What in Ducky Heck is this!?

[Raenh]

I'm just really affectionate with all my animals and some humans

 

[Miss Lydia]

This may not even be snappers but how about fish if there was wound already fish will pick at a wound

 

[Raenh]

You said they were plastic like in feel? I wonder if it was just a feather tip part that broke off and got filled with dirt and grime. Those things kinda feel like clear plastic.

 

[DuckyDoodles]

..... He was already 3 weeks old and scared of humans. But i just kept at it and i guess proved to him he could. I sleep out.on the couch with them at night and when the lights would go off.....

I'm just really affectionate with all my animals and some humans

I did that with this particular Pekin as well; well sorta. When the whole her getting homed in my screen porch thing happened unexpectedly, I didn’t know how to calm her down or gain her trust beyond common sense animal tactics. I moved fluidly but not quickly. I talked calmly to her and if I attempted to get near her, I would hunker down a little so I wasn’t towering over her. I spent many hours on my porch, between midnight and 3am lol, and I would just sit there quietly and read stuff on my phone and be draped in my blanket. After some days passed, she’d get about two feet away from me. I took that as an acceptable amount of trust given my impression that she’s not had much human interactions. There were a couple of nights I brought my blanket out there and took a nap. Like you, apparently duck naps are a bonding experience LOL

She’d began all of this by connecting to my daughter on some level; don’t necessarily think it’s an imprinting thing but I could be mistaken. She’d follow my kid everywhere. Into the house, across the acreage and would stand at the door waiting for her to come back outside.

That all said; she’d since then seemingly attached on a trust level with me; once I got the other two Pekins (though one has passed and it’s just her and one other duck now) she stopped following my kid so much. Then, once my kid proved too hyper/impulsive around the ducks, she mostly just tolerated the kid and is much more relaxed around me.

Well... it was that way until I started having to grope her/pick her up/otherwise having to be all up in her face. Now? She’s still a lot more trusting of me than my daughter but now she’s just quacking to beat all hell when I go on to the porch or nearby.

So yeah I think the whole manhandling of her, for the wound(s) issue(s), has stretched her patience.

ETA: quoted second post because (and I’m
Sure this is frowned upon but I’m
Just being honest) I like and prefer animals to humans. Hands down. If some cataclysmic event happened and humans were extinguished but animals survived, I think it would be best thing for animals/planet ever. But I’m a cynical pessimistic person so I’m pretty jaded lol....

 

[DuckyDoodles]

This may not even be snappers but how about fish if there was wound already fish will pick at a wound

Didn’t even consider that before and I will rule nothing out at this point.

 

[Raenh]

This was how we'd sleep... and then fancy would sneak up slowly and cuddle in. I was almost always holding them when i was home. Speedy will perch on my shoulder and Fancy will lay on my chest or stomach. Now a days, speedy still tries to perch on my shoulder, but i can only hold one or the other at a time because fancy's so big.

But mine were babies when I started out... speedy was about a week or less old when I found her, and she imprinted and fancy was about 3 wks old when we bought him, he's bonded to us but not imprinted.

 

[DuckyDoodles]

You said they were plastic like in feel? I wonder if it was just a feather tip part that broke off and got filled with dirt and grime. Those things kinda feel like clear plastic.

Plastic isn’t really the best description I guess but it is all the same. It’s hard like a hard surface or plastic (hard) or something of some sort. I’ve only touched it with the pad of my finger, not anything crazy with the nail, just kind of assessing texture. It’s hard enough that I’m if I tapped on it with the tip of my finger or nail, I’m almost certain it would make a thunk noise or similarly hard/hallow sound.

And I’m not comfortable prodding at it but I’m almost certain it’s on the keel bone. Which is where I’m concerned that it’s exposed open and the potential reasons for it to be black.

 

[DuckyDoodles]

*** UPDATE AND DEVELOPMENTS ***

A further inspection gave no new holes, however, Theres a very interesting development in the two holes she has.

It’s all one wound. They are connected as if it is a big under skin tunnel. And interestingly, the space between the two holes is notably harder than the other surrounding areas/keel line.

I see the same blackened contents/under layer as the ‘big nasty’ but I’ll be curious to see if the black thing/stuff is maybe a foreign object that tissue(s) have surrounded and or if it’s just disgustingly calcified yuck that has accumulated since this through and through injury of hers.

I did tap on it (the big one) a bit with my nail. Suspicions confirmed: it’s hard and not squishy or soft. Made a little tap sound. That said, while it’s super stupid hard, I do feel like some of it is capable of being scraped out (I mean not by me but hopefully by the vet). I just don’t know if it’s miniscule malleability is because it’s body-tissues-victimized-by-this-random-plague-of-doom or, again, if it’s just crud. Plus, returning to the fact that the inch or so between the two holes is harder/elevated outwards more than surrounding areas. So it’s just, as it has been, a big dang mystery.

Attaching a couple of pics of the situation but I can’t guarantee their clarity. She’s just *SOOOO* displeased with it all that she’s a freakin wriggle monster of whom my chicken shyte daughter is not holding well (LOL... sorry kiddo, threw you under the bus there). So, I’m light of ducks’ dwindling patience/increased resistance, I slathered the area with the ointment and just figured at least the important part is done and, if absolutely necessary, pics could be forfeited.

I’ve added some marks to pics to help, just in case.

 

[DuckyDoodles]

Sooooo... with it being one tunneled wound with two holes, I’m going to rule out snapping turtle. Of course, abscesses burrow and, in theory, could have been a snapper bite that tunneled infection elsewhere. But truthfully, I’m not sold on that in light of it being (to me) more likely there was a specific through-and-through injury.

Has anyone ever seen a duck get impaled with a stick (perhaps)?

Reverting back to concerns over trashy occupants prior to my purchase, still thinking small caliber could be culprit (..22 or .25). Especially now noticing it’s a tunnel and the areas affected could indicate she was laying on ground by the side of pond/woods line and someone took a shot at her. Forensics experience would indicate smaller entry wound (upper hole which would have been more forward facing the shooter) and then bigger/bottom hole is larger which fits exit wound (its linear to the upper hole and should have been somewhat straight lined behind upper hole if she were laying down).

I don’t get the vibe that it’s an Arrow because I suspect it would have had the momentum/velocity to have gone through her keel bone. And that’s not even saying anything about arrow head chosen.

I really don’t want her to have been shot because hubs and I have a ‘shooting range’ set up on the property and I would instantly fear I’m going to trigger a memory or otherwise make her correlate me with that.

But, that said, I would think that barring weird abscess travel, barring bullet implications, the only other option would be self impalement on something else??

 

[Kusanar]

I really don’t want her to have been shot because hubs and I have a ‘shooting range’ set up on the property and I would instantly fear I’m going to trigger a memory or otherwise make her correlate me with that.

Most animals don't have much in the way of PTSD type reactions, typically they live in the here and now. Yes, if a particular sound caused pain in the past, they will spook at the sound, but, if the same sound happens several times without pain, they typically realize that that sound does not cause pain NOW but it did in the past. So, with you taking care of her and not hurting her, even though she doesn't like you messing with her, she shouldn't relate YOU with being shot, though, she may panic some the first few times she hears a shot, IF you haven't already been shooting around her. If you have already been using the shooting range, she's probably already gotten over whatever negative emotions she had tied to that sound.