Our duck run was over by bicycle, survived but wing seems broken

[mkeilman]

Hi, on Friday somebody on a bike aimed full speed at our flock of ducks (they were crossing a bike/walking trail adjacent to our property) and ended up running clean over one our khaki cambell ducks. We've isolated her and her brother(for company-he wants to be with her) in coop the lastcouple days and giving her electrolytes. . Luckily she survived, and has been drinking and eating. We let her out into small area and she is very slow and careful to move around and wants to lay down a lot. She is looking more fit and put together than how she looked on friday, but yesterday, I noticed that her one wing is droopy and she cannot flap it. I assume now its broken and or dislocated. Would like to help her with her wing, but cannot afford expensive trip to vet. Can anyone offer any sites or devises that might help me set her wing? It has been over 72h since incident, is it too late to do something for her? Thanks!

 

[wornoutmomto3]

Veterinary emergencies always seem to happen when funds are low. You need to carefully run your hands along the wing checking for a break or dislocation. If you don't feel an obvious break or dislocation there could still be a hairline fracture. Either way the treatment is about the same, only with the fracture the bone is already set. Setting the bone, if necessary, should only be done by a professional. Once the bone is set gently tuck the wing into a natural position and secure by wrapping with bandages. In the absence of antibiotics place of clove of fresh garlic in a gallon of water allow her to drink. Any pain medication would have to come from a Vet.
I would also check the legs as well. The constant laying may be a sign that a leg is broken. Hollow bird bones break easily.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Have you inspected the wing? Very gently feel it all over and check if dislocated. It may not be broken but Id' place it along her body like they normally carry them and use vet wrap to make a secure bandage but try and just secure the injured wing so she can use the other one for balance. Hopefully it will mend back properly if kept in proper place for a while. Be sure the vet wrap is snug but not cutting off circulation. Hope your duck makes a full recovery. I'd give it a couple days wrapped then unwrap and she how she is doing whether she can move it then rewrap it will take a while for the bones to heal. This is just what i would do with one of mine if this happened, I am not a vet.

 

[mkeilman]

Well.. It's been a few months...and I wanted to apologize for overreacting earlier in this post. I was stressed about the situation, and my finances. I shouldn't have reacted like that, I'm sorry, I know you were trying to help. I do love my ducks, but they confound and frustrate me regularly. So...without getting into many details, our little duck survived, and her broken wing was set and healed. We know she's our special needs duck, and now suffers from wet feather and lays soft eggs... wondering if she'll ever grow out of this...or if there is something we can/ should do to help....thanks

 

[Mrs.H]

Glad she survived! Imo no need to apologize, money doesn't grow on trees, stuff happens at the worst times, can't control that. I can't help with your questions since I'm sorta a newbie with ducks. Maybe start a new thread for advice about wet feather and soft shell eggs?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well.. It's been a few months...and I wanted to apologize for overreacting earlier in this post. I was stressed about the situation, and my finances. I shouldn't have reacted like that, I'm sorry, I know you were trying to help. I do love my ducks, but they confound and frustrate me regularly. So...without getting into many details, our little duck survived, and her broken wing was set and healed. We know she's our special needs duck, and now suffers from wet feather and lays soft eggs... wondering if she'll ever grow out of this...or if there is something we can/ should do to help....thanks

So happy to hear she made it that's great news. Here's an article about wet feather that may help http://www.majesticwaterfowl.org/artwetfeather2.htm and I'm going to ask Amiga to talk to you about soft shell eggs and what she has been doing to help her ducks with their problem,.

 

[Amiga]

Morning, all, greetings from the duck pen! We have had such cold snowy weather - that to keep the ducks from going completely stir-crazy (I admit, to keep myself from doing the same), I spend more time right here with them. Glad I made the pen big enough for a person, too.

We struggle with soft shells here - I am doing some research, though not intense peer-reviewed stuff. Just trying this and that. I have found that some ducks do fine with just layer pellets. Several do not. Of those, a few do well with free choice oyster shell. But not all of them even try it. I currently add about 50 to 80 mg of calcium citrate, dissolved in water and added to their food, per duck, about 5 times a week. That has helped. While most of the flock are not laying right now, from my reading it appears that ducks can store and release some calcium, and one source indicated that fluctuating the amount of calcium enables them to retain that ability. Just sharing what I have read….

I also recently came across some research for people, that said that eating vegetables like kale enables a body to use vitamin D more effectively. And I have also read that vitamin D levels influence a duck's ability to effectively use calcium. Well.

Right now we have gone from two or three soft-shelled eggs every few days to one soft shelled egg a couple times a week, and one properly-shelled egg four to six times a week. No one appears egg-bound, so I wonder if in all this complex egg-laying, that soft eggs may be a symptom of calcium deficiency, and once calcium levels increase, the production of eggs stops till the calcium builds up to a certain level in their body.

One could make a life study of this, really.

I would check her oil gland also. Is she getting daily bath time? You could also try enrichment activities. The Ultimate Pet Duck Guidebook includes some really fun ideas for enabling ducks to express their (what Joel Salatin calls) duckness. And it appears to me, from my flock, there are emotions in the duck world. So maybe something to cheer her up will help her overall. Chopped cucumber in an unbreakable clear tumbler is something that Priss used to do for her Calls. They liked that.