Sickly duck at local produce store...

[SampyArctica]

I never knew he'd turn out so smokey gray! Beautiful!

He's mostly white, but he does have some grey speckling here and there, it's mostly just his head that has the grey so condensed - particuarly along the back of his head/his crest. And he used to have a grey 'stripe' of colour across his back, behind his wings. Like...his down? But that's been covered up as his wing feathers grew longer and they've kind of hidden it. His chest used to be speckled with brown, but it turned to grey as he got his adult plumage. Actually, I guess he has gotten quite a bit more grey as he's grown. I think he's much more gorgeous this way than if he'd been pure white, but I guess I'm a little bias now, haha.

 

[SampyArctica]

Quick update, we've moved Whistles out to the chicken coops at night - we have two, one main one and another slightly smaller one that was used for the newer/younger chickens. Since we can put all of our chickens together now, Whistles can use it to sleep outside - with so many house inspections coming up, we can't keep him inside any more. We always clean up inside thoroughly daily, but I guess we're used to the poultry smell since we're around it all the time, so we can't smell anything but the disinfectant when he's not inside but we've had comments from other people about it, so...he's an outside duck now!

Only...he hates it.

Last night was his first night not in the house since we got him, and he barely ate today and when he saw me walk up to the coop this morning, he threw himself against the fence to try and get to me. I know it's our fault for having him inside for so long and getting him used to that, but I hope he can get used to not being a house duck anymore since, y'know, he's a duck and it's not natural. 15 days, 14 hours to go until the move though. *Sigh*

 

[Miss Lydia]

Quick update, we've moved Whistles out to the chicken coops at night - we have two, one main one and another slightly smaller one that was used for the newer/younger chickens. Since we can put all of our chickens together now, Whistles can use it to sleep outside - with so many house inspections coming up, we can't keep him inside as much any more. We always clean up inside thoroughly daily, but I guess we're used to the poultry smell since we're around it all the time, so we can't smell anything but the disinfectant when he's not inside but we've had comments from other people about it, so...he's an outside duck now!

Only...he hates it.

Last night was his first night not in the house since we got him, and he barely ate today and when he saw me walk up to the coop this morning, he threw himself against the fence to try and get to me.

I know it's our fault for having him inside for so long and getting him used to that, but I hope he can get used to not being a house duck anymore since, y'know, he's a duck and it's not natural. 15 days, 14 hours to go until the move though. *Sigh*

Spend as much time outside with him, he's probably lonely since he's use to having ya'll right there but it won't be long now so Mr. Whistles will just have to be patient because better days are just around the corner. with girls too.

 

[nayeli]

Quick update, we've moved Whistles out to the chicken coops at night - we have two, one main one and another slightly smaller one that was used for the newer/younger chickens. Since we can put all of our chickens together now, Whistles can use it to sleep outside - with so many house inspections coming up, we can't keep him inside as much any more. We always clean up inside thoroughly daily, but I guess we're used to the poultry smell since we're around it all the time, so we can't smell anything but the disinfectant when he's not inside but we've had comments from other people about it, so...he's an outside duck now!

Only...he hates it.

Last night was his first night not in the house since we got him, and he barely ate today and when he saw me walk up to the coop this morning, he threw himself against the fence to try and get to me.

I know it's our fault for having him inside for so long and getting him used to that, but I hope he can get used to not being a house duck anymore since, y'know, he's a duck and it's not natural. 15 days, 14 hours to go until the move though. *Sigh*

I took my chicks on daily outings to get them used to being outside before moving them permanently. If he is that depressed I might try to keep him inside during the day and have him outside at night. Gradually start putting him out an hour earlier each day. That way its not so drastic.

 

[SampyArctica]

He ate today. He is extremely attached to me though, so I really cannot wait until we can get set up at the other place and give him his girls! The only thing though is that what I thought was our dam has actually turned out to be on the next property over, so we'll have to build him a pond. Extra hassle and disappointing, but nothing we can't have sorted out. I spent the majority of the time I was home today out in the yard with everyone though, which he was absolutely overjoyed about. His biting behaviour has even lessened just in the short time we've had him outside - still nips hard a bit, but overall it has lessened. He'd definitely be lonely though, yep. We have moved his big mirror out to the coop for him though as well. He's used to being outdoors during the day, because we only had him inside at night time - but we just can't have him inside at all now. We're so agonisingly close to moving, too.

