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Aw, that sounds pretty wonderful. I'd love to let our duck roam our home, but it just isn't possible.
I read the story of your goose from your childhood. That was so very sad. I'm also in Florida, and am very familiar with those awful fire ants (my youngest has about 40 scars on her legs from when she got bit up when she was a toddler). I'm glad to have read it, so that I will make sure to take care of any ant hills asap that might show up in our backyard, where our duck has access to.
That's a sad story. Loss is hard at any age, but especially when you're a child. What's so crazy is that when I decided to get a duck...we went to a breeders house to pick one out. Turns out she only had four...and they were ALL covered in fire ants! The pen she was keeping them in was infested. She pulled the ducklings out and began picking off the ants (she tried to do this "on the sly" so we wouldn't notice)...but how could you not!? I was picking ants out of their mouths! It was horrible. I felt so bad for the conditions they were living in and ended up buying all four of them just to save their lives! Brought back memories from my goose as a child. As I said before, we only intended to keep one...but my other half got attached to "the runt".
They wouldn't have made it another night in that pen with the ants. They recovered well and the bites on their bills and feet healed. However after healing, now a few of the ant bites have turned into several holes in their webbed feet. (More so on the runt "Smalls" than "Sparkle".) They are fine, and it doesn't seem to bother them. I've attached a photo of the largest hole on the runt "Smalls". The experience was kind of cool in the way that I couldn't save my goose from the ants as a child....but I had the opportunity to save 4 lives from the ants as an adult.
Aw, that sounds pretty wonderful. I'd love to let our duck roam our home, but it just isn't possible.
I read the story of your goose from your childhood. That was so very sad. I'm also in Florida, and am very familiar with those awful fire ants (my youngest has about 40 scars on her legs from when she got bit up when she was a toddler). I'm glad to have read it, so that I will make sure to take care of any ant hills asap that might show up in our backyard, where our duck has access to.
That's a sad story. Loss is hard at any age, but especially when you're a child. What's so crazy is that when I decided to get a duck...we went to a breeders house to pick one out. Turns out she only had four...and they were ALL covered in fire ants! The pen she was keeping them in was infested. She pulled the ducklings out and began picking off the ants (she tried to do this "on the sly" so we wouldn't notice)...but how could you not!? I was picking ants out of their mouths! It was horrible. I felt so bad for the conditions they were living in and ended up buying all four of them just to save their lives! Brought back memories from my goose as a child. As I said before, we only intended to keep one...but my other half got attached to "the runt".
