ducks stole my heart
In the Brooder
- Dec 7, 2022
- 8
- 15
- 16
My sweet girl was attacked by a neighbors dog (that frequently is loose) and her wound is horrifying. I'm a nurse of 20 yrs and have seen some outrageous mangles and mutilations, but this stopped me in my tracks. Basically, the entire left side of her neck is gone. From just above her breast to about 2" below her jaw/cheek. I can see muscle striation and small tendons. When she takes a breath she opens her mouth and sucks air in accompanied by a strong wheeze. I have seen this in people which commonly points to a collapsed lung. I was at work when the incident took place and my son phoned me to tell me what happened. When I got here 20 minutes later she amazingly was still alive. She was exceptionally thirsty, I'm assuming from the tremendous amount of blood loss, so I went ahead and let her have a small sip which part of that came out of a hole in her neck and she coughed slightly afterwards. This would lead me to believe that there is a tear somewhere in her esophagus and trachea which deeply concerns me about the risk of aspiration. To my most astounded jaw-dropping disbelief she is still alive and does not appear to be in any form of severe pain or respiratory distress. She's actually quite calm is up and walking around slowly and just wants to sit quietly and catch a nap. I am sure that blood loss, trauma, and shock all play a part in this. But I honestly expected her to be gone several hours ago. This took place about one in the afternoon and it is now 11:00 p.m. I have applied gauze as a pressure dressing and wrapped the wound with Coban as effectively as possible. I have allowed her a few more sips of water since then and she does not seem to cough when she swallows but I can no longer see if it's draining from her neck because of the dressing. I have called every vet within a 60 Mi radius and none of them will care for a duck. (Any other animal no problem Farm or wild to domesticated.) I of course am prepared for the worst and will be most devastated, but I will not allow her to suffer at all if she starts to appear that she is in distress or severe pain. By some miracle Act of God should she survive this anyone have any tips on what to do with a collapsed lung and this massive wound. I cannot place a chest tube on her for the lung and getting that hole to close up is going to take many months. Currently I have her inside with me and put her in a cat carrier when I cannot be at her immediate side so that she is protected and she has to lay down in there so she's not too rambunctious. Any thoughts or any kind of help would be so greatly welcome and appreciated I cannot begin to express my gratitude.
