very injured duck in need of help

[Miss Lydia]

i wouldnt know about brave, more like just hoping for the best and expecting the worst. never had a scab come off so soon after forming, but then ive never seen this kind of scab form so quickly before either.

as for closing it up, i cant tell if thats the inside or outside of the crop that i was seeing and if its the inside i dont know where the edges are. even if i could see them unless someone can give me a method for knocking her out any attempt to glue or stitch it closed would either be a waste of time or end up causing more damage. she doesnt even hold still for her bandage change anymore, i have to take it off and put a new one on while she walks back and forth over half the counter with random bobbing and dodging.

I bet that's a hoot trying to change her bandage while she is dodging and bobbing. lol. I think you both are doing a great job, you've taken good care and she is coming back. As far as the crop gosh I'm thinking that should be showing signs of closing but she doesn't appear to be losing ground because of it. I would think you'd dif have to have help to do anything to it. I love the pic, I hope your drakes begin to gain weight too.

 

[KaziCritter]

shes been spitting up a bit today again, but i think most of it was accidental. she spent at least an hour where she decided to drink from the water bowl which was as ground level while standing on the nest box. she could reach but every time she ended up with a mouth of slime to deal with. she also spit up a bit of food over the day, but it looks like most made it through past the damage and theres no visible leaking of food (was a little soupy today) or water from under the bandage. so im hoping that it was all due to gulping food and her position while she was drinking from the top of the box. she still actively eating and drinking but not as if nothing was getting though.

anyone have a decent reference for duck anatomy? spent at least the last hour trying all sorts of different searches on google but its all pretty useless. the little i did find indicates that the crop on a duck is a lot lower then her injury and is more at the front edge of the breast which would correlate with how my ducks look after eating a lot and be a lot closer to the location of it on a chicken, the wound is about 4 inches higher up the neck from there. trying to figure out just what im looking at and dealing with without any real reference is getting confusing (and this is from someone who creates fantasy creatures when bored, so if i know whats what i can visualize it decently).

and apparently the drake i brought is has a injured foot. the big joint at the base of the toes is a bit swollen and he isnt wanting to stand on it. no visible injury beyond the swelling so hes getting some advil to help with the swelling and will be getting regular warm baths so he can keep clean and stretch it without putting much weight on it. hes eating as drinking as well but not gorging which is a bit odd with how skinny he is. any suggestions on other stuff that might help him would be appreciated.

 

[roseyred]

http://www.fvmace.org/FVMA_83rd_Annual_Conference/Proceedings/Anesthesia and Analgesia of Birds.html

Found this on sedating birds. It has lots of options and there risks and stuff. Maybe there's a natural way to relax her. Like how people drink lavander or skullcap tea...

 

[Tevyes Dad]

See if this helps...

http://www.life.illinois.edu/ib/461/Internal_Anatomy.pdf

 

[KaziCritter]

for sedation, id need something thats safe to do at home without access to monitoring equipment and such. i tried lavender when i had to calm a guinea pig to treat a full body infestation of mites (treatment was olive oil with a little tea tree oil to get rid of them), the lavender actually made him more agitated and harder to handle. i know its supposed to have a calming effect but everytime ive tried using ive gotten the opposite reaction and ive tried the actual plant, tea, and essential oil.

that anatomy pdf is interesting but not too helpful in this case. im more after something thats specific to ducks and has locations of where everything is. most of the images in the pdf are skeletal and the few that arent are from a lab dissection view (belly up). something side view would be good. a 3d model would be great, most 3d models you can toggle parts on or off to see what you want. even an anatomical cutaway would be good. main reason i need something other then a dissection view is some parts (like the crop) will be shown at a different apparent location depending on how the bird is positioned (belly up / stretched out vs laying vs standing (standing and laying would be close but slightly different since standing allows gravity to come into effect while laying has the ground pushing against the body)).

 

[Amiga]

i found this - one illustration is of a duck

http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/publications/field_manual/chapter_2.pdf

Here is the BYC thread it came from

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/108937/chicken-duck-anatomy-gut-diagram

There are also good diagrams of the different systems in a duck's body in The Ultimate Pet Duck Guidebook Second Edition (emphasis - Second Edition).

Page 351 has the digestive system diagrammed.

 

[casportpony]

i found this - one illustration is of a duck

http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/publications/field_manual/chapter_2.pdf

Here is the BYC thread it came from

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/108937/chicken-duck-anatomy-gut-diagram

There are also good diagrams of the different systems in a duck's body in The Ultimate Pet Duck Guidebook Second Edition (emphasis - Second Edition).

Page 351 has the digestive system diagrammed.

Excellent links! The duck anatomy picture picture doesn't have the word "crop", but it does show that the esophagus looks looks like the one the left in this picture:


Picture from: http://www.fernbank.edu/Birding/digestion.htm

-Kathy

 

[KaziCritter]

Well the hole is definitely either in the crop or on the way to it. Just put her in for a bath, had a bit more compacted food in the bandage today with a lot of drooling lately. Her entire scab fell off after a few dunks and she promptly ate it. Within a few seconds a small piece came out of the hole and she threw up the rest a few min later. Ate the scab again and after a couple min the whole thing came out the hole this time.

Except for that hole everything else seems to be healing fine. Enough food seems to be getting past it to keep her from feeling too hungry but she won't let me do any real checking of it.

I'll post a photo after she's done in the bath and I get back to my computer monitor currently on a tablet with a cruddy camera (fixed focus, but tablet was a Xmas gift so can't complain and it's a nice tablet otherwise).

 

[KaziCritter]

Was very fidgety both when trying to get a photo and re bandaging. Again only got one photo over about 5 min of trying to get her to hold still long enough to focus and shoot. Oh and she's started trying to remove her bandage on her own, she works the end loose and then keeps tugging on it. She insisted on helping remove the bandage before her bath and kept trying to remove the new one as it was being put on. I think she has had enough of being injured and just wants to go back out with the others.

Here's the photo i was able to get, I added a larger view of the hole since it was had to see the detail once the photo was shrunk to a decent size (starting resolution was about 3300 x 2500 so it had a lot of shrinking to do).



That is definitely the inside and I cant find the edges at all. Starting to get the feeling that it won't heal without vet intervention.

 

[casportpony]

Looks like the hole is in her crop or esophagus. Can you take her to a vet?

-Kathy