The Duck Thread

[Amiga]

I see what looks like a splinter on the lump closer to the end of the toe. That could cause an infection.

 

[wendychicklawyr]

I hear you have a lot of knowledge about ducks I have 6 2.5 week pekins and I just bought a 6 month old golden wh and 2 silver wh 2.5 weeks old. I have a small chicken coop in the barn and I put them all in there tonite. It's going down to 69 tonite. Will they be ok? I'm in Florida

 

[Amiga]

I hear you have a lot of knowledge about ducks I have 6 2.5 week pekins and I just bought a 6 month old golden wh and 2 silver wh 2.5 weeks old. I have a small chicken coop in the barn and I put them all in there tonite. It's going down to 69 tonite. Will they be ok? I'm in Florida

My first concern is mixing sizes - are they all together? Ducks often do not get along well without coaching. So putting them together is very dangerous for the little ones.

The 2.5 week old Pekins and WH would need to have a temperature around 90 minus 2.5 times 5, so that would be (82.5) degrees F. The 6 month old should be okay. If you can keep their area closer to 80 that would be better. There will be folks who say their ducklings were fine in very chilly temperatures. I prefer to stick with the recommendations of Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks. Ducklings have a lot of growing and developing to do, and even if they don't die, not giving them what they need can slow their growth and development and possibly have long term effects.

I would keep them separate in a warmer place at night.

 

[wendychicklawyr]

Yes they are all snuggling together, the 6 month old is kind of staying a little away but they all follow her around.

 

[wendychicklawyr]

And the 2 new babies were staying under her when I brought her home but she became standoffish when I got her home. The other ones are all snuggly

 

[Amiga]

Well it may work out, then, if they are getting along, and snuggling together, the big girl (?) may be able to keep the rest warm. I cannot guarantee one way or the other, just give you some background information for you to consider. Hope to hear in the morning that everything is fine. Please let us know.

 

[Ren2014]

I see what looks like a splinter on the lump closer to the end of the toe. That could cause an infection.

I thought that was something also but I've rubbed it and tried to pick it off but nothing. I've also tried to squeeze it. Should I try to lance it at that spot? My husband wants me to try to aspirate with a syringe but it's very hard.

 

[Amiga]

Ducks feet produce something not liquid - it is chunky so it cannot be aspirated with a needle.

I would take some tweezers and try to get ahold of that and pull it. You could also try this method - it may enable you to get the problem area out of there. It takes some time but does not involve cutting and associated risks.

On July 1st, I found one of my Pekin ducks with what I would consider a bad case of Bumblefoot. Both feet were involved and I'm ashamed to say, the only way I found it was she was limping. One foot had 7 and the other had 3. I was able to grab her and bring her into the house and put her into a warm bath to clean and soak. Two water changes later and softened feet, all I had time to do was paint the bumbles with colorless iodine, grabbed the wrong stuff, and put her into a dog crate in my house until I could get everything ready to operate and get them gone. Did I mention the thought of this scared me half to death?

Sad to say it took 6 days before i was able to get everything together and someone to help out with the 'cure'. The following pictures are what we found after the bath we gave before the planned surgery to remove these things.




















As can be seen, there really wasn't much to operate on, even though I was prepared to do just that. No matter how much squeezing or prodding or soaking, there just wasn't anything more to come out, it was all on the scabs that were covering the sores. The swelling was down from the 'marbles' I saw when I first found them. I poured betadine over the ones I had opened and painted the ones that I hadn't again with the iodine and put her back into her crate with clean bedding.

the next pictures are of the same Pekin and anothe duck, Dottie the Mallard, who was also found limping.












As can be seen in the first two pictures, the bumbles have been dramatically reduced on the Pekin with just the iodine application and the smaller ones totally gone. The last four pictures are of the Mallard who is still under going the iodine applications.

As can be seen, this is how the left and right foot look tonight on the Pekin duck. The heels being the worst are still showing infection and need for more treatment. tomorrow, I will again give a bath and pull/cut out the scabbing and treat with straight iodine this time. These spots are now flat or as flat as they should be considering the part of the foot they are on. I will still touch up the places that had the spots before as well.

 

[Amiga]

Corrected the story - two splinter stories confused. Apologies

Romy had a splinter in her toe, I got it out by lifting it out with tweezers.

The end of the splinter was broken off it looked just like the dot on your duck's toe.


There is the splinter that made her toe swell up and she was limping.

The vet removed another very tiny splinter on another occasion, that caused her toe to swell up.

 

[wendychicklawyr]

And the 2 new babies were staying under her when I brought her home but she became standoffish when I got her home. The other ones are all snuggly

Yes I just checked, she's laying in the middle (small coop) on hay with the babies around her. I have food and water in their too. Thank you!