Hawk attack!!!

[BeeDuckley]

My Prescott was attcked by a hawk today, in his "sanctuary", while U was cutting wood for it!!! She flew in through a hole in the framework, cause that's all I had so far, and he kicked her ass!!! He fought her off, and went to the pool to dive. She tried one more time before he was under water, when I got the door open and next to her. She flew out another opening, and he swam around frantically fluffing lopsided. He got out, and I scooped him up carefully to inspect him. He didn't resist, and he had one drop of blood where head meets neck. I daubed it with a peroxide paper towel, then squirted peroxide at the wound, and patted it with the paper towel. He was dazed. He wandered around aimlessly for a minute, very slowly, passing up beloved mealworms! He walked still slowly, into Goerge's food bowl, knocking it over, then barely touched the tip of his beak in the dogs' water. We then wandered toward his bedroom, the 2'×4'×3' dog traveller, and took a couple of sips from his own water. Then, he got into his bowl, so I ran to the bathroom to fill up our biggest tupperware with water, so he would fit. I set it up in his room, scooped him up and gently set him in it. He began to gingerly move his tail, not wagging like normal, and get some water in there.
I sat with him for about 20 minutes cooing to him about how awesome he is and what a good job he did, then headed back out to block those holes with chicken wire during the last of daylight.
When it was dark and I had completed all but the roof, I came in to watch the last of daylight with him on my lap. He was under my jeweler's bench, facing the corner! I picked him up and saw a tear from each eye!!!!! Then, I saw washed out blood on his lower abdominal feathers!!!!! It hadn't bothered him when I picked him up, so it's not deep.

I'm still sitting with him, and he doesn't insist on facing the corner, but is still eventually shifting to it. He is verrry quiet and still. Anybody else had a duck win a fight like this?? How was your baby afterward? How long were they in shock like this?

 

[Abriana]

I believe he is in shock. He’ll pull through just fine. What he needs now is a quiet, comfortable, warm area to rest in with access to food and water. He may not be very interested in eating or drinking tho. Keep us updated plz!

 

[GldnValleyHens]

Hope he recovers! I hate hawks so much! That tear is heartbreaking.
Never seen a dux cry

 

[Kessel23]

A duck can not best a hawk in a fight, no matter the breed. What likely happened is the hawk came in, grabbed him and pinned him down. Mallard derived ducks tend to give up fairly quickly after being caught by a raptor because it makes the raptor lower his guard and then the duck can escape when the raptor is not as focused. This trick works pretty good and lots of waterfowl use it when caught by a raptor. After he surprised the raptor by basically faking dead he dove into the water. Raptors will usually never continue a hunt once they have lost the element of surprise so once the duck escaped the raptor may have tried to quickly grab him again but once he got the the water the raptor would simply give up because it would be near impossible for him to catch a duck who is in the water and well aware of the raptor's presence. Also, as far as i'm aware ducks do not cry, especially not from injuries inflicted by predators. They may release liquids from the eye if they have an eye infection but even that is not from pain. Your duck was definitely pinned by that hawk, he was shocked afterwords and that is why he swam sideways and wondered around cluelessly afterwords.

If you looked him over i'm sure you would find several puncture wounds. He clearly did not struggle when he was pinned down because if he did he would have much worse injuries. You can compare that to a rooster mounting a hen, if the hen squats and allows him to mount then she is fine, is she ran and squirmed around during mounting then she would lose some feathers. He should be fine from the attack and make a full recovery in a day or two. Make sure you patch the holes properly, a hawk can pull of chicken wire that is not stapled down correctly.

 

[Kruchti]

I hope he recovers!

 

[BeeDuckley]

A duck can not best a hawk in a fight, no matter the breed. What likely happened is the hawk came in, grabbed him and pinned him down. Mallard derived ducks tend to give up fairly quickly after being caught by a raptor because it makes the raptor lower his guard and then the duck can escape when the raptor is not as focused. This trick works pretty good and lots of waterfowl use it when caught by a raptor. After he surprised the raptor by basically faking dead he dove into the water. Raptors will usually never continue a hunt once they have lost the element of surprise so once the duck escaped the raptor may have tried to quickly grab him again but once he got the the water the raptor would simply give up because it would be near impossible for him to catch a duck who is in the water and well aware of the raptor's presence. Also, as far as i'm aware ducks do not cry, especially not from injuries inflicted by predators. They may release liquids from the eye if they have an eye infection but even that is not from pain. Your duck was definitely pinned by that hawk, he was shocked afterwords and that is why he swam sideways and wondered around cluelessly afterwords.

If you looked him over i'm sure you would find several puncture wounds. He clearly did not struggle when he was pinned down because if he did he would have much worse injuries. You can compare that to a rooster mounting a hen, if the hen squats and allows him to mount then she is fine, is she ran and squirmed around during mounting then she would lose some feathers. He should be fine from the attack and make a full recovery in a day or two. Make sure you patch the holes properly, a hawk can pull of chicken wire that is not stapled down correctly.

That makes sense. She did grab him twice. I don't believe that the attack gave him an eye infection, or that ducks cry, but clear liquid is still seeping from his eyes. I will go to town with my staple gun, and finish sewing all wire pannel layers tight together with steel wire, as I have been, before he goes outside again. Thank you again.

 

[BeeDuckley]

Hope he recovers! I hate hawks so much! That tear is heartbreaking.
Never seen a dux cry

Thank you!!!! I don't know what it is, but its not an eye infection.

 

[Kessel23]

Interesting, I have never had a duck "cry" Iḿ not sure what that could be from Hopefully he recovers soon!

 

[BeeDuckley]

I hope he recovers!

Thank you! He's coming along, finally relaxing a little.

 

[BeeDuckley]

Interesting, I have never had a duck "cry" Iḿ not sure what that could be from Hopefully he recovers soon!

He's coming along, trying to bend to groom, but can't quite reach yet. I don't know yet if ducks have tear duc(t)s ;-) He has has mostly supervised time outside, and his flock, do far, is myself a jack-russel terrier mix, and a mastiff. My husband works a lot, and my old cat sleeps in a chair most of the time, keeping to herself. This is his first brush with death. He is sleeping in a medium kennel bottom with all the fixins next to our bed tonight.