Injured foot. Cause for concern?

[TJAnonymous]

I have a 5 yr old Silver Appleyard duck hen who has somehow injured her toe pad. She is already the heaviest and slowest duck in the flock. I currently have her in a bathtub in the house. Do you think she will be okay in the pen with all the others? I am mostly concerned about infection.

 

[Jenbirdee]

Poor sweetie that looks a little painful . I bet she’s a beautiful duck. I would keep her inside a few days to keep it clean and prevent infection. Give her a lukewarm epson salt water soak then then use an antibacterial ointment that does not contain pain relief.
When she goes outside, you could wrap it use a gauze pad with the ointment and then Vet wrap. There are several good YouTube videos if you search forhow to wrap a duck’s foot.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Thank you @Jenbirdee. She is quite a heavy girl and I'm sure standing on that foot probably hurts. I let my ducks free range during the day so they can trek down to their pond. She would be distressed to be left behind so I'm certain she is probably walking on it a lot to follow everybody.

I'm just relieved it was only a torn toenail. There was a a bit of blood in the pen and she had blood all over her head and belly so I was mega worried she had been attacked by something. But after searching her over, this was the only wound I could find.

 

[Jenbirdee]

You are so right it is stressful for them to be alone so when I keep a duck inside i bring a friend duck in too. She may have just stepped on something sharp and tore it open. Their little soft webby feet go through so much. I wonder how the webbing survives . I walk around my yard picking up anything like sticks or stones might scrape them.
Cleaning , ointment , and wrapping can be enough if she needs to stay out with her friends just change the bandage every day. I had a chicken who needed to stay out when she was healing after bumble foot I just brought out with me every morning my spray bottle of vetricyn and tube of ointment and the vet wrap, scissors, plus waterproof tape. , in a Ziploc gallon bag when I would redress her foot outside in the morning every day..
you said she is very heavy. Is she overweight? What is her diet? Perhaps too many treats?

 

[TJAnonymous]

No, my ducks don't really like treats... Weirdly enough. They've always refused everything I've tried to give them - blueberries, peas, watermelon, all of it.

She is a naturally large breed... But I feel like she's large, even for her breed. I've never weighed her but I feel like she is probably close to 10 lbs easily. This is a picture of her from 2 years ago, I think. She is now bigger than the Pekins in this picture.

Anyway, I ended up putting her back in the coop tonight. Her wound looked scabbed over. And, when I came home from work, she was standing in a mix of dirty water (that she spilled) and duck poop in her quarantine pen. I figured that their coop, pen, and pond are far cleaner and less likely to create infection than that...