. Let us see once you’ve trimmed the feathers away an you’ve cleaned it up. I’d def put her away from the drakes but putting her with the chickens with an open wound is not a good idea.

 

[JeanLynott]

OK, I will do all of those things. Thank you.

 

[JeanLynott]

OK, we have her separated from chickens and ducks. She can see the ducks, though, and isn't too frantic.

We trimmed the feathers and flushed with warm saltwater.

There are several scratches with one main wound. Here's the main wound:

Here's another look:

And another:

 

[Miss Lydia]

I’m not thinking your drakes did that unless each one climbed on and with their nails opened that side up. It would b be a hard call. If you have some type of antibiotic ointment I’d put that over top of the wound. And if it’s still on to give her away make sure her new family knows how important it is to keep the wound clean and away from chickens because they are drawn to wounds an can make it worse. Keep your drakes away from your chickens if they mate with them it can be a death sentence for a hen. But drakes living together can work with out females. You’ll just have to make sure they don’t try an gang up on a less dominant drake in the pen. Will they get to have time outside of their pen too?

 

[JeanLynott]

Thank you, Miss Lydia. I think I'll keep her until the wound heals and get some antibiotic ointment tomorrow.

Do you still think that the wound needs to be covered? I'm not sure exactly how I'would do that. Any recommendations on antibiotic ointment?

Yep, they have time outside their pen. We are building a fenced in outdoor area for them to go outside in every day. I will definitely keep the drakes away from the chickens!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Triple antibiotic, Bacitraycin, neomycin are a few I can think of. No need to wrap just make sure no flies can get to her. Keep us updated on how she is doing! They heal amazingly.

 

[Isaac 0]

I prefer Preparation H, as it increases the respiration content in the epithelium thus encouraging fibroblasts growth. Neosporin and Silver sulfadiazine can also be used. If the wound is fairly deep, I would suggest starting her on antibiotics too. Do you have any on hand? If not, could you get one of these?

https://allbirdproducts.com/products/baytril-10
https://www.chewy.com/fish-aid-antibiotics-amoxicillin/dp/185201#:~:text=You can help your finned,negative bacteria plaguing your fish.