Injured leg. Help!

[Cass8710]

Hi! So we are new to raising ducks. We have 3 females and 1 male that were born this past May. One of our little ladies came home (they free range on the lake during the day and get locked up at night) without putting any weight on her right leg. She was so pitiful and I was so worried but we quarantined them in the coop for two days and she seemed right as rain and completely healed. I'll add I cant find any obvious injury but am not very experienced. Well we went out of town for about 4 days and when we got back she is limping very badly again. We have been locking them up for three days now and I'm not seeing any improvement. I did find a local vet I can take her to that apparently handles ducks but am not sure when i should take her in. I'm a little nervous she is going to be traumatized since she has never spent a second away from the other ducks since birth. Does anyone know what I can look for or do for her little leg?

 

[casportpony]

If a vet is an option I think that would be best. Don't worry about upsetting her, she will be fine.

 

[DuckyDonna]

Another thing you can do is get her some B-complex from Tractor Supply. Put 1ml over something she'll eat right up like mealworms and you may see improvement. Regardless, it's very good for them and will help with leg problems. Don't worry about overdosing because they just pee out the excess.

 

[Cass8710]

So I think I have realized that her middle toe area does look swollen so I think I'm going to have to try the vet.

 

[Cass8710]

So just to give an update we were able to find a place on her foot at the vet. They cleaned it up, gave me some bandages, and told me to try and keep it from getting wet. Not so easily done. So I have her and another duckie living in the bathroom which is just horrible. I'm so ready for them to go back out but ita been so wet with all the rain that I'm worried about the foot. So even if I put up a pin to keep her out of the lake I'm worried her foot would be getting too wet out there. How long does it normally take it to heal? I'll take a pic of it's current status tonight but here is a pic from the vet which was taken Friday. They also didnt lay their eggs today so I'm worried they are too stressed living inside.

 

[Miss Lydia]

When they have an opening like that bacteria can get in and cause infections so I use the non stick pads then wrap with Vet wrap. The non stick pads will help keep it dry and the vet wrap keeps the pad on and offer more protection. Just keep her out of the lake. Usually with in a week the scab is formed over and you can release her. You just don't want to get Bumble that get really nasty to treat. Shouldn't take long at all for that to heal.

 

[Cass8710]

Ok great! She has been inside for 5 days so hopefully it starts to scab over soon and we can try outside with no lake access for another week or so. I'm antsy about getting a look at it tonight when my husband gets home to help me.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Take a pic if you can!

 

[Cass8710]

So it has a little scab now so I'm thinking she will go back to the coop tomorrow

 

[Miss Lydia]

Looks great!