Duckling jumped out of my hand and hit the patio

[BornToBeeWild]

Tonight I was carrying my duckling from her pool back to bed, and she tried to climb up my arm- she immediately lost balance. I dropped my phone to try and catch her, but it didn’t work. She fell right on her head (I thought) but my sister is saying she fell on her back. Either way I’m very worried and have no idea what to do. I got down to try and pick her back up, but she was angry and wouldn’t let me. She didn’t have any visible wounds, she wasn’t bleeding, and she ran back to her pen without limping. I’m still worried she has an injury. I can’t take her to the vet, because my mother isn’t home and her boyfriend will not take me (he’s one of those ‘animals aren’t worth the money, animals don’t feel, etc’ kind of people). The walk is 10 miles. She’s around six inches long and is a little heavy for her size. What do I do?

 

[nao57]

Well for now see what you can figure out.

Will she still eat and drink? (Doesn't have to be immediate).

See if you can calm her with some treats (a few peas will do., or oatmeal).

How is her demeanor?

Does she act sick, or just lay down?

If she has a limp that by itself isn't too bad.

Ducks can be quite resilient. And I also worry if you go to a vet they may just want tons of money without even being able to do much.

I would watch her progress for a bit.

Ducklings do stuff like this a lot. But they can recover from falls pretty well.

While tempting her with some treats see if she can move fairly well, or how that's going.

Watch her for the rest of the night to see if she improves a bit. If she even improves even a small amount then going to the vet may not be worth it.

What is she doing?

I don't mean anything against vets but they just don't study poultry in vet school because the replacement cost of poultry makes it so they'd starve trying to sell poultry services. So most of them do cats, dogs, and sometimes horses and cows. And surgery like spaying cats and neutering, sometimes fixing broken bones.

Birds have holow bones so that doesn't work well for them.

But a good thing is that young of any species including birds would have softer bones that would bend more instead of breaking. This means chances are you don't have broken bones but may have sprains or tendon issues possibly.

 

[BarredRockMom]

Step 1: Breathe
Step 2: Watch & wait
Step 3: Feed & water as normal. If you are able & want to give some extra food, go for it.
I agree that the little duckling is probably fine. While gravity is no joke, their hollow bones & springy nature are probably saving the day here.

Honestly, I saw a documentary on ducks who nested in tree hollows in the wild, way, WAY up high & out of the reach of predators. (Like 30-40 feet up in the tree!) Once they were old enough & it was time to leave the nest & learn other things, they jumped outta the tree, plummeted 30-40 ft down onto the forest floor, bounced up & ran after their mother to the water.

So I think that there's a super good chance that your duckling is fine. Oh and,

Step 4: Try not to worry.

 

[BornToBeeWild]

Well for now see what you can figure out.

Will she still eat and drink? (Doesn't have to be immediate).

See if you can calm her with some treats (a few peas will do., or oatmeal).

How is her demeanor?

Does she act sick, or just lay down?

If she has a limp that by itself isn't too bad.

Ducks can be quite resilient. And I also worry if you go to a vet they may just want tons of money without even being able to do much.

I would watch her progress for a bit.

Ducklings do stuff like this a lot. But they can recover from falls pretty well.

While tempting her with some treats see if she can move fairly well, or how that's going.

Watch her for the rest of the night to see if she improves a bit. If she even improves even a small amount then going to the vet may not be worth it.

What is she doing?

I don't mean anything against vets but they just don't study poultry in vet school because the replacement cost of poultry makes it so they'd starve trying to sell poultry services. So most of them do cats, dogs, and sometimes horses and cows. And surgery like spaying cats and neