Lock your ducks up @ night! - Very Discouraged... (slightly graphic)

[stargazingmommy]

I'm not a vet nurse but a human one...that said I wouldn't use straight peroxide, it will debride the wound, but also kill good tissue. half strength with saline would be better for the cleaning.

I don't know much about getting rid of maggots, but I would do a light dusting of diatomaceous earth, an attempt to dry them out an kill them.

 

[Going Quackers]

oh gosh your pain is audible.

I can relate.. ours were not loose but locked in there run but i knew nothing about animals doing a reach & grab.. do now

so i now have a recovering mucovy.. i have no idea whether it'll make it.. i figured you'd had to be horsey to since you said wonder dust.. we did the same with our injured one's wound.

You wanna hear the real crazy part? we couldn't build a duck house, so after the attack the injured one spend the night in the small brooder while the other 3 slept in a dog crate in my house... afterwards we hauled the old horse trailer up and there now spending nights in there and we're carrying them back to the run during the day( we have amped up the fencing but it's not strong enough for night attacks yet)

As for a duck house, you can look for recycled materials, skids? leftovers pieces at hardware stores.. there are a ton of ideas out there.. just search. We do have some huge industrial skids and some old deck wood coming from a friend of a friend.. to get ours started off..

Good luck!

 

[learycow]

Yes, as for housing ducks can live in a coop just like a chicken. One thing I did, was put electric fence around mine. I have 2 strands of white tape, one about 4 inches off the ground and the other one 3-4 inches above that. I bought the cheapest fence charger I could find, and I hooked it up to the fence. I plug it in at night and haven't had any problems. My dog accidentally touched it one evening and it sounded like it hurt! She yelped and won't go near it now. I think that predators who try to go under it or over it will stay away once they get bit by it too!
It's just a thought, don't know if that's an option for you or not.

 

[felicity1980]

I lost a giant rabbit to what your ducky has, he got it and as soon as we realised we went to the emergency vet but he died on the way, its what we call fly strike here in the UK....you need to go the vet asap as its an awful thing for any animal to have to go through x

 

[DuckiesAndBees]

I agree with some of the postings above- I think you need to use something to kill the larvae and not just clean the wound. Also, I've heard from the vet that when they clean out these wounds they look for "tracks" that the maggots made into the animal. Sorry to be graphic, but I just wanted you to know that there are probably more than you can see right now. If she starts acting really sick, like can't hardly move, I would probably try to put her down humanely. We have taken animals in this state to the vet and they always die of shock, even after the maggots are removed. Just my opinion. Poor little ducky!

As far as the house is concered, I use an old wooden dog house with an added door. The house was $15 at a garage sale, and the door is made up of a wood frame, some hardware cloth (wire), a couple hinges, and a latch. The whole thing was about $25. You can also try to find one of those plastic portable pet carriers, one made for a large dog. Again, I found one at a garage sale for $15. We have both of these inside a large dog kennel run where they stay during the day.

 

[DuckiesAndBees]

Also, don't beat yourself up too badly, probably everyone on here has lost a pet and thought it was all their fault. Those flies also start laying eggs within minutes of an injury, so preventing that is very difficult. Sorry for the loss of your other ducks.

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Im so sorry for your loss honey. Ceck out the little thing I recently made. Im 55 year old lady and everything on me hurts. If I can do this, you sure can attempt it. Good Luck and God Bless.
It's not finished yet, but will be soon.
Could be anchored down to keep coons out, an apron of hardware cloth on all sides would stop digging critters.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/92936_dscf3021.jpg

I hate to discourage any attempt to protect ducks but what you pictured IMO would not keep a coon out. more likely a coon would reach through those big squares pull it close and kill and eat what it wants through the opening. coons are very strong.

 

[Crayonsmom]

Quote:
I would think that would sting an awful lot. When I spray my horse with her bug spray I have to be careful because if it gets in my or her eyes it hurts! But do you know what type of spray it was or did you just go and buy any horse spray? I've stopped using Peroxide now. Similar to when my horse cut herself once in a trailer, I used it to sterilize the wound and then kept it clean with water after that.

As an update, Scuttle is doing very well! She's definitely lonely/sad (ducks probably feel some sort of sadness, right?) but is moving a little better today and stood up when I went to get her to put her in the tub. When in the tub she actually paddled herself around a bit and enjoyed some frozen peas.

 

[Crayonsmom]

Quote:
Im so sorry for your loss honey. Ceck out the little thing I recently made. Im 55 year old lady and everything on me hurts. If I can do this, you sure can attempt it. Good Luck and God Bless.
It's not finished yet, but will be soon.
Could be anchored down to keep coons out, an apron of hardware cloth on all sides would stop digging critters.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/92936_dscf3021.jpg

I hate to discourage any attempt to protect ducks but what you pictured IMO would not keep a coon out. more likely a coon would reach through those big squares pull it close and kill and eat what it wants through the opening. coons are very strong.

That's why I'm looking for something different.

What actually happened though was that the coon actually got in their enclosure. We've had ducks years ago and lost a few the same way as well with a different type of enclosure. The next one is going to have to be the right one because I'm done losing ducks. Or are you talking about the idea of buying chicken wire?

 

[Crayonsmom]

Quote:
Yuck, that's a gross thing to think about, but I should probably look for those tracks next time I clean her. hopefully the maggots hadn't gotten a chance to get that far.

So far she's doing much better and even moving better than yesterday, but I'll keep a very close eye on her. Does anyone think I should put some horse bug spray on her or not?