Newborn Indian Runner duckling with a piece of eggshell stuck in one eye

[Papaye]

Hi.

Ducklings are being born today, and I found one of them with a white, weird discharge in one eye :

(Sorry : I could not take a better picture!!)

Of course, when I saw it, I took the duckling from its mama to get it inside of my house in order to get rid of this discharge : I was afraid not removing it would cause blindness in this eye.

And so, I first tried to clean its eye with a wet Q-tip; and... that did not work : when I tried to slide the white thing to get it out of the eye, it did not move.

I noticed then this white discharge looked and felt more solid than liquid; so, I chose to directly remove it with my fingers - or more so with my fingernails!
...And thanks God I did, because I don't think this baby's eye could have been saved otherwise : indeed, the discharge was solid... because it was a piece of eggshell; and it was so big I actually was scared to have made a mistake when I got it out of the eye - since it was clearly stuck in part around the eyeball, and I was afraid to have made some kind of damages by removing it like I did...

...But I could get this entire piece eggshell out of the eye (it does seem to be the case, at least!), and my duckling did not even suffer...

But now : what?
Is my duckling at risk of an eye infection? Or of losing its eye...?
And if ever I'm mistaken and there is still a piece of eggshell in the eye... will it get out by itself?

For now, my duckling's eye looks finally and totally fine... but do I have to worry anyway? Since he is just born, and is still weak of course...

That never happened before, so I would appreciate any advice...!
Thank you!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Rinsing in warm salt water can help. Here in the US we can also get Veterycin that by comes in a spray that’s safe and also they have it for eyes too but the spray for wounds and infection is safe to use also. Hopefully just getting out is all that’s needed there is also Terramycin eye ointment I imagine in France there are products you can get that are very similar to what we can get here.

 

[Papaye]

Rinsing in warm salt water can help.

I did not rinse its eye after taking off the piece of eggshell, since it looked good after that, and so I was scared to do something stupid if I rinsed my duckling's eye. (Like : actually hurting this poor baby!)

Still, I will look first thing tomorrow morning at its eye!!

Here in the US we can also get Veterycin that by comes in a spray that’s safe and also they have it for eyes too but the spray for wounds and infection is safe to use also. Hopefully just getting out is all that’s needed there is also Terramycin eye ointment I imagine in France there are products you can get that are very similar to what we can get here.

I... actually don't know about that? I don't remember if I ever had to buy eyes treatments for my pets...
But it should be sold elsewhere, I hope?
I will have to ask. To the right people...

...Thank you for answering!!
I can't help but worry about this duckling, especially since it was a BIG piece of eggshells (compared with the size of its eye)...!

 

[Papaye]

Hi.

(I forgot to update this thread, THEN I remembered it...)

Duckling is doing good.
Indeed : after removing the piece of eggshell from his eyes, there were NO complication... in spite of the fact I actually did not treat him furthermore (not even using eye drops, since he did not look like he needed them).

Thus, ultimately, I was worried for nothing... but, of course, we can't never be too careful (when some things happen) : duckling was lucky, but he could have not been...

...Here he is (the Light Dusky duckling at the center of the picture) :

 

[Miss Lydia]

They are gorgeous and glad to hear all is well.