Help! Casey (My Duck) has a prolapse! First time treatment for me.

[Tevyes Dad]

Just got home, I was on a day trip today. Yvonne stayed home sick

So I fed Casey, took off, came home and fed Casey. It looked like she ate some out of her food bowl today, not sure since there is also a small leaf of lettuce in there so I'm not sure what Yvonne did and she's sleeping right now so I don't want to wake her. I know when I offered her some meal worms after her feed (so we can still be friends), she devoured them out of my hand. And right after I polished her bottom with silver polish (of course) she pooped a nice "goose" poop* (I had thought that these always belonged to the Pekin, but was surprised to find out that they usually seem to come from the runners.) Big and green and solid (good green from peas and lettuce not sick green). It came right out with very little fanfare so she must be passing stuff fairly easily.

*Goose poop means green with lots of plant matter, solid and large for a duck: about the size of a good sized cat poop. Named such since when geese migrate and thousands of them land in a field or park, these are what you find all over.

 

[Amiga]

Ah, yes. Goose poop. I recognize it. I like seeing it on the lawn-to-garden project site.

Glad for the good report on the good poop. Hugs to y'all.

Extra hugs for Yvonne. Lots of folks picking up germs these days. I am shaking off a cold.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Yvonne said Casey had a strong appetite with lettuce and peas today and nibbled at the food. When Yvonne saw the food in the cup, (which no longer had the piece of lettuce on it) she said Casey had definitely eaten some, probably about 1/8th of a cup. (Way more than none!) Will make sure she has plenty available tonight! Maybe the light is helping, or maybe it is just time.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Yvonne said Casey had a strong appetite with lettuce and peas today and nibbled at the food. When Yvonne saw the food in the cup, (which no longer had the piece of lettuce on it) she said Casey had definitely eaten some, probably about 1/8th of a cup. (Way more than none!) Will make sure she has plenty available tonight! Maybe the light is helping, or maybe it is just time.

Sorry to hear Yvonne is sick,Hope she feels better soon like "today". I am just getting over some kind of crud. Yuck.

Good news on Casey hopefully her appetite is picking up and she'll be eating full time soon [no more down the throat]
Good poops mean healthy ducks.

Love these positive updates..

 

[Tevyes Dad]

3lbs, 15.8oz! Last night, she ate some duck food

I'm going to syringe feed her today, (being a stickler for that 4 lbs) but chances are if she shows the same appetite today she showed yesterday, this will be her last day.

Of course she will have to maintain the weight on her own or out comes the tube

.

 

[Miss Lydia]

3lbs, 15.8oz! Last night, she ate some duck food

I'm going to syringe feed her today, (being a stickler for that 4 lbs) but chances are if she shows the same appetite today she showed yesterday, this will be her last day.

Of course she will have to maintain the weight on her own or out comes the tube

.

Yay

Almost there.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

3lbs, 15.1oz... She ate pretty good yesterday, but she must have pooped more. Well, I guess it's at least one more day of syringe feeding...

 

[Miss Lydia]

3lbs, 15.1oz... She ate pretty good yesterday, but she must have pooped more. Well, I guess it's at least one more day of syringe feeding...

What goes in one end comes out the other alot more.

If she only knew this will all stop at 4Lbs. Glad to hear she is eating pretty good though.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Hopefully last tube feeding day v2.0. BTW, with the new tube, I really can't feed on my knees the way the video from Kathy shows for 2 reasons. 1: my knees aren't that good and 2: big belly, little duck... where did she go???

So I am still basically doing it the same way as my video, but there are a few changes. Since the tube is larger in diameter, I think it is less likely to catch on the edge of her trachea when going in. I roll it slightly as I insert it and bam! it is started. Since I hold her like a pistol (which she definitely is

) with my palm and thumb holding her head, my "trigger" finger curled in the corner of her mouth and my other 3 fingers lightly around her neck, I can actually feel the larger tube going down against the inside of my fingers, so when it passes my pinkie, (I know it has fully inserted through the top curve of her neck and is where the crop starts to expand) I stop. There is still quite a bit of tube outside the duck and I don't have to bring the syringe near her face. I can depress the plunger (which is much easier now) in any position. Casey is now very calm with this and only fights me when I initially try to open her mouth so I think it is much less stress on her. When I'm done, I let go of her (while holding the tube) and she calmly pulls away so the tube can come out. I figure as long as she is calm, she can control the speed and angle there. Once the tube is out, she is perfectly calm so I think this is much less stress than the smaller tube which could rattle around in her esophagus much more. So for anyone's reference I am using a Fr 20 catheter hose with the very tip cut off (just so it is one hole on the end instead of 2 on the sides) and Casey is a 4 lb. Khaki Campbell.

