My Love Affair With Ducks...

[duluthralphie]

And here is how it ends. Incase you wondered..

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Ouch. I've found that the needles used on my insulin pens aren't that bad, unless you happen to poke a nerve, but the bigger ones used for drawing blood samples consistently hurt a bit. It's a weird feeling, too, having something under your skin... the rubber band that they use on the upper arm feels funny, too. But, it's quick, and important to find out whether or not I have some blood disease or chemical imbalance -- the kind of info that they can't get from just the little prick they do to test my HbA1c.
But, I digress. I... think. Anyway, just stay calm in the presence of needles, look away, and think of ducks. Big ducks, little ducks, call ducks -- basically little ducks, I know -- roast ducks.
(That's something that I've never had, actually -- roast duck. I hear that it's all dark meat).

No problems with prick tests at all! - But when i see even a tiny needle on top of a syringe it grows to the size of an oil-pipeline in my mind and the syringe develops an evil grin…
I know all psychological! Maybe that prevents me from ever developing diabetes.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I can show you a real bird fight.
I have a hen and rooster that hate each other..

And here is how it ends. Incase you wondered..

Love it that the gobbler finally realizes »Hey i'm much larger than that bully! Let's waltz!«
I'm waiting for the day when Brownie Drake realizes that he is twice the size of Erpelchen and beats the cr@p out of that bully!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I feel ya. I got a horrible ratio of 5 drakes to 2 females a few years ago. Luckily I found a nice new home for the boys but it's hard for sure when they're pets

So....
when are you getting these new ducks?

When Wifie goes on a three week vacation tour!
No seriously i almost had her, she loves to eat duck-eggs and we started to make enough money for food and bedding by selling some of the eggs to that asian supermarket and more ducks means more duck-eggs…
Then came that stupid beer virus and the eggs have started to pile up here again.

 

[Texag87]

@WannaBeHillBilly have you ever tried selling on craigslist ? My neighbors daughter had been selling his chicken eggs like crazy on there.

 

[Mimi13]

https://youtu.be/Vt6WAEwICyY

I meant to post this video a couple of days ago showing Twinkle violently shaking her head, almost like she had gotten food/water going down the wrong pipe. I actually saw her doing this on two separate occasions, but thank goodness I hope she is over that hump.

 

[Mimi13]

I just realized I’ve been attaching these duck videos all wrong. The earlier ones don’t necessarily show a video in the post, just the clickable title.

Sorry bout that!

 

[Mimi13]

Saturday morning news!

Twinkle does not appearing to be getting better...at all, even though I thought she was yesterday.

• I found her this morning with her bill in the food.
• I quickly put her under the heat while I got egg yolk.
• Very weak
• Lethargic
• Empty crop
• Poop has no substance, just water
• ETA: her weight did increase from yesterday 0.2 ounces.

I cannot get her to wick in any liquid medicine or eat any egg yolk. She is in my lap wrapped in a little blanket, barely cheeping, mostly just with closed eyes.

Is this a result of not getting vitamin E in her? I am supposed to be quarantined because of my health and my DH has been working round the clock because of this stupid virus. I’m not asking for sympathy just maybe some other ways to get vitamin E into her.

I think she’s to the point now of tube feeding. I only have the tubing for a grown chicken, which I’m certain is too large. And it’s not as easy to get a duck mouth open as it is a chicken

I don’t want her to die because of something I’ve failed to do.

 

[Sapphire Sebright]

Aw, poor thing. Good luck with her -- I hope that she pulls through. Even if she doesn't, though, you tried your best. Sometimes we just can't save the little things, and we can only do our best with the others.
Best of luck.

 

[Mimi13]

I found some IV line that I had saved from my DS’s hospitalization in December. Took forever to fine a syringe that would fit in it, but I finally did.
I filed the end of the tube off smooth, at a slant.

I took some of the crushed duck feed (still way too big for the tube), and added some of their water with Vitamin B in it. I let it set a few minutes hoping to pull a little nutrition from the feed. In the meantime I cut open a tea bag and washed it really well. Then I poured the watery mixture into the tea bag and squeezed it into a bowl and sucked it up into the syringe. Oh, I did add a tad of Nutri Drench to it as well. I ran the syringe under hot water to warm the contents before giving it to the baby.

With common sense, ingenuity and a little improvising, anything is possible, except getting Vitamin E. I wish I could pull that outta my _ _ _.

I sat down with her in a well lit area (but that did no good.) I definitely couldn’t see down her throat like I could a chicken. Since I couldn’t see the esophagus or the trachea I bit the bullet and started inserting the tube on the right side of her throat very slowly. This was go big or go home time! She was swallowing a little bit as I pushed the tube in so I felt okay. I stretched her neck up and tubed about 1cc into her on two different occasions.

I held her for about 5 minutes after tubing and patted her back some and just talked to her. I put her back under the heat and went to let the chickens out. They all but cussed me out for letting them out late! Ungrateful little peckers!

So I begin the waiting game. I hope she pulls through, but I’m afraid she will succumb from just plain old failure to thrive. I know this sounds mean, but I don’t want to spend 85% of my time on 15% of my ducklings. I’m afraid this is a critical bonding period for the remaining five and they are missing out. Slap me now!