Is the vet worth it

[corriemartin]

For us, no. As much as we love our ducks, they're livestock.

 

[MissE]

My chickens are not pets, they are livestock. I wouldn't consider a vet worth it unless I needed a diagnosis to determine if a problem could infect my entire flock. Minor injuries would be treated at home. Anything else would be cured by culling. I'm not going to nurse a chronically ill bird.

 

[DucksOhio]

I’m of the school for veterinary care. Yes, they can be expensive, but my ducks are pets, not livestock. For me, whenever I take on an animal, I consider it my duty to care for it for life.

 

[SolarDuck]

It's really impossible to tell what the vet will end up costing unless you take them there and find out. Generally I won't rush to the vet right away because I will make a thread on here first about the injury or problem just to see if there is any easy way to treat it. If I try treating it myself and don't really get anywhere within a few days, that is when I will take to the vet. The hundred dollar exam fee is absolutely worth it, for sure. Whatever treatment or medicine your vet prescribes could be anywhere from $20 to $2000, its really hard to know unless you take them there and get some tests done. And then you just have to decide whether the amount you'll have to pay is worth it to you.

 

[VeryHappyHens]

It's really impossible to tell what the vet will end up costing unless you take them there and find out. Generally I won't rush to the vet right away because I will make a thread on here first about the injury or problem just to see if there is any easy way to treat it. If I try treating it myself and don't really get anywhere within a few days, that is when I will take to the vet. The hundred dollar exam fee is absolutely worth it, for sure. Whatever treatment or medicine your vet prescribes could be anywhere from $20 to $2000, its really hard to know unless you take them there and get some tests done. And then you just have to decide whether the amount you'll have to pay is worth it to you.

I agree . I do at home treatment if that does work I take me chicken or the duck to the vet.and talking a chicken or a duck to the vet is cheaper than talking a dog or cat. If the vet nurse is nice enough she will give you a discount. Most vet nurses give you a discount. I have gotten really good discounts. It makes taking them to the vet cheap. People do not realize unless they take there poultry bird to the vet. They may make it sound expensive but they give you surprise discounts. They try to go cheap with all the hard work they do. Now for some vets if they do not give discounts all they want is money.

 

[DucksOhio]

I have great appreciation for many folks here who have done home remedies, like bumblefoot surgery. Personally, I don’t have the confidence to do this myself. If YOU can, I absolutely applaud you.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

Gosh, this question doesn't have one true answer. I wish I had an avian vet nearby and would spend $100 without question if it meant saving the life of one of my chickens or ducks. Not that I have $100 to just throw around for about 50 animals. In my case, I had a duck that was suffering with bumblefoot off and on for 8 months and it was back and worse than before. I tried everything I knew to try and didn't seem to be getting anywhere. I called some avian vet's that I found with a Google search and found an avian vet to see Honey BooBoo that was 2 hours away on October 22 2020. They charged me just under $250 and told me that there was no options at all and she needed to be euthanized, preferably that day. I declined and they sent her back to me with 3 or 4 days worth of pain meds and said that I'd be back before I ran out of meds to have her euthanized. I cried the whole way home and dug deeper into everything I was doing at home and increased everything. Currently Honey BooBoo is right outside my door quacking loudly and chasing her favorite Drake on March 5th 2021. I mention this story because I wouldn't spend money at another vet without finding out about the vet and how they deal with treating an animal. I'm certainly not saying that I know more than the vet that I'm referring to, not by the longest shot ever. This vet just didn't value Honey like I did and didn't want to put her butt on the line for any further treatment that may or may not work. I kind of get it because so many people don't understand why anyone would spend money to treat a pet that in their mind can be replaced for $5 bucks. I respect that way of thinking but I don't agree with it. Another thing is that this vet didn't take the time to figure out exactly what I was doing at home to see if there was any possibility of tweaking things to help. I just feel very let down and disappointed by my first experience with an avian vet. I would ask around, read reviews, and speak to a vet tech to see how things go at any future avian vet I plan to see, if I absolutely have to go to one. I will always try everything in my power to treat myself because I just don't have that kind of money. If something came up, I would figure it out.
Only you can make that decision for yourself and I don't envy you being in that position. I wish you the very best

 

[Dux]

I have a Peking drake, very big but only 5 months old. A few weeks ago he suffered a foot injury, looks like his middle toe is broken. He was unable to really put weight on the foot but he still managed to get around. I isolated him and put him in a pool to swim and get exercise everyday to try and help him best I could. Now it looks like his leg is infected and his foot almost entirely useless, and he has foamy eyes which may or may not be related. The closest vet that accepts ducks charges almost $100 just for a checkup. Another thing: I recently lost 3 golden comet hens and a chocolate English Orpington rooster to some nocturnal predators. Is it worth taking my duck to the vet for that price? I have them locked up at night, but another predator attack is a possibility, especially as it starts to get warmer around here. Any opinions? Also any diy treatment options I could try? I’d hate to have to put him down, but as bad as it may sound I’m not sure it’s worth the price of a vet checkup, let alone actual treatment fees. Thanks

This would be a tough call for me. It's not the expense - which luckily I can handle - it's the unhappiness I would likely be inflicting. My duck Clementine broke her toe last spring and it was an absolute nightmare trying to fix it. I took her to the avian vet probably a dozen times over the course of a couple of months (she started out with mild bumblefoot but one morning about 3 weeks in I came downstairs to the mudroom where she was convalescing and her toe was broken). She was on twice daily antibiotics for months (the first was ineffective against the infection), the pain medicine made her vomit (dose prescribed was likely too high given her weight loss) and she was isolated in a small pen the regular duck pen to try to keep her more immobile. She was SO unhappy - she would shout "Bwock!" at the top of her lungs when I came near. She pulled off the splint and wrap that the vet applied overnight and when I drove back (45 minutes each way) to have it re-wrapped they decided not to splint it. Her toe never healed straight and she seems to have a permanent callus/swelling where the break is, as though she is putting awkward pressure on the foot when walking, though she doesn't limp at all. Anyway, about eight months from the end of treatment she acts totally normal, has her sassy personality back and FINALLY seems to have forgiven me for all I subjected her to. (She actually let me stroke her tummy yesterday for the first time ever and even closed her eyes dreamily while I was petting her - it was sooooo cute!) I love her, so I would definitely try to help her, taking her to the vet as needed, but if the treatment started to seem utterly miserable for her for months on end, I'd have to really weigh it in my heart and might decide to cease treatment.