One of my ducks is limping.

[WannaBeHillBilly]

She is already looking better!
Just a question: Are you keeping them in there over night? - Meaning is this crate their permanent home?
I'm asking because this crate offers not much protection against predators: Weasels can just slip through the 2x2" gaps, Raccoons grab through the gaps for sleeping ducks and other predators could dig through under the rim…
And it offers little protection against winter-weather. Ducks won't need warm-water floor heating, on the contrary, they like it cold. But they do need protection from wind and precipitation. A dry duck is a warm duck!
To make this crate safer against predators, i would add ½" hardware cloth, at least one foot tall to the mesh, using wire (Raccoons chew through zip-ties!). - Don't forget the gate! One foot is enough to prevent a raccoon from grabbing a duck inside. That would not help against weasels, but those are a menace anyways, they slip through the smallest cracks and…
You can winterize this crate by lining up two layers of straw bales at the West, North and East walls and covering those walls with tarps against horizontally blowing rain/snow.

 

[FunQuail]

She is already looking better!
Just a question: Are you keeping them in there over night? - Meaning is this crate their permanent home?
I'm asking because this crate offers not much protection against predators: Weasels can just slip through the 2x2" gaps, Raccoons grab through the gaps for sleeping ducks and other predators could dig through under the rim…
And it offers little protection against winter-weather. Ducks won't need warm-water floor heating, on the contrary, they like it cold. But they do need protection from wind and precipitation. A dry duck is a warm duck!
To make this crate safer against predators, i would add ½" hardware cloth, at least one foot tall to the mesh, using wire (Raccoons chew through zip-ties!). - Don't forget the gate! One foot is enough to prevent a raccoon from grabbing a duck inside. That would not help against weasels, but those are a menace anyways, they slip through the smallest cracks and…
You can winterize this crate by lining up two layers of straw bales at the West, North and East walls and covering those walls with tarps against horizontally blowing rain/snow.

Actually that's mostly protection from like owls. We don't have weasels here from what I know, if they are never seen them. They have electric netting around their area for daytime that is very hot 24/7, then electric white lines around our entire orchard mostly to keep deer out but also a good deterrent then dogs barking and chasing stuff off all night long. As far as predator protection goes it's pretty good.
That's not my official winter set-up. Also the straw on the ground is going to be my garden next year and its for comfort off the ground and they'll stay warmer than staying on the frozen ground getting frostbite. I plan to stack to the roof straw bales on the west and north sides then on the east and south halfway. It's what is recommended in a Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks. And if you look there is a straw bale on the west and north of her crate so if something got past the dogs and two electric fences they'd have a rough time reaching through to get her at least and digging under would take a long time the ground is pretty hard haven't had that much rain lately. If something did get that far in I would hear the dogs going bananas and shine my light out my window. It's not necessarily a crate it's 6' feet wide and like 12-14 feet long I don't remember exactly. Maybe I misunderstood that part. The mesh along the bottom is smaller btw. Anyway hope this clears things up some!
Thanks!

 

[FunQuail]

Here’s some pics of what I mean by the mesh is smaller around the bottom.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I got the idea with the mesh being smaller at the bottom. I am planning a similar thing for the duck-run that i am currently building. ½" Hardware cloth is nowhere available around here, so i took 2x2" welded fencing and covered it with chicken wire for now. I won't keep a weasel out, but fortunately those are rare here too. - Or maybe they just prefer to feed on the wild rabbits here - some nights there are screams coming from the pasture… Do you have many rabbits in Kansas? (Kansas is one of the few states i have not visited...)
If you stack up the straw-bales, secure them to the crate structure! There are some threads here on BYC where folks describe cases of their favorite poultry being crushed by a straw bale.
In regards of the digging, i have terrible soil here: Red and yellow clay mixed with eroded slate and sandstone, hard as concrete when i want to dig, but the 'coons dug a shallow hole into the ground, just 3" deep during one night and got into the metal shack where i stored the duck-pellets and made a huge mess. I too thought, that since raccoons don't have power tools they can't dig holes into my soil. i was wrong.

How is your duck doing? Is she still limping?

 

[FunQuail]

I got the idea with the mesh being smaller at the bottom. I am planning a similar thing for the duck-run that i am currently building. ½" Hardware cloth is nowhere available around here, so i took 2x2" welded fencing and covered it with chicken wire for now. I won't keep a weasel out, but fortunately those are rare here too. - Or maybe they just prefer to feed on the wild rabbits here - some nights there are screams coming from the pasture… Do you have many rabbits in Kansas? (Kansas is one of the few states i have not visited...)
If you stack up the straw-bales, secure them to the crate structure! There are some threads here on BYC where folks describe cases of their favorite poultry being crushed by a straw bale.
In regards of the digging, i have terrible soil here: Red and yellow clay mixed with eroded slate and sandstone, hard as concrete when i want to dig, but the 'coons dug a shallow hole into the ground, just 3" deep during one night and got into the metal shack where i stored the duck-pellets and made a huge mess. I too thought, that since raccoons don't have power tools they can't dig holes into my soil. i was wrong.

How is your duck doing? Is she still limping?

I will make sure to secure the straw bales thanks for the tip! She was better this morning and I let her play with her other ducky friends while I cleaned her crate and such. I put her back in her crate and herded everyone back into the rugged ranch but I could see them pacing out the window, they really wanted out. But when I let out the other ducks Iris started freaking out so I let her out. They are currently sleeping under the orchard trees. Not sure what I'm going to do from here...

 

[CoriM]

Just a thought - when I had my duck into the vet for bumble in the spring he said to only soak her foot in a water-iodine mixture every two or three days because it can damage healthy tissue. If you have a cut you can also use something like vetericyn spray.

 

[FunQuail]

There isn't a cut which makes it confusing to figure out why she's limping and what caused it. My male to female ratio is good their set-up is good the only thing I can figure is getting in and out of the kiddie pools.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Getting out of these kiddie pools can be a challenge for young ducks - how old is Iris? - and they can easily injure their hip-joints, causing a limp. The plastic surface of these dirt-cheap pools offers no grip for their feet.
Adult ducks have more resilient hip joints and more experience with plastic kiddie-pools…

 

[FunQuail]

Getting out of these kiddie pools can be a challenge for young ducks - how old is Iris? - and they can easily injure their hip-joints, causing a limp. The plastic surface of these dirt-cheap pools offers no grip for their feet.
Adult ducks have more resilient hip joints and more experience with plastic kiddie-pools…

She's around 25 weeks I'd have to count and they have been using these kiddie pools for months now.
Do you have any pool ideas? It's something I've been thinking about anyway.
Thank you!
Kelly

 

[CoriM]

Do you have bricks in your pool for them to get on as they step out, and a ramp going up and down? That's what I used and it worked pretty well.