Lost duck to predator

[downsm75]

Poor baby! I'm so sorry for your loss!

 

[Miss Lydia]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y73/lcdavis85/Miisc/IMG_1118.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y73/lcdavis85/Miisc/IMG_1114.jpg

This is what she looks like now after 3 weeks? my goodness I'd say it's a miracle she made it.

 

[EmAbTo48]

Looks like some type of bird attack honestly. We have had so many here its horrible! On 4th of July I brought our dog in which I usually don't do because it was 100 degree here. Well of course at about 4pm stupid bald eagle attacked one of my pekins. I HATE BALD EAGLES! They are nasty vultures in my opinion. They don't kill the duck right away but eat it to death. Anyway, I look out my window and see the eagle on a duck run out to chase it off and my poor duck was just a mess. (short to say it was that bad we had to euthanize her right then and their she had not chance of life but of course was still alive )

I wish you luck because I normally would put a duck down with that extent of damage to its back. But if shes doing better thats awesome!!!

 

[Going Quackers]

This is what she looks like now after 3 weeks? my goodness I'd say it's a miracle she made it.

Oh my goodness, i agree!

 

[ducklucky]

OMG, how horrible to see your babies being tortured like that. Darn hawks and eagles. We have friend about 10 miles away toward coast, and he has constant problem with eagles, they devastated his chicken flock, just about wiped them out. He now has mesh over the pen and staggers their outings. What time of day do you typically see them? Know you said the attack was in late afternoon, but do you notice them at other times? We have hawk inland here, and fox, but have seen eagles, they tend to stay closer to the water. Just staggering outings. Thought these "vultures" hunted more in the AM, but we see hawk circling at all times of the day. Can always tell, the ducks go dead silent with an eye to the sky, and there it is, way high. Just stand out there waving a big walking stick and it eventually circles away. "They" say if you fire a shot in the air it will scare them off, but I don't believe that is a permanent fix. We have hung metal pie plates all over, and "they" say the shine and reflection and noise in the wind will make them go away. So far, that has worked. Maybe a scarecrow with some action to it, like an arm holding up the pie plates??? Going to try that, will let all know how it works. Wish it was legal to shoot the darn things...

 

[Jmpeters]

So sorry for ur loss. It's hard to so them lookin so bad. I lost 8 pekins to raccoons in one night. The 2 that survived had small patches of feathers missing. I was furious, I keep a trap set at all times now. But they're doing good now. One male and one female, gonna hatch out some eggs when they start laying. Hope u find a friend for Lucky, they so entertaining to have around.

 

[EmAbTo48]

OMG, how horrible to see your babies being tortured like that. Darn hawks and eagles. We have friend about 10 miles away toward coast, and he has constant problem with eagles, they devastated his chicken flock, just about wiped them out. He now has mesh over the pen and staggers their outings. What time of day do you typically see them? Know you said the attack was in late afternoon, but do you notice them at other times? We have hawk inland here, and fox, but have seen eagles, they tend to stay closer to the water. Just staggering outings. Thought these "vultures" hunted more in the AM, but we see hawk circling at all times of the day. Can always tell, the ducks go dead silent with an eye to the sky, and there it is, way high. Just stand out there waving a big walking stick and it eventually circles away. "They" say if you fire a shot in the air it will scare them off, but I don't believe that is a permanent fix. We have hung metal pie plates all over, and "they" say the shine and reflection and noise in the wind will make them go away. So far, that has worked. Maybe a scarecrow with some action to it, like an arm holding up the pie plates??? Going to try that, will let all know how it works. Wish it was legal to shoot the darn things...

This is our first year with Eagles. We had 2 adults that would sit above in our trees ALL DAY EVERYDAY. They were more scared of us and if you would yell and hoot and hollar at them they both would fly away. They killed 2 ducks my first 2 I have ever lost. After leaving our Lab out they eventually got bored and we haven't seen them for about 6 months. More recently, we had a young Bald Eagle we think one of the adults off spring would sit right by the pen I came outside every morning for about 3 weeks seeing him sitting on one of our bird houses we have up about 25 feet from the duck pen just watching them. I would scare it off and leave the dog out all day and we never lost any ducks. But he came back every morning around 7am and every evening around 5-6pm sitting up in the trees just waiting. We usually our outside in the evenings.

Anyways, our pekin on the 4th was the only casuality from this eagle I so WISH you could shoot these things. Our neighbors that own a huge sheep farm lost 4 newborn lambs to eagles this year they were very upset called the DNR and everything.

Our ducks have a large shed 10X12 and they have a large run that I open for them to come out in the morning. I have now been not letting them out till about 10am nor the chickens. We have geese but they seem to leave the geese alone think they are double the size of the eagle! Anyways, I then leave our lab out all day long even though she hates it. We have put a down payment for a Great Pyrenees puppy this coming Spring (would get one this fall but we are expecting our second child in November) and we are going to train it to be LGD and one that would rather stay outside to watch then to be inside like our Lab. But at least with the Lab the eagles won't come in the yard so she is helping even though she really doesn't want too

We also use fake owls on all our runs this seems to work great. I am not sure what it is about Owls to a Eagle but they seem to deter them from coming around the pens (even though our pens do have netting over the top of them.

It is so sad because my ducks now stay super close to their runs they used to go all over our property I loved watching them. Now they are scared all the time constantly looking up in the sky

 

[newbyduckmom]

We had an eagle attack a little over a month ago that killed on of our drakes. The darned thing comes back and sits in the tree in our front yard every day and just waits. The ducks are in a covered tractor. If they are out foraging I am within 5 feet of them (which they hate). I used to love eagle, but now I see one and wonder if that was the one that gutted Watson. :0(

 

[theduckmeister]

I raised a set of 6 mallards and 2 Pekins from duckling this past spring to release in the pond in our front yard. Once they were released as adults, it was only a week before the female pekin turned up dead along with one of the mallards, we think because of an owl or hawk. We hadn't had any problems up until a few days ago when the male pekin, Ping, was running around with a bloody wing dragging on the ground. I found it hiding in some shrubbery and recaptured it. The bones just below the shoulder were totally exposed and cleanly broken, and the wing was half hanging on by the muscles and tendons. This was almost definitely thanks to a 3.5 ft. gator we have seen recently. We called our vet and told us to amputate it, and since my dad happens to be a doctor we were able to do it cleanly and then cauterize the wound and stop the bleeding. We disinfected it with rubbing alcohol and put it in the cage it was raised in with adequate food and water. Its flock visits it during the day. Yesterday I noticed a few maggots moving around on the wound and wet it with rubbing alcohol to try and kill them and any bacteria trying to infect it. I saw a few more again today and did the same thing. I've also heard that maggots aren't all bad as they only eat the dead flesh. Any help here? Also, I'm doubtful as to how much food he's eating (corn) but he's definitely drinking water, preening himself, moving around, and looking otherwise healthy. Any advice for Amputee Ping would be greatly appreciated.

 

[hfchristy]

I don't know whether ALL maggots are bad, but having read posts about fly-strike, I think I'd be overly cautious.