Casey got a bath later in the day and after she was mostly preened, I got her to climb up on my arm which I had on the ground. She stayed there for 45 minutes with one slide off onto the towel after which she immediately climbed back on. Now this is more amazing since she did all her preening activities from there... Preened her back, her butt sideways, her chest and belly and even flapped her wings and scratched her face with one foot. I could tell the balance on some of these activities was hard for her since my arm has much more give than the floor so she must have really wanted to be there. Whether it was for the foot warmer or the contact or the roundness I am not sure. I could lift up my arm and move it, and even rotated it slowly so that she walked around my arm and into my palm before she went back to the floor. Silly bird!





She also got a visit from Allie today since Allie had a very dirty frozen butt so she got nabbed for a shower. They actually got in a little bit of a chest grabbing scuffle in the living room. Surprising, but they weren't too violent with it. After about 3 minutes, Casey gave in and that was it. I think the root of that is because in the brooder, Casey was dominant, Latte was second and Allie was pretty much helpless because walking took all her strength and concentration. Now that Allie is full grown, there is no way a duck that weighed in this morning at under 4 lbs is going to dominate Allie's 9lbs, 15.4oz self. At 2-1/2 times Casey's weight, Allie is boss. After that, they preened, ate, drank and pooped together. Partially because of the last one, as soon as Allie was fully dry, she went back out and joined her flock.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Hopefully last tube feeding day v2.0. BTW, with the new tube, I really can't feed on my knees the way the video from Kathy shows for 2 reasons. 1: my knees aren't that good and 2: big belly, little duck... where did she go???

So I am still basically doing it the same way as my video, but there are a few changes. Since the tube is larger in diameter, I think it is less likely to catch on the edge of her trachea when going in. I roll it slightly as I insert it and bam! it is started. Since I hold her like a pistol (which she definitely is

) with my palm and thumb holding her head, my "trigger" finger curled in the corner of her mouth and my other 3 fingers lightly around her neck, I can actually feel the larger tube going down against the inside of my fingers, so when it passes my pinkie, (I know it has fully inserted through the top curve of her neck and is where the crop starts to expand) I stop. There is still quite a bit of tube outside the duck and I don't have to bring the syringe near her face. I can depress the plunger (which is much easier now) in any position. Casey is now very calm with this and only fights me when I initially try to open her mouth so I think it is much less stress on her. When I'm done, I let go of her (while holding the tube) and she calmly pulls away so the tube can come out. I figure as long as she is calm, she can control the speed and angle there. Once the tube is out, she is perfectly calm so I think this is much less stress than the smaller tube which could rattle around in her esophagus much more. So for anyone's reference I am using a Fr 20 catheter hose with the very tip cut off (just so it is one hole on the end instead of 2 on the sides) and Casey is a 4 lb. Khaki Campbell.

Casey got a bath later in the day and after she was mostly preened, I got her to climb up on my arm which I had on the ground. She stayed there for 45 minutes with one slide off onto the towel after which she immediately climbed back on. Now this is more amazing since she did all her preening activities from there... Preened her back, her butt sideways, her chest and belly and even flapped her wings and scratched her face with one foot. I could tell the balance on some of these activities was hard for her since my arm has much more give than the floor so she must have really wanted to be there. Whether it was for the foot warmer or the contact or the roundness I am not sure. I could lift up my arm and move it, and even rotated it slowly so that she walked around my arm and into my palm before she went back to the floor. Silly bird!





She also got a visit from Allie today since Allie had a very dirty frozen butt so she got nabbed for a shower. They actually got in a little bit of a chest grabbing scuffle in the living room. Surprising, but they weren't too violent with it. After about 3 minutes, Casey gave in and that was it. I think the root of that is because in the brooder, Casey was dominant, Latte was second and Allie was pretty much helpless because walking took all her strength and concentration. Now that Allie is full grown, there is no way a duck that weighed in this morning at under 4 lbs is going to dominate Allie's 9lbs, 15.4oz self. At 2-1/2 times Casey's weight, Allie is boss. After that, they preened, ate, drank and pooped together. Partially because of the last one, as soon as Allie was fully dry, she went back out and joined her flock.

That is just so cute. She feels very comfortable with her daddy.