URGENT - Please help! Duck has prolapsed vent
- Thread starter Iamgrateful
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #82
- Aug 29, 2011
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Donnie, our drake is seeming VERY depressed about Minnie being gone. 
He hasn't hardly ate anything (except a few peas and treats) in 4 days. I keep talking to him and giving him his favorite food/treats but he seems uninterested. His food pan looks the same almost as it did on Saturday.
I'm trying to locate a female for him but in the meantime....what can I do for him? Would apple cider vinegar in his water help him at all? I'm getting worried about him, as he is already crippled a bit in his legs...he's not the strongest duck to begin with.
He hasn't hardly ate anything (except a few peas and treats) in 4 days. I keep talking to him and giving him his favorite food/treats but he seems uninterested. His food pan looks the same almost as it did on Saturday.I'm trying to locate a female for him but in the meantime....what can I do for him? Would apple cider vinegar in his water help him at all? I'm getting worried about him, as he is already crippled a bit in his legs...he's not the strongest duck to begin with.
yes ACV is good but I think Poultry vitamins would be even better, plus finding him a friend. I hope that happens soon.. Have you tried mixing his peas in with his feed and adding a little warm water to it?Donnie, our drake is seeming VERY depressed about Minnie being gone.
I'm trying to locate a female for him but in the meantime....what can I do for him? Would apple cider vinegar in his water help him at all? I'm getting worried about him, as he is already crippled a bit in his legs...he's not the strongest duck to begin with.
- Thread starter
- #85
- Aug 29, 2011
- 133
- 6
- 98
I try to remember to respect the grieving process. It is not the culture I was raised in, but it seems to have some value in my life. 'nother story.
Anyway, yes, I would add water to his feed, make it a nice, sloppy slurry. And just tell him how you feel. You may already be doing that.
Anyway, yes, I would add water to his feed, make it a nice, sloppy slurry. And just tell him how you feel. You may already be doing that.
I agree A, grieving is very important for both, and getting Donnie and Iamgrateful anotherr duck to love on will sure help with the grieving process.
Have you found a friend yet?
- Apr 3, 2013
- 11
- 2
- 26
Hi there Iamgrateful,
I just read through this thread and cried. I was in much the same situation with my duck Sarah. I thought she was just swollen after passing what looked like two thin-shelled eggs at once, end-to-end. Did a cool bath and some peroxide..."swelling" didn't go down. Two days later, I called my vet, who does exotics such as birds but doesn't have a whole lot of experience with ducks. Prolapsed vents are common across birds and reptiles, from what I've been able to learn since. Well, they stitched her up, gave me some antibiotic and some wound wash for her (which is the same kind used on humans, if you want to get some for a first-aid kit for your birds). I had to keep her out of swimming water, so I put her and her two sisters in our bathtub overnight. The next afternoon I noticed she still wasn't eating, so I stopped by the vet to get some soft kitten food to dilute into a slurry and feed her with, so she could hopefully regain her strength.
Sarah died in my arms. My fiance' and I were devastated.
I blamed myself for not taking better care of her, not taking her to the vet sooner...so many things I could theoretically have done differently, but when it comes to a prolapse that is a very serious condition and their odds, from what I can tell anyway, aren't that good. What compounds it is the fact that ducks tend to hide their problems out of instinct, so you may not see it right away, which is the best time to treat it; again, from what I've read since losing Sarah. Please take solace in knowing that you tried your level best to take care of Minnie, and some things are just beyond our control.
Be sure to spend some time with your drake, too. You're part of his "flock" and he'll need you now that his mate is gone. A mirror will give him some company until you can find him a mate. If he's still not eating, as draconian as it may sound, you can force-feed him slurry as described above. Just get a large-bore syringe (tube, no needle), load it up, and when you've got him good and secure in your lap (a towel helps with this), open his beak from the corners of his mouth. What you basically end up doing is holding the top part of his bill, and when he pulls back, he'll open his mouth so you can keep that bottom part open and squeeze the food in. Give him a minute to swallow it, it'll be messy but he will. Then repeat. I've had to administer food and medicine to ducks like that. They're not keen on it but it does help them. Their systems start to shut down if they go more than three days without food, so a mad duck beats the alternative.