But now we have a new problem! And I feel terrible because this was our fault. I'm about 98% sure that Whistles has bumblefoot. His bedding has always been a three-towel-thick sort of deal, and he spent a lot of time on grass in our front yard - but you've probably noticed from photos that we also have half our backyard concreted. It was done years ago, before we even had the chickens, and it's another reason I really dislike this place now. I'd initially thought that bumblefoot was only caused from either vitamin deficiency or an infected cut, but I had no idea it could also be caused from walking on hard surfaces as well, until the weekend. The day I found out (during a native birds training workshop), I raced home and we immediately checked all of our poultry's feet - and four of them, including Whistles, had either obvious inflamed areas or were suspicious. None of our birds are limping yet though, so I'm seriously hoping we caught this early enough to easily treat. Even though he's outside now, we've added extra wood shavings, plus three towels over the top of them and instead of letting him walk from his pool to the grass, I now carry him over the concreted areas. Has anyone had experience with bumblefoot before? We're having to look around for vet prices at the moment, it would be alright if it were just one animal but we have four that need to be looked at so I can't take them to the vet that looked after Whistles originally (apparently some vets offer payment plans now, but they aren't one of them >_< ), but is there ANYTHING that we can do in the meantime to help ease any possible pain he might be in? He isn't showing any signs of pain yet, and still tries to follow me *everywhere* (I don't let him anymore, because I don't want him walking too much...) but I know a lot of animals have that preservation complex where they won't show any signs of pain until it's reached an advanced stage...so I don't know how he's feeling.

Here are photos of Whistles' feet:

 

[TracyLovesDucks]

I don't have much experience with bumble foot, but I've done a little research on this forum. If that is the beginnings of bumble foot on Whistles' feet, it doesn't look too bad right now. You might be able to completely treat him with epsom salt soaks or compresses. Someone on this thread will have better advice and details than me, but I just wanted to share that it doesn't look too bad yet. The only one that looks somewhat progressed is the one on his heal, but that may just be his natural padding because I don't see a scab there. But I'm sure it's not causing him much if any pain yet. It's still best to treat quickly and properly.

Have you researched on this forum? There is a lot of info on bumble foot and you can find more about the epsom salt treatments.

 

[SampyArctica]

Okay so I've had a bit of a look around and from what I can gather, a TricideNeo soak works really well for non-invasive bumblefoot treatment if it's not a too-serious case - it's even used sometimes by vets at a raptor rehabilitation facility! So I think I might look into doing that.

 

[SampyArctica]

Help! Is anyone able to purchase TricideNeo and then send it to me? I will reimburse you for all costs! Neither my city's specialist marine pet store, nor an interstate Koi specialist store have ever heard of it, and the few sites that I can find it listed don't ship to Australia.

 

[subhanalah]

Help! Is anyone able to purchase TricideNeo and then send it to me? I will reimburse you for all costs! Neither my city's specialist marine pet store, nor an interstate Koi specialist store have ever heard of it, and the few sites that I can find it listed don't ship to Australia.  

is that the ONLY thing you can use in this situation? I imagine it's some sort of antibiotic oibtment?

 

[SampyArctica]

I think it's like an antibacterial dip/bath - it comes in a crystallised form that you dissolve with distilled water to make a solution that you then dip the fish (or, bird feet, in this case) in. I would think that surely there must be some equivalent of it here, but neither of the places I asked at could help me at all - they'd never heard of the product and couldn't offer me an alternative product...and these were places that specialise in fish. I have no idea why something that so many people have been talking about as a reliable treatment in America seems to be unheard of in Australia.

One of our chickens is the first for a vet treatment though, we have to do it in stages and she was the worst - she actually has a scab formed, so when I take her in tomorrow, I'll talk to the vet about what we can do for Whistles while he waits for his appointment.