HELP!! Birth Defect or Injury?

[breckash]

Hi! My son is a boat captain and found this little guy floating solo on the middle of the ocean on Monday. He had what we thought to be an injury on his belly. It can been seen from his left side, and then there is a loose flap of skin that is affected, too. Since Monday, we have been cleaning the would and applying Neosporin twice a day. It never really bled, except for one small spot towards the very top, and it bled very little just after he was scooped out of the ocean. He has been eating and drinking and walking around. Does this look like a wound and if so, is it healing ok? Or is it a possible birth defect/injury that already healed and now will always remain this way?

 

[Debbie292d]

Probably not a birth defect as that's rare. Perhaps a fish nipped it. I'd keep doing your Neosporin (without pain killer) on it. Do you have duck feed for it? It's probably emaciated. Ducklings/ducks have special nutritional requirements that can also be found in Kalmbach's Flock Maker (all-flock), but any small bag of duck food would suffice.

Do you have a dept of natural resources or wildlife rehabber you could call?