As for a mate, I have not tried these folks myself, but the Majestic Waterfowl Sanctuary (the founder wrote _The Ultimate Pet Duck Guide Book_) adopts out ducks to pre-screened foster homes. Maybe they can help. If anyone else has worked with them, I'd love to know how that went, too. The book has several stories about lame or disabled ducks finding homes, so that might be a good reference. I thought about finding a new companion for my other two Khakis that way, but ultimately decided to get a pair of Welsh Harlequins instead. That's another story to be posted elsewhere....!
So sorry to hear about Minnie. Been there, it sucks. Hang in there.
I just read through this thread and cried. I was in much the same situation with my duck Sarah. I thought she was just swollen after passing what looked like two thin-shelled eggs at once, end-to-end. Did a cool bath and some peroxide..."swelling" didn't go down. Two days later, I called my vet, who does exotics such as birds but doesn't have a whole lot of experience with ducks. Prolapsed vents are common across birds and reptiles, from what I've been able to learn since. Well, they stitched her up, gave me some antibiotic and some wound wash for her (which is the same kind used on humans, if you want to get some for a first-aid kit for your birds). I had to keep her out of swimming water, so I put her and her two sisters in our bathtub overnight. The next afternoon I noticed she still wasn't eating, so I stopped by the vet to get some soft kitten food to dilute into a slurry and feed her with, so she could hopefully regain her strength.
Sarah died in my arms. My fiance' and I were devastated.
I blamed myself for not taking better care of her, not taking her to the vet sooner...so many things I could theoretically have done differently, but when it comes to a prolapse that is a very serious condition and their odds, from what I can tell anyway, aren't that good. What compounds it is the fact that ducks tend to hide their problems out of instinct, so you may not see it right away, which is the best time to treat it; again, from what I've read since losing Sarah. Please take solace in knowing that you tried your level best to take care of Minnie, and some things are just beyond our control.
Be sure to spend some time with your drake, too. You're part of his "flock" and he'll need you now that his mate is gone. A mirror will give him some company until you can find him a mate. If he's still not eating, as draconian as it may sound, you can force-feed him slurry as described above. Just get a large-bore syringe (tube, no needle), load it up, and when you've got him good and secure in your lap (a towel helps with this), open his beak from the corners of his mouth. What you basically end up doing is holding the top part of his bill, and when he pulls back, he'll open his mouth so you can keep that bottom part open and squeeze the food in. Give him a minute to swallow it, it'll be messy but he will. Then repeat. I've had to administer food and medicine to ducks like that. They're not keen on it but it does help them. Their systems start to shut down if they go more than three days without food, so a mad duck beats the alternative.
As for a mate, I have not tried these folks myself, but the Majestic Waterfowl Sanctuary (the founder wrote _The Ultimate Pet Duck Guide Book_) adopts out ducks to pre-screened foster homes. Maybe they can help. If anyone else has worked with them, I'd love to know how that went, too. The book has several stories about lame or disabled ducks finding homes, so that might be a good reference. I thought about finding a new companion for my other two Khakis that way, but ultimately decided to get a pair of Welsh Harlequins instead. That's another story to be posted elsewhere....!
So sorry to hear about Minnie. Been there, it sucks. Hang in there.
- Thread starter
- #90
- Aug 29, 2011
- 133
- 6
- 98
Update: I think I may have found Donnie a mate!! Found a female around a year old about 40 minutes from here. Only problem is I may not be able to pick her up until Saturday.
Weep-weep ducks - Thank you so much for sharing your story and I'm sorry to hear of the loss of your Sarah. It is indeed devestating to lose one of our pets. I too wondered if I had done something wrong to cause that to happen to Minnie. I think being so worried about Donnie has helped to move past some of my sadness about it into a focus to help him get through it. If none of his food is gone when I get home tonight...I may try force feeding him. He cannot choke if I do that can he? (with a small bit of slurry at a time)
Weep-weep ducks - Thank you so much for sharing your story and I'm sorry to hear of the loss of your Sarah. It is indeed devestating to lose one of our pets. I too wondered if I had done something wrong to cause that to happen to Minnie. I think being so worried about Donnie has helped to move past some of my sadness about it into a focus to help him get through it. If none of his food is gone when I get home tonight...I may try force feeding him. He cannot choke if I do that can he? (with a small bit of slurry at a time)
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