Injured Duck...need advice before i take her to the vet in 8hrs time.

[Wokawidget]

Hi,

To cut a long story short my ducks weren't locked up when it was dark. I thought that with the garden being completely sealed with 7' fence panels there wouldn't really be an issue.
At midnight a cat attacked my Campbell, called Boggling, and I was alerted by my runner duck who ran the length of the garden to my back door and started doing her "COME HERE NOW!!!" quack. I got outside as the cat had her pinned down in the mud.

Boggling has a 1" laseration to the side of her neck...only the skin has been sliced and has pulled back to show flesh. From what I can see there appears to be no damage to her neck muscles and it's not bleeding.
She also has a bite mark right between her shoulder blades. This looks a little deeper and is bleeding a little...but it just looks like a flesh wound.

I am going to take her to the vets 1st thing in the morning to get stitched up, but I wanted some advice on what I should do tonight.
She's alert and sipping water and doesn't look in shock...she even likes a belly stroke. She's herself, but I little quieter, as can be expected. She keeps trying to preene herself but her neck hurts so she can't reach around.

So far I have:

Washed her of all the wet mud.
Given her clean water
Sat her on the sofa on top of a hot water bottle
Put the hair dryer on to dry her off and warm her up

What should I do with the wounds...dress them and stop them from drying out?
I only have basic 1st aid here and certainly don't have special duck tranqs or antibiotics etc.

thanks
Woka

 

[LuckyDuck411]

Ducks seems to be pretty hardy, but a cat's mouth has ALOT of bacteria. I would just make sure her wounds are clean. Any antiseptic cleanser would be good for the wounds to flush out the bacteria.

I won't recommend the hair dryer...you don't want to overheat your duck. Especially if the duck has its adult feathers.

 

[Wokawidget]

Thanks for the advice.

Hair dryer off ages ago...I just used it to dry her off to stop her shivering from the cold mud.
Wounds are clean...not sure if I have any wipes of that nature.
I am an antiseptic avoider so we don't have anything like that in the house I'm afraid.

I may have some human antiseptic cream in the 1st aid kit...would that do the trick? If yes, not sure how happy she'll be if I put it on...from when I was a kid I am sure that stuff stings.

Woka

 

[FunnyBunnies12]

If you have plain Neosporin without pain reliever that will work, she may have an abscess by morning from the cat, abscesses are NASTY on any animal, and human if a cat bites them. My cat bit my house rabbit, it got a horrific abscess and after doses after doses of different kinds of potent antibiotics she ended up losing part of her ear because the abscess was so horrific, regardless because of a cat bite she needs to be on antibiotics. Maybe you could dilute peroxide or iodine and touch it, anything to keep those nasty bacteria filled germs away as much as possible. Good luck! I know Baytril is awesome antibiotics for rabbits, especially for abscesses, not sure about ducks though, might want to ask the vet about that one.

 

[Wokawidget]

Hi

I am afraid I don't have any of those chemicals.
I can remember having iodine on a server cut on my shoulder once. Wow. It hurt!

Well Boggling is alive and kicking. She's much perkier now, although just wants to sit on the end of the sofa instead of running around.
The farm vet said the same that has been mentioned here about cat bites. Shes had an injection of biotics and the vet said bring her back in 4 days if she's not better.

She did not treat the wounds as she said they will heal on their own, which is impressive as the neck wound i would have definately thought would have required stitches...but then again i'm no vet as I am a programmer, I was just thinking what surgery i have had in the past when i have injured myself like that )
I should give her clean water to play in...not pond water...which goes without saying when she has an open wound.

Apart from that just lots of tlc and cuddles.

woka

 

[Hattiegun]

glad to hear shes doing well

 

[LuckyDuck411]

Glad she is doing well!