Prolapsed Vent on Four Year Old Silver Appleyard Duck - Extended Care

[Miss Lydia]

How precious

I doubt Mouses knows her limit but she may have some stinky poops from overindulging.

 

[3bird]

We've had several poops since I wrote this morning. All are small and pretty watery, but the most recent ones were a little more substantial. Some of blood and what appears to be sloughed off tissue perhaps...kind of mucous-like. We brought her in around noon to the bathroom. She had a short swim and ate a couple worms, but she seems really lethargic. It is hot, and all the ducks seem lethargic, but we're still watching her closely. She's standing and did a couple wing flaps, but she is not preening like she has after every other time we have taken her out of the water. We decided to give her some space in the darkened bathroom with a fan on (it's cooler in there than outside now). We'll go back and check on her in a bit.

Here's a question: since we are pretty much thinking we are in Hospice care at this point, should we forego the stress of pilling her with the antibiotics? She gets the antibiotics 3x/day and the pain meds 2x, so if we went to just pain meds, we could skip the whole midday pilling stress. We don't want infection to complicate her comfort though. Thoughts?

 

[KaleIAm]

I think you are doing a wonderful job taking care of her.

Previously I have discontinued stressful nebulizer medication when my duck was going to be euthanized the next day. We had a scheduled appointment. If I didn't know when she was going to pass away I probably would have continued it to give her the most comfortable last days possible.

It's a hard call when you don't know how much time she has left. I understand wanting to give Mouse as much peace as possible.

With my ducks I feel like at least 3/4 of the stress of taking medication is being caught and handled. Since you will be handling her twice daily anyway would it be less stressful to perhaps split the afternoon dose up between morning and evening? It may not be ideal, but perhaps better than nothing? Maybe your vet can advise you, I'm not sure.

Another thing that helps me when I have to put medication down my ducks' throat is remembering that there are 1440 minutes in a day. And 2 minutes of those are stressful for medication.

Love to Mouse.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

 

[3bird]

I think you are doing a wonderful job taking care of her.

Previously I have discontinued stressful nebulizer medication when my duck was going to be euthanized the next day. We had a scheduled appointment. If I didn't know when she was going to pass away I probably would have continued it to give her the most comfortable last days possible.

It's a hard call when you don't know how much time she has left. I understand wanting to give Mouse as much peace as possible.

With my ducks I feel like at least 3/4 of the stress of taking medication is being caught and handled. Since you will be handling her twice daily anyway would it be less stressful to perhaps split the afternoon dose up between morning and evening? It may not be ideal, but perhaps better than nothing? Maybe your vet can advise you, I'm not sure.

Another thing that helps me when I have to put medication down my ducks' throat is remembering that there are 1440 minutes in a day. And 2 minutes of those are stressful for medication.

Love to Mouse.

Thank you so much!

 

[3bird]

After she had cooled down a bit, we offered her another swim, and she became more animated and had eight night crawlers (and drank!). When we took her out of the tub, she did a couple big wing flaps and then started preening, which is a good sign. I think she is certainly weak, but I also think the heat was really affecting her.

We've decided to keep on with all the meds. Hopefully it will cool down and we can get her back outside with her buddies. We're inclined to let her sleep out (crated) in the run again, but we'll play it by ear.

 

[KaleIAm]

After she had cooled down a bit, we offered her another swim, and she became more animated and had eight night crawlers (and drank!). When we took her out of the tub, she did a couple big wing flaps and then started preening, which is a good sign. I think she is certainly weak, but I also think the heat was really affecting her.

We've decided to keep on with all the meds. Hopefully it will cool down and we can get her back outside with her buddies. We're inclined to let her sleep out (crated) in the run again, but we'll play it by ear.

I have another thought, is tube feeding indicated? It has sure helped my sick ducks feel a lot better. It is stressful, but I can do it in less than 5 minutes and put their medication in the formula. Personally, if my duck was weak and not eating well I would probably tube feed unless I was planning on them passing within 24 hours. My apologies for being blunt. I understand you are doing hospice care, I just thought I would throw this suggestion out there.

My vet taught me how and sold me supplies.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Maybe letting her sleep with her family will be good for them all.

 

[3bird]

Maybe letting her sleep with her family will be good for them all.

We made that decision again tonight. After a tub swim and her meds, we loaded her up into her carrier and headed out the door. She's been pretty subdued this afternoon with no real appetite (it's so hot!), but as soon as she realized we were not going to the truck but instead toward the duck run, she perked up. The girls heard us coming and started to quack and Mouse stood up in the carrier and looked expectantly out the door. Angus started his little call, and we got her situated in her crate facing him.

Despite the fact that she was clearly not doing great afternoon, it was absolutely amazing to see the way she preened after her bath...I swear every feather was in place, and she was so happy to see her boy (and he her!). I hope we are not anthropomorphizing too much, but it really seemed like this was the right call--her in the place she knows best with the sounds and smells she know so well and surrounded by her buddies and her best boy Angus. It's still so hot but cooling down.

We pray for a restful night for Mouse. She is SUCH A GOOD GIRL, and we are so lucky to know her.

 

[3bird]

DAY 8 UPDATE: This Mouse is just incredible, and we LOVE her so much. It is our privilege to take care of her and make her as comfortable as possible now.

As I wrote last night, she spent the night out with her flock in the run (crated). Her boy Angus was right with her and her girls (the one she likes!) were flanking the crate every time I checked the camera overnight. When we moved herin the morning, we could see there were some feces and some of the bloody mucous-type stuff in the crate but WAY less blood and way more feces than yesterday morning.

It did not look like she had eaten much at all overnight, and she seemed more tired/weaker when we brought her in (understandably). Usually when we put her carrier down in the bathroom and open the door, she waddles right out, but this morning she did not. Again, our goal here is just to make her as comfortable as possible, so we let her just chill. She seemed alert and was watching us. Her eyes were clear. She was not interested in any of the food items we offered here (mealworms, night crawlers, corn, peas, grain). Her breathing was also not labored, nor was there any of the wheeziness we heard last night. Eventually we popped her in the tub, and she seemed to perk up for that. She swam about and examined things. She put her head under the faucet and had a drink. Still she would not eat, although she did examine everything we offered her with her bill. She seemed to get particularly excited when we tossed her floating food into the water. She would go after it and even take it into her mouth, but it was unclear if she was actually eating it.

After lots of encouragement, I got her to eat a live worm from a shallow plastic bowl with water in it that I floated near her in the tub. After she ate the one worm, she seemed hungry, and she proceeded to eat nine more in pretty short order. We wanted to get her back outside while it was still cool and the grass was wet with dew, so we took her out of the tub, let her shake off a bit and then gave her her meds. Giving her her meds seemed to absolutely wipe her out :-(. Afterwards, she just wanted to sit down with her eyes closing. We really wanted her to have a drink, so we put her back in the tub, and she floated around, swimming slowly. Again, her breathing was not labored--she just looked very tired (which is not surprising).

Eventually we packed her up and took her back out to the field where her best boy Angus was (along with her girl Stella). We put the carrier down in the cool grass in the shade of a maple tree and opened the door. She did not come out of the carrier, but she perked up when she heard and then saw her boy Angus.

We let him go into the pen, and they touched bills (then he ate some of her food...lol). She seemed really sleepy and her eyes kept closing, but she also seemed comfortable. I think we both thought that she might just drift away at that point.

...but nope!

Eventually she came out of her carrier under her own steam, flapped her winds and did some preening. We let Angus go back in and they snuggled up together for a while. It's getting warm again, but not as warm as yesterday, so we made sure to mist her periodically, which she seemed to like (she even bit at the water, which they all love to do). She foraged some and then snuggled back in. Angus and Stella stayed close.

We're going to let her stay out, as she truly seems happiest with her buddies, the familiar smells and sounds, and the feeling of the dappled sun and wind on her body. We'll probably bring her in midday for a bath and meds and then, depending on the heat, bring her back out. We have the potential for strong storms and damaging winds all afternoon, so we will watch that.

Any ideas on what other food items or tricks we can use to encourage her to eat? We tried strawberries yesterday. We harvested some garden peas and pea shoots just now that we'll try. They've never been a big fan of melon or tomatoes, but we could try again.

Our vet is off today, but she offered to come to the farm tomorrow. We're taking it one hour at a time.

Thanks to all of you here at BYC!