Poor og, but things happen no need to beat yourself up over it, hopeing for a quick recovery this time.
Hopefully little bit will start thriving soon, it's still alive though so that's a good sign.
As for the excapeing, ducks are sneeky little things lol. The wee ones will probably be completely fine with the bigger ones, I'd keep an eye on little bit to make sure it's not getting smothered. But I'm the crazy person who raised bantam chicks with ducks only a week younger then them, no one's been smooshed yet and they are now around 5/6 weeks old. :p I had planned on seperating them when the ducks got big enough to pose a danger but they all seemed super happy together and fliped out when I tried to separate them so they stayed together. I think so long as they have plenty of space to move out of the way of the older ducks you shouldn't have a problem.View attachment 1353335
(That pic was right after bath time, was moving them back to their pen couldn't leave the chicks by themselves or they fliped out) Here's what happens when you have flight able chickens in a bin in the bathroom.View attachment 1353338

Edit: oh and for the panty hose compare the largest part of her body that will be covered to the size of your leg (if you wear panty hose) then if it's similar sized you'd get what would fit you and use the area of the hose that would match her size compared to your leg, if there's no comparison then you might have to trial and error different sizes. I had to do this with a shirt sleeve for my cat lol.

Oh sweet mother of nature! I want to walk into my bathroom and see chickens hanging from towel bars and various perch-worthy places! That just warms my heart ❤️

I do think I’ll take your advice and sorta assume that if her midsection is as wide as my thigh, then to use the thigh part. It makes total sense and I don’t know why I was fretting it so much but, truthfully, I don’t wear pantyhose. To me, they’re horribly suffocating, itchy and (just my opinion, not a judgement) irrelevant and unnecessary. So my disdain for these leg smothering contraptions had me a bit skunked about using them because I was thinking I was going to put a portion on her and she was going to look NOT like that poor adorable Pekin from earlier but more like those squeaky dog chew toys where the chickens’ eyes are bugged out of their head.

I’m going to be getting the pantyhose tomorrow. Admittedly, I’ve been doing not as much as I would like around here today and been reliant on the hubs for some things. So I figured I would wait until tomorrow for elastics to be whipped out (omg he would’ve died lol).
 
Check this link out: https://theiwrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Duerr_Splinting_Manual_2010.pdf
It was sent to me to help with my broken winged pigeon, but the split wing wrap in there MAY be something you could use to imobilize her wings but not put pressure on her chest. Most of the splints aren't really bone specific, just more of "get it where it seems right and hold it still so it can heal"
 
Hehe, it was pretty spectacular. I definitely enjoyed finding them like that, I did not enjoy cleaning the mess but that honestly was mostly the ducks not the chickens :p. Just a few little "presents" to pick up then wipe the floor and surfaces down and the chick mess was taken care of. I 100% would do again lol.

I agree with you on the hose, I only put them on for very, very special occasions. I totally understand over thinking it, I do the same when I'm stressed. Sometimes we just need someone else to come along and point out the simpler option. :)

We definitely need pics of OG in her new outfit lol.

Btw, horribly envious of your ponds, I feel bad my duckies have to settle for a kiddy pool, better then nothing though so they are happy with it.

Edit: I forgot to add: If you make a hole for the wipe and swipe you could probably use non toxic glue around the edge so it doesn't come appart. (Or clear nail polish but check on that cause I'm not sure it would be safe.)
 
Hehe, it was pretty spectacular. I definitely enjoyed finding them like that, I did not enjoy cleaning the mess but that honestly was mostly the ducks not the chickens :p. Just a few little "presents" to pick up then wipe the floor and surfaces down and the chick mess was taken care of. I 100% would do again lol.

I agree with you on the hose, I only put them on for very, very special occasions. I totally understand over thinking it, I do the same when I'm stressed. Sometimes we just need someone else to come along and point out the simpler option. :)

We definitely need pics of OG in her new outfit lol.

Btw, horribly envious of your ponds, I feel bad my duckies have to settle for a kiddy pool, better then nothing though so they are happy with it.

Edit: I forgot to add: If you make a hole for the wipe and swipe you could probably use non toxic glue around the edge so it doesn't come appart. (Or clear nail polish but check on that cause I'm not sure it would be safe.)

Again, you guys are invaluable: if you hadn’t mentioned the coming apart, I would’ve completely forgotten about the whole errrr hole situation in pantyhose. See! Completely ruin a day with those things ;)

Thank you for the pond compliments. I know compared to 50DucksinaHotub youtuber (for example) they’re just puddles but I count my blessings for having them. And here’s the thing, I’ve still purchased 3 kiddie pools because if I think somehow that something is amiss and they can’t be without areal protection, then in the run they will remain and in kiddie pools they shall play. I’d gotten 3 thinking I would be able to use them as brooder(s) for the littles but they blew by that option after the first week. My god they’re just insanely growth spurt happy!

I’m at a truck stop getting ready to continue the drive to Indy. It’s touch up day on OG’s poor boobies. I’ll update (and of course take pics) for the journey :)
 
Alright, checkin was at 7. She is in their hands now. It’s just so funny because no sooner than the front desk worker took her back and put her in her cage, OG started in with the quacking. I’m filling out drop off paperwork and just laughing. This is the reputation she has there as it is LOL. Worker came back up front to take my paperwork and she was laughing and I told her “I know. I know. If it’s any consolation she’s a very pleasant duck, she’s just vocal.” To which she agreed, says “she’s very easy to work with, she’s just telling everyone all about it.” She takes the little baggie of feed I brought (yes, a sack lunch lol I’m such a mom) and walks back there and lo and behold there’s ‘Lungs’ again making a scene.

So, she’s off to the same start as last time... if she sees you, you have to listen to her tales of incredulity over the whole situation.

I got a video of her rapping to some hip hop music on the way there but I don’t know if I should post it LOL. There’s dirty words in them there hip hop songs!

But now I wait. I’m hoping it’s easy, for her sake, and I’m hoping it doesn’t cost me what the low/high values were on the estimates, for my wallets’ sake.

Here’s some pics of her opening from
Yesterday afternoon. It’d healed nicely and I asked the vet if today was still necessary. Their response was, ultimately, they don’t know because the scab could be covering some damage (the breast muscle not being attached for example) but they won’t know until they’re looking at it.

Not going to lie. I hesitated for a minute on whether to bring her. But I figured I was out the original $400, night as well make it worth it I guess. It’s just... this could cost anywhere from $250-$780 sooooo I’m really hoping I’m not the proud owner of a thousand dollar duck.

Adore her to pieces, love her enough I’m doing this, but I don’t know how I’ll ever live that down amongst friends and family.
 

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Hehe, it was luck that I thought of it. When I was thinking about the times I've worn them, I would get runs in them all the time so I used nail polish to seal it. And that reminded me that you would need access to her chest.

I haven't seen that YouTuber so I will have to check it out :p. I'm in the desert...I'm envious of any sized pond lol. (I grew up next to the ocean I miss water.) I do have a Simi plan to do a kind of duckponic system eventually so I can grow some yumyums for the ducks and chickens and filter their pool water.

I remember you saying something about the ducks not really getting in the pond so maybe they will like the kiddie pools better. And yes ducks out grow brooder space so fast it's insane, could totally use one of the kiddie pools to grow some chicks though! :p

Hehe that's so cute that she talks up a storm, only one of mine does that and it's funny because she is so shy but man does she quack alot.
Ofcorse she needs a snack lunch! :p would love to see that video but yeah not sure it can be posted here.

I hope things go smoothly today so poor OG doesn't have to deal with to much and your poor wallet doesn't have to cry. I have lots of respect for you taking her in and getting what needs to be done, done for her. Anyone who give you poop about taking her in is silly. The wound looks pretty good in the pictures but hard to tell what's going on inside, best of luck today. Can't wait for an update.
 
Here we go guys, buckle your seatbelts because there’s gonna be some wild info incoming.

At least to me it was.

Had to have Grumpy pick poor baby up from vet because he was in Indy, I was back home taking kiddo to an appointment. So I had to have my post-op updates done via phone with the vet.

She said this time it only took a few minutes and everything went super well with no complications. Excellent! Well she proceeded to compare this procedure to the first one and I found out things this time around that I didn’t seem to know about the first procedure.

First surgery took close to an hour. They had to remove the necrotic muscle and as they had been removing it they found it had gone quite deep and actually started affecting her keel bone. In fact- the first procedure included having to shave the keel bone itself and removing some connective cartilage because both the bone and that area of cartilage had started to necrotize. Then there was the fact that there was a (her words) channel of necrotic tissue that connected the two different holes. She had to go through that channel and remove the bad while trying to still leave the good.

She said the first procedure was such that she expected to have to do a second one because of the extent of the situation. OG’s wound hadn’t inherently popped open because I let her get too wet/muddy... in fact it was because her skin tissue was not healing together with other skin tissue but was, in fact, connecting itself to the freshly healing muscle tissue. Eventually, if this touch up yesterday wasn’t done, it would’ve resulted in yet the same style opening into her chest and allowed things to start dying.

She only had to scrape a little “updated necrotic” tissue out but otherwise said her muscle is trying to adhere to the shaved keel/fresh healthy tissue. She wouldn’t guarantee that a third touch up won’t be necessary (as any person wouldn’t have) but she says she is significantly more optimistic that this time will heal better because there is so much less trauma to the body, a boat load less tissue repair needed and because this isn’t the first procedure where her breast skin was having to be stretched to be stitched, it should heal much better.

Now, that’s a lot to take in. Sure I could be pissy that I *might* have to have a third round ($$) to fix this but to me it was more about the actual severity of her poor little wounds and how this was literally killing her from the inside out.

Being “lucky” that they only had to remove a piece of cartilage and shave the bone to take the necrosis out instead of her whole bone having been obliterated.

This vet LOVED the pantyhose idea and wants to see the results in two weeks. She’s thinking that the pantyhose idea can help keep debris from getting to the wound (preventing that hard scab from before) but also do a much better job of restricting the wing movements. She said that is her primary recovery goal #1: preventing her from using that breast muscle area as much as possible because it’ll help that muscle seat itself to the keel better.

So I was a little relieved that I didn’t personally eff up OG’s recovery but truthfully, after learning the whole shebang, I’m totally over that. I have this weird cosmic feeling that whether my wallet likes it or not, OG is my ward.

Whatever life she’s had/suffered prior to us buying this property, I’m going to make it better. I will probably have to remind myself of this feeling if it comes to another surgery but I mean I cried after I got off the phone with the vet. This poor duck (in my mind’s eye of literalism) was dying from the inside out but she never once made a point about it or did anything.

I don’t know how old she is but I’m feeling pretty good about the idea that whatever (possibly short) amount of time I have left with her, she’ll be living necrosis free.

Sorry this is all super ‘deep’, I just... I didn’t catch how severe it was the first time and finding out now just made me completely shrug the fact it cost me another $300. I shouldn’t shrug $300 but the emotionality of all of this (to me) makes it worth it.
 
None of the videos are long, I was battling less than 10% on my phone at the time. But just a few quick vids to see how the pantyhose works.
 

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