In the past couple of hours my white Muscovy has managed to somehow crack her beak. Is there anything I should do or put on it? It doesn't seem to bother her. Here is a picture of the crack: The crack is at the top of the blood and the rest is a dried blood trail.
does she have a bucket deep enough to wash her face? she'll clean it up herself and most likely it will heal on it's own. I doubt there is much you can put on it that she won't wash off. Once one of my ducks did something like that and I sprayed Vetrycin on it at bedtime so she couldn't wash it off . But she will probably heal up fine doing nothing.
I agree the Veterycin would be a good idea, and if you are herbally inclined, you might look into dilute chamomile tea. I have used that on bill injuries, though ours have been minor - abrasions and punctures, not like this. Giving opportunity to rinse in fairly clean water frequently should help, and if it were me I would smear some triple antibiotic across the top of the bill at night for five to seven days to be on the safe side. I would also probably put comfrey salve on the bill once a day for a few days, too. But when it comes to home remedy stuff, you need to do what you feel is good. These are just some ideas for you to explore. Vitamins can help the body heal, too.
Unfortunately, we had a duck who had a cracked bill too. He/she didn't do it to her/him self, however. Someone (NOT me) I know dropped something on the duck's bill by accident when we still had a heat lamp on the in the garage when they were babies. I put (pain med free) Bacitracin on it for several days. It was a deep crack on the top bill about 1/4 to 1/2 inch long. I was going to have the vet check it out when I took in two Pekin a couple of weeks later. We grabbed all 11 Khakis and only one had a very faint mark. I thought we hadn't found the "right one" but realized too late that the "scarred" one was that duck. Since it looked great, we didn't bother to take the duck in. It looked bad at first but healed up so you can't tell at all now. I have heard or read that ducks with SERIOUS predator induced bill injuries can be helped at the vet with a plaster and I imagine IV or injectable antibiotics. I have not tried the Veterycin ointment but imagine it would be even better. In a pinch, you could use Bacitracin for now to prevent infection and promote healing. I have noticed that when I used Bacitracin on a cut that it gets far less red and heals remarkably faster than using other ointments or applying nothing. I think I applied the ointment at least in the AM and PM for about 7-10 days. I would apply it until it heals.
I also used peroxide and Bacitracin on a duck who had a small tear (caught on a pricker bush) on its webbed foot. I had read statements by others that a tear in the webbing will never heal. The tear COMPLETELY healed and the vet didn't even suggest isolation or reduced activity. She said to just let it do everything with all the others.
