Supplemental care for duck with joint infection

[Miss Lydia]

Hope he fully recovers

 

[Isaac 0]

How is your duck doing?

 

[EvaluationUnit]

How is your duck doing?

As far as I can tell, about the same. :/ I'm not noticing any difference on the antibiotic.

 

[EvaluationUnit]

Cole went to a follow up appointment today regarding his foot and leg. The doctor believes the infection has traveled down his leg and he seems worse. The doctor has suggested a surgical route but doesn't seem sold on this working for the particular type of infection. Are there any other treatment options that can be considered here that she may be missing? She said she'd research it and ask around to find if there are any other management techniques. I figured it would not harm for me to ask as well.

Going to tag @Isaac 0 because you've had good ideas before!

 

[Isaac 0]

@EvaluationUnit , I'm sorry to hear she hasn't shown improvement. Lamentably, I'm not experienced enough to know further treatments besides antimicrobial therapy. I will do some searching and see if I can come up with anything.

 

[EvaluationUnit]

@EvaluationUnit , I'm sorry to hear she hasn't shown improvement. Lamentably, I'm not experienced enough to know further treatments besides antimicrobial therapy. I will do some searching and see if I can come up with anything.

My vet has suggested the surgical debridement and is also looking into "ozone treatment"? I have not heard of this. Are either of these antimicrobial therapy?

 

[EvaluationUnit]

About time for an update I suppose. Cole is still kicking around though his leg issue hasn't gotten any better. I've spoken with the vet who said because he hasn't died by now it means it isn't spreading and it isn't cancer. We are going to attempt a laser therapy next month to see if that helps him.

He's still such a happy chap for not being much for walking. Loves his pool time and who can blame him? He's a sweetie though.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Bless his heart. I sure hope the laser therapy works. This has been going on for a long time.

 

[EvaluationUnit]

Cole went in for surgery 1.5 weeks ago. The vet noted he was then "knuckling" when using the foot, indicating the swelling was putting pressure on the nerve. The vet opened up the joint, cleaned it out, and sent out a culture. Almost right after, Cole was showing improvement on the "knuckling" (though he does curl his foot significantly less, it's still a little curled sometimes). He is still in quarantine right now taking antibiotics, antiinflammatories, and pain medication at least until Monday. He's getting restless and I don't blame him! He just wants to go play with his friends outside.

The culture came back negative, so the vet thinks they were either falsely unable to culture something, or his swelling issue could be an autoimmune issue at this point. Since we had a culture before, I'm not sure what to think. We'll see what she has to say on Monday when he gets his stitches out.

Meanwhile, my other two pekins are both limping. One has been seen and xrayed only for the vet to tell me there's nothing wrong with her, not so sure on the other one just yet. All I know is I'm never getting pekins again - they're just too big/heavy and too prone to leg injury.