The Little Lame Duckling (with update & new pic)

[fawnda]

So we saw the vet yesterday, it was 75 minutes one way, but glad I did it. She said it feels like her tendon has slipped away from where it should be and is basically like a stretched out rubber band :/ Nothing was broke, so that was good. She said it was also good that she's still trying to put weight on it and she wanted to try her on an anti-inflammatory 2x a day for a week and see if that doesn't help her. So she took the 3rd dose tonight and even after 2 doses, she's standing on the leg better I've noticed. Not a huge improvement, but you can tell it's a little better. I know tendon and ligament problems typically take a long time to heal anyways. I'm also having her swim for ~30 minutes a day or 20 minutes 2x a day and she just LOVES it, paddles around almost the whole time, it's like she knows it's good for her leg. I think she loves that it sort of is an equalizer for her too. She can almost get around normally in the water if she paddles her bad leg a little harder, she's figured out she won't go in a circle I've also been reading a lot of about tendon problems and supplementation in animals and have started her on turmeric powder, vit C powder, niacin, collagen and have some joint supplement powder coming from amazon that should help her too. She's lucky that she's so small and young, so lots of room for improvement yet. They vet seemed guarded but optimistic that this might help. The name of the meds she's on is Meloxicam (oral). Also, below photo is a good link about helpful supplements for tendon repair/healing.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4915461/

 

[fawnda]

Here she is after we just got her with the others. All hatched on 8/19/19 and you can see how much smaller she is compared to the 2 White Layers and the Welsh Harlequin, none of which are large breeds. Her leg was fairly functional yet at this point although it was definitely wonky, she could get around on it ok.

 

[Miss Lydia]

So glad to hear not broken. Hopefully all you doing now will help get her going in the right direction. Did the vet say anything about you making sure the tendon stays in the right place? Maybe when she’s in the warm water and everything is relaxed you can gently massage that area just to make sure it’s staying where it should. Meloxicam is good stuff too. Thanks for the link. So happy for you she is already doing better. Hug that little thing for me. And keep us updated!!

 

[fawnda]

Did the vet say anything about you making sure the tendon stays in the right place?

We did talk about splinting, but she wanted to try this first and see if it made enough of an improvement without splinting that she'd be functional. She said she's always reluctant to splint waterfowl because the splint area has to remain DRY, lol, and we all know how that goes with ducks! The vet thought she would probably always have a bit of a limp in that leg, but the goal is to have some strong yet functional scar tissue develop at the injured tendon.
Another issue is her rambunctious brooder-mates. They are still much bigger, and faster, than little Pepper! They sleep together and you know they cry terribly when seperated, but I am worried that they're going to injure her. She is fairly good at getting out of their way if she has enough room though.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I def wouldn’t splint just maybe massage the leg when in warm water, but def follow the vets instructions. Maybe keep lil Pepper separated but still in the brooder and that way she can see them an then her but she won’t get trampled. Then when they have swim time let them all be together for fun. I divided my brooder so my newly hatched could get their legs under them before let in with my 1 week and 3 week olds. Worked perfect.

 

[fawnda]

I def wouldn’t splint just maybe massage the leg when in warm water, but def follow the vets instructions. Maybe keep lil Pepper separated but still in the brooder and that way she can see them an then her but she won’t get trampled. Then when they have swim time let them all be together for fun. I divided my brooder so my newly hatched could get their legs under them before let in with my 1 week and 3 week olds. Worked perfect.

What did you use to divide the brooder?

 

[Miss Lydia]

I took hardware cloth because it’s ridged put gorilla tape all around the edges and put it across to each side it stood on its own. I happened to have some pieces left over from doing windows in the coops.