Fox attack? :(

owleyes22

In the Brooder
6 Years
Nov 27, 2013
45
0
24
South Australia
Hi I am new to backyard chickens and I know you guys are specifically focused on chickens but I'm sure ducks are very similar so any suggestions or help would be great thanks!
1) What type of bird , age and weight
Duck, 4 years old
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Cautious
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
Since the attack
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? N/a
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
Yes. Blood around craw. No known broken bones. In shock.
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. Possible predator attack
The family thinks a fox did it. We leave Bubby (the duck) out at night and he sleeps in the back yard but last night he was attacked.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
He eats wheat seeds like grains. Have not fed or watered him yet.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
Pale green
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
I put bubby in a box with rags in it. He is currently in the house.
10 ) What is your intent as far as medical treatment?
I just want to make sure he stops bleeding and doesn't get an infection by myself if possible.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
LL
LL

12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
Cardboard box lined with plastic bags and old rags.
 
Good to have him in. He will need to be in for a while, and then he needs a predator-proof shelter from here on. That fox - or whatever it was - will be back.

Give Bubby a lukewarm bath, no soap. Make the water deep enough to float in. Look him over very carefully. The water will help him feel better and help you see where the wounds are. It will wash some of the blood off.

Find the wounds. Trim the feathers away from the wounds. Get some Vetericyn spray, or make some saline solution, and rinse, rinse, rinse the wounds. Some people use hydrogen peroxide for the first rinse, but do not use it after the first time, it slows down healing.

He may well be in shock, so he needs to be kept warm. He may or may not want to eat or drink for several hours. Don't force it at this point.

After the wounds are rinsed off, you may want to dab around them with antibiotic cream (no pain relief since that stuff is toxic to ducks, I am told).

Give him as much gentle attention as you can, assure him.

Start thinking about what kind of oral antibiotics you can get if it appears he is having trouble with infection.

Rinse the wounds three or four times a day, followed with the topical antibiotic. Get him some poultry vitamins with electrolytes, and put that in his water every two or three days for a week.

Keep him away from flies - they will lay their eggs in the wound and it gets really nasty from there.
 
Last edited:
Okay, so you may be up for a while. I have a few other things going on - preparing for a holiday tomorrow, but Bubby's life matters to me. So I will check in throughout my evening, your morning. Please start some saline rinses very soon.

Here is what Captain Cluck did when her duck Lucy was attacked.


When my duck, Lucy, was attacked by a raccoon, I had head wounds to deal with, too. No jaw damage but she had a bite taken from the edge of her bill.

I put her on homeopathic for bites and vitamins at first, but homeopathics take a long time to work, so after a week on that (and an infection starting in the leg wound that I had missed) I switched her to Duramycin (got at Tractor Supply). Add 1/4 teaspoon to 20 oz of water (2 1/2 CUPS). Only mix up what you will use immediately and store the rest of the powder in a clean, dry jar. You will want to keep a measuring spoon in the jar just for the Duramycin. If you won't be using the entire 20 oz right away, put the extra in the refrigerator until you need it, but do not keep it for longer than 1 day. I have seen funk grow in it if kept longer than that. Lucy got her water in a 20 oz travel mug 2x a day.

After her first day of not eating, she only wanted cooked, mashed peas for 2 weeks. She refused anything else, so keep tempting your duck with things she loves to eat. You may have to use a syringe and squirt some liquified food into her bill to get her to eat. which means you will ahve to take some food and puree it in the blender and add enough water to make it liquidy. Lucy's bill was very sore and I had to mash her peas so she could eat them.

Examine your duck carefully to locate all the wounds you can find. Trim away feathers from the wounds so you can treat them effectively. Don't be afraid to trim away all her feathers if you think you need to to examine her. You can dress her in newborn t-shirts until her feathers grow back. If you keep her in a dim, quiet room, she will heal faster, and eventually start to molt. At least, that's what Lucy did.

Use saline to rinse out the wounds every day. Use a q-tip to pack the open wounds with antibiotic ointment.

If there is a puncture wound (which includes bites), you will need to debride it daily with a gauze pad. That means put peroxide on a gauze pad and scrub the scab off the puncture wound and scrub it enough to keep it open so it can drain. Punctures must heal from the inside out, or they get infected. Pack the punctures with antibiotic ointment, too.

Since you can't wrap a head wound on a duck, just let her wash her head at will. The only wound I wrapped on Lucy was her leg wound while it had Ichthammol on it to pull out the infection.


Let her rest and check on her every few hours. Change her towels at least 2x a day, or get those incontinence pads you put in a patient's bed and put one of those on top of the towel. Easy cleanup and less laundry. I got mine at Wal Mart.

I did not have the money for a vet visit, but if you do, I highly suggest taking her in.


Too many chickens, not enough ducks. Plenty of Kids, dogs, cats.One loving, soft-hearted husband. I am rich!

…………...

So the sooner you start cleaning wounds, the better.
 
Good to have him in. He will need to be in for a while, and then he needs a predator-proof shelter from here on. That fox - or whatever it was - will be back.

Give Bubby a lukewarm bath, no soap. Make the water deep enough to float in. Look him over very carefully. The water will help him feel better and help you see where the wounds are. It will wash some of the blood off.

Find the wounds. Trim the feathers away from the wounds. Get some Vetericyn spray, or make some saline solution, and rinse, rinse, rinse the wounds. Some people use hydrogen peroxide for the first rinse, but do not use it after the first time, it slows down healing.

He may well be in shock, so he needs to be kept warm. He may or may not want to eat or drink for several hours. Don't force it at this point.

After the wounds are rinsed off, you may want to dab around them with antibiotic cream (no pain relief since that stuff is toxic to ducks, I am told).

Give him as much gentle attention as you can, assure him.

Start thinking about what kind of oral antibiotics you can get if it appears he is having trouble with infection.

Rinse the wounds three or four times a day, followed with the topical antibiotic. Get him some poultry vitamins with electrolytes, and put that in his water every two or three days for a week.

Keep him away from flies - they will lay their eggs in the wound and it gets really nasty from there.

Saving this for later. Attacks happen, even in the daytime sadly.

Owl - consider locking him up at night when he gets better. As Amiga mentioned whatever the predator was will be back. And keep coming back most likely. I don't know about other people's ducks but mine still quack at night. Which makes them an even bigger target.
 
Amiga: Thank you so much for helping out, it means a lot to us. I was just wondering if i should clip the feathers before or after the bath. Thank you again!

cosbackyard: Yea Bubby is very loud but he is really tough. the cat from next door tried to attack him once and bubby bit him so hard that it doesnt mess with him anymore. infact sometimes i see the cat close to bubby but he runs away as soon as bubby approaches him. The fox case is much more serious. The fox has actually already attacked bubby once before. he hurt bubby's neck but bubby seemed fine the next day. The fox also killed two pidgeons...one baby which he half buried and one adult which he tore the gizzards out of... we buried them both only to discover them dug up this morning. I had been locking bubby up in the pidgeon cage since the first attack but i stupidly forgot last night.
 
You are receiving great medical advice so fair, I am only responding because I have one white duck
from one night of four bobcats getting in the yard and now out of twenty white ducks I now have one
Aflack is her name due to her injuries inflicted by the bobcats and yes the shotgun got hot that night
and more then two days later I got the forth one but the damage was dune ...... 1. you need a safe
lock up for the birds 2. plastic will just amaze a bird duck goose chicken but never let them play with
the stuff as it will cause more damage....... So here is a little on my thoughts for a safe pet lock up
at night and always have a fenced in area for the day time rooming this will cut down on attacks not
stop... I have a 6 foot fence around the 1 acre I have and cages but I still get attacked from time to
time it is part of having pets with feathers... My pets are now 9 Geese, 3 Genies, 19 Chickens 1 Duck
Good luck and if no serious damage your Duck will live a long time ..........

gander007
 
Thanks, gander007, this is the hard part of caring for ducks, for me. I am a peaceful person, and I am extremely protective of my ducks.

And owleyes22, each of us makes mistakes, gets sick, gets hurt, distracted, off-center. Glad you know to keep Bubby safe - maybe rethink the security system. I rethink mine just about every day. And I make changes from time to time.

Anyway, clip after, use bath time as an opportunity to look closely. Will Bubby stand being handled just a little so you can lift his wings, look closely around his vent, between his legs, anywhere a puncture wound might hide.

Some apple cider vinegar, preferably unpasteurized, in his water until you can get some vitamins with electrolytes would be good. Just a tablespoon per gallon. It's a tonic and has some electrolytes in it.

How is Bubby? Does he seem shocky, or present, or anxious? Interested in eating anything yet? Some ducks snap out of it more quickly than others.

And keep the flies away.

Yes, I repeat myself.

And gander007,
hugs.gif


There are bobcats around here, too. Have seen none in the yard. Foxes, raccoons, hawks, opossums, skunks, loose domestic dogs and stray cats so far.
 
Last edited:
well, i am making him rest at the moment and he seems to be very relaxed but when he goes for a little walk he does get blood dripping from below his breast. also when he stands he does not seem stable at all, his movements seem drunken.

Also luckly for us in Australia the only bobcats we have here are the earth moving machines. We were quite surprised to see traces of a fox because we live in town and if the fox walked from the airport then he would be really tired cause its pretty far...I just think its so weird how it got here...
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom