PLEASE HELP ME I'M DESPERATE!! :-( Duckling with a slipped tendon

[localife]

A beautiful statement, Amiga, thank you. You can't imagine how helpful it is for me to hear that -- as a farmer, more than a keeper of "pets," I don't get a lot of encouragement to offer extra help to the creatures in my care, but my heart feels compelled to do so in some cases, and I so appreciate the wisdom of your words.

 

[casportpony]

There are a couple of peafowl people that I would suggest sending a PM to, both have dealt leg problems in peafowl and might have some suggestions for ducks. https://www.backyardchickens.com/u/1174/thndrdancr

• DylansMom
• thndrdancr

I'm not sure how much this will help, but it might be worth reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/941270/slipped-tendon-that-turned-to-twisted-tibia-my-treatment

-Kathy

 

[GertiesMommy]

@localife I too have felt so alone and thought I would never find anyone that shared the same issues. No body understands my love for my little ducky, she is like my little baby and my husband thinks I've lost my mind lol. When I met with the woman I got my 3 ducklings from I had just randomly picked out two females and one male from a box, I had no clue that the one female I picked out had a disability until I got her home. Everyone told me to just take her back to the woman and just exchange her for another duck. But there was no way I could, I could tell the woman who had these ducklings didn't take good care of them and if I took her back they would have just killed her. I truly think that she was put in my life for a reason and I will never give up on her. There is a quote that I have always loved, its from the movie Seabiscuit, it goes, "You don't throw a life away cause he's a little banged up." and it is so true.

When I took her to the vet the other day I had the vet tell me that I should just euthanize her which caused me to become hysterical in the vet office but it also infuriated because she is perfectly healthy and happy. Sure she has a disabled leg but that no reason to kill her. Now if she was in tremendous pain, wouldn't eat or drink, and was just plain miserable then I could understand.

I do worry about her as she gets older and heavier but I will do anything and every possible to make her happy and healthy. I even though about building her a little wheelchair or kind of a sling with wheels to where she can put her legs through the sling and use her good leg to push herself around.

She's such a sweet baby, so loving and trusting. Her and I truly love each other ha ha

But I would absolutely LOVE if we could keep in contact and help each other out with our special needs feathered children ha ha ha

 

[GertiesMommy]

I am so thankful for all of your replies! You guys are truly amazing people

 

[Amiga]

You are lovely, lovely duck folks!

I am going to float some information here - I am not even making a suggestion, but I want to place ideas before us all to prayerfully consider.

Have you heard of Buttercup the duck at Feathered Angels Sanctuary? In his case, a completely backward foot was amputated and he received a 3D-printed prosthetic foot, and he is one happy drake.

http://featheredangels.org/index.php/buttercup/

I do not think this is the answer here at this point - I don't think other less drastic options have been even thought of. And we are working with tiny ducklings right now, so no more extra physical trauma, I think.

However - the fact that there are people who know enough to use 3D printers for waterfowl prosthetics gives me great hope. Perhaps they can design some kind of brace that might help prevent the legs from getting worse.

Just because you might not know of anyone this moment may not be a problem. I know a fellow who is really good at asking around, and he has been able to get a nice prosthetic for his special-needs goose.

 

[Amiga]

Another idea I had reading this from GertiesMommy:

"I do worry about her as she gets older and heavier but I will do anything and every possible to make her happy and healthy. I even though about building her a little wheelchair or kind of a sling with wheels to where she can put her legs through the sling and use her good leg to push herself around.

She's such a sweet baby, so loving and trusting. Her and I truly love each other ha ha

But I would absolutely LOVE if we could keep in contact and help each other out with our special needs feathered children ha ha ha"

----

Perhaps we can start a thread on the Duck Forum for Special Needs Ducks and their Caregivers, or some similar title. That might help people with special needs ducks locate help more quickly in the future, and it might become a repository for useful information. Just a thought.

 

[GertiesMommy]

One thing I do for her that she loves is after she gets done with swimming or usually at her night time hand feeding, I will take an ointment called Aquaphor and I will massage her bad leg with it. I focus on her hock joint because it gets a little swollen plus its good to get it moving and I also do her foot so that it gets the blood flowing to her toes. I read that if you don't keep the blood flowing to the bad legs toes that they could shrivel up. I don't know if that true or not but oh well. I also massage her working leg especially her toes and hock joint because there's a lot of pressure on that one leg so massaging it will help release some of the tension. You also have to watch out for pressure sores on the bottom of her good leg

 

[Amiga]

Or, we could just use this thread as the special needs duck thread . . . . we will see how it all unfolds.

 

[skilz]

@GertiesMommy Any updates on Gertie? Looks like her problem was around 2 years back.

 

[Heatherb90]

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for all of your information and advice!
I currently have my girl Lizzie with a bad leg. She has been on an anti-inflammatory and a anabiotic and nothing seems to work. She woke up fine one morning, I let her out then I seen her limping in the back yard. We took her to the vet after I did everything I could think of to help her. They took x-rays and didn’t find anything. They think it’s a split tendon and possibly going lame. We are trying a new anabiotic as the vets last option. If that doesn’t work they suggest we put her down. It makes me emotional just saying it out loud I can’t stand to think about it. She is eating,drinking, acting like her normal self and still loving to swim.
I am totally okay with having a special duck. It just makes me feel so much better that I’m not the only one having to deal with this. Never did I imagine I would love a $5 duck from TSC so much.