Hey everyone, we have guests over and had our runner duck, Taco in his dog carrier during dinner. My dad let him out to run around on news paper and one of our guests noticed a laceration. After closer inspection we noticed not one, but several. The carrier is hard plastic with a wire door... Taco has a habit of getting angry when put in the cage before bedtime, so I'm assuming he was hitting himself against the cage door. I checked the door to see if there was any beak material or blood on the door, none found... Has anyone had issues like this before? Any solutions? My dad ( a dentist and finch breeder) antiseptic the wounds and started him on an avian antibiotic called Amoxitex. The duck is in good spirits and running around.
Constant banging of its beak against a surface will cause this. If it is not infected, as in no blood or pus, I don't think the antibiotic is necessary. I would simply rub ointment over the lacerations every day until they heal. I had a goose that got his head stuck in the fence and tore his beak like that. After a little TLC he is fine now.
I don't know why my response yesterday did not post. I would keep the wound as clean as possible using antiseptic (as you seem to be doing), such as Veterycin, or saline solution. And I would line the inside of the crate with plastic poultry fence, and run my hands around the inside and cover up anything that could scratch the duck.
