pekin duck attacked by dog

[Northern-MI-Neighborhood]

a neighbor's dog got into my chicken run the other day and it killed all of my chickens - which was about 5 birds total. Also, I had two pekin ducks in the run about 7 weeks old or so. They were feathered out and nearly grown. One survived with just a scratch or two. The other ducky has a nasty laseration on it's bag kind of between and under it's wings.

It also appeared to have its leg broken....or maybe it's its wing. It's having trouble walking, so it's using its wing to help prop itself up. This happened yesterday. So I put it in the dry tub so I could monitor it. It couldn't walk, so I put its food and water in front of it. By last night, it was eating and drinking. It survived the night, so my wife, who works at a vet clinic, picked up some Amoxicillin for it, which I mixed into some water and dosed per the vet. Her boss also gave her some Vet Wrap...which is Coband, for us to wrap its leg up. Which we did. We put its food and water in front of it. I'm going to check on it tomorrow, which will be 2 days since it was attacked.

Not being able to walk or get into the kiddie pool, it's vent is getting stained and kinda gross, as I had it laying on a towel most of today and yesterday. It's now been on a pile of pine chip bedding inside a tote laying on it's side with easy access to food and it's water with the Amoxacillin the vet gave us.

Is there anything else I can do? The vet doesn't treat ducks, but was nice enough to give my wife the antibiotics and Coband vet wrap. I tried cleaning between and under its wing with saline and some peroxide, but didn't want to keep using peroxide on it. I've been cleaning the wound with salt water, but it DOES NOT want me messing with it too much. It HAS to hurt. And it hurts to walk.

I can't debride the wound at this point....and there's no dead tissue. It may have just had a bunch of feathers ripped out with a few teeth marks.

I'll try to get some photos today. What else can I do? How can I tell if it's a leg that's broken, or it's leg AND wing?

 

[ruthhope]

a neighbor's dog got into my chicken run the other day and it killed all of my chickens - which was about 5 birds total. Also, I had two pekin ducks in the run about 7 weeks old or so. They were feathered out and nearly grown. One survived with just a scratch or two. The other ducky has a nasty laseration on it's bag kind of between and under it's wings.

It also appeared to have its leg broken....or maybe it's its wing. It's having trouble walking, so it's using its wing to help prop itself up. This happened yesterday. So I put it in the dry tub so I could monitor it. It couldn't walk, so I put its food and water in front of it. By last night, it was eating and drinking. It survived the night, so my wife, who works at a vet clinic, picked up some Amoxicillin for it, which I mixed into some water and dosed per the vet. Her boss also gave her some Vet Wrap...which is Coband, for us to wrap its leg up. Which we did. We put its food and water in front of it. I'm going to check on it tomorrow, which will be 2 days since it was attacked.

Not being able to walk or get into the kiddie pool, it's vent is getting stained and kinda gross, as I had it laying on a towel most of today and yesterday. It's now been on a pile of pine chip bedding inside a tote laying on it's side with easy access to food and it's water with the Amoxacillin the vet gave us.

Is there anything else I can do? The vet doesn't treat ducks, but was nice enough to give my wife the antibiotics and Coband vet wrap. I tried cleaning between and under its wing with saline and some peroxide, but didn't want to keep using peroxide on it. I've been cleaning the wound with salt water, but it DOES NOT want me messing with it too much. It HAS to hurt. And it hurts to walk.

I can't debride the wound at this point....and there's no dead tissue. It may have just had a bunch of feathers ripped out with a few teeth marks.

I'll try to get some photos today. What else can I do? How can I tell if it's a leg that's broken, or it's leg AND wing?

I have some suggestions that I have used with success. Wrap the ducks whole body over the wound dressing, and it's wings. Then put the duck in a small infant tee shirt. You can remove every day to check the wound and flush with water if necessary. Wash the ducks vent area in a washing up bowl or similar sized container. I hold the duck with one arm against my body, and clean with the other hand.

I also have a ducky wheelchair that I use for leg problems. Its essentially a sling across a frame with 2 holes for the legs and a third for poo to drop down. Stand it on a puppy pad to soak any fluid. I'll look for a photo on my laptop

Sitting on a sling with the legs hanging down below, is best for a broken leg so the duck doesn't get compression wounds (bed sores) from sitting on the leg and the weight of the leg helps to keep the leg straight. If the leg fracture is mis shapen. You will need to fashion a splint by padding a flat wooden tongue depressor or something similar. The duck may be agitated, but it's important the leg is pulled straight and then strapped to the padded splint with vetwrap or similar

A neighbor's husky dog got into my son's back garden last year and savaged three of his ducks. I cleaned up their skin flaps and puncture wounds by holding the ducks under the tap in my bathroom sink. Each duck relaxed in the water. I sprayed the wounds with gentian violet (Blue Kote) but iodine (Betadine) spray is good too. Vetericyn spray is a third possibility.

Also, I use oral rehydration solution not plain drinking water for sick and injured ducks. When they are recovering, I add Rooster Booster Poultry Cell to their drinking water to give extra vitamins and minerals to aid recovery

 

[Northern-MI-Neighborhood]

It's been using its wing for balance, it appears. While it is scuffed up pretty good under (and sort of in-between) its wing(s), its leg seems to be the culprite. I'm worried that I wrapped the wrong leg now, though. It's whimpering as it's getting around. I've been putting it by the food and water dish.

I want to keep with my other Pekin, since they are inseperable. I heard that it's better for it to be around its flock rather than keep it isolated....even if it's where I can keep it safe, secure, and monitor it easier. I'm going out to the coop a few times a day to make sure they have food and fresh water.

It's able to reach it's neck up to get into the feeder and waterer. But it has not been wanting to get in the tub and bathe. I did put it on the tub once so it could clean off a little (and because it's vent was getting gross...)

I'm still giving it antibiotics. However, unless I go out there 10x per day and only let it drink the "special" amoxicillin water, the other ducky wants to drink it too! So I figured "oh well", since the other duck had a couple tiny 1/2 inch scrapes anyways. It's easier to just add 500mg (which the vet told me is 25 doses) into the 5g watering bucket.

This way, it's getting consistent dosing and I don't have to worry about it getting too much or two little. The vet told my wife (who works at the clinic) that as long as she's eating and drinking and socializing, she'll be better in no time.

 

[Northern-MI-Neighborhood]

I have some suggestions that I have used with success. Wrap the ducks whole body over the wound dressing, and it's wings. Then put the duck in a small infant tee shirt. You can remove every day to check the wound and flush with water if necessary. Wash the ducks vent area in a washing up bowl or similar sized container. I hold the duck with one arm against my body, and clean with the other hand.

I also have a ducky wheelchair that I use for leg problems. Its essentially a sling across a frame with 2 holes for the legs and a third for poo to drop down. Stand it on a puppy pad to soak any fluid. I'll look for a photo on my laptop

Sitting on a sling with the legs hanging down below, is best for a broken leg so the duck doesn't get compression wounds (bed sores) from sitting on the leg and the weight of the leg helps to keep the leg straight. If the leg fracture is mis shapen. You will need to fashion a splint by padding a flat wooden tongue depressor or something similar. The duck may be agitated, but it's important the leg is pulled straight and then strapped to the padded splint with vetwrap or similar

A neighbor's husky dog got into my son's back garden last year and savaged three of his ducks. I cleaned up their skin flaps and puncture wounds by holding the ducks under the tap in my bathroom sink. Each duck relaxed in the water. I sprayed the wounds with gentian violet (Blue Kote) but iodine (Betadine) spray is good too. Vetericyn spray is a third possibility.

Also, I use oral rehydration solution not plain drinking water for sick and injured ducks. When they are recovering, I add Rooster Booster Poultry Cell to their drinking water to give extra vitamins and minerals to aid recovery

My wife told me that the vet told her (my wife works at the vet clinic) to NOT use Kote Blue on ducks. It's an older product and is not good for them.

They specialize in farm animals, but also treat dogs and cats. They typically don't do poultry.... Which is ironic because they own 100+ chickens And ducks.

 

[ruthhope]

My wife told me that the vet told her (my wife works at the vet clinic) to NOT use Kote Blue on ducks. It's an older product and is not good for them.

They specialize in farm animals, but also treat dogs and cats. They typically don't do poultry.... Which is ironic because they own 100+ chickens And ducks.

Yup it's an older perfectly good product that vets (and human docs) don't use as their training didn't include use of safe, effective and cheap gentian violet. I am "an older human doctor" and when I was training babies with oral thrush (candida) got their mouths swabbed with gentian violet and went home from the clinic cured, albeit with a mouth that remained purple for up to a week. I am retired now, but if I were to treat a baby, I would not use gentian violet because of the visibility of the purple stain. Ducks don't care and I, as the duck mama, dont care, so I use gentian violet on duck wounds as it is effective. I cannot always get it at local pharmacies, and so when it's not available I use Blue Kote. If you don't want to offend your vets, then use iodine [betadine]. It stains yellow and may not distract other ducks from pecking at a red wound. Gentian violet is very good for masking red.

I'm aware that some of the things I was taught are now known to have drawbacks that weren't known back in the day. For example, I always used hydrogen peroxide to clean wounds. We now know that can harm healthy tissue. So I now use water (either salt water and a cotton swab for an eye, or small skin wound; Or holding a gaping wound or skin flaps pulled away from a duck's body under a running water source. The ducks I have treated have universally been southed by running water and lying in water while I clean wounds. This has proven very effective for cleaning even deep dog bites on the three occasions I have had to use it. It's a shame I can't use hydrogen peroxide anymore, but one lives, learns and adapts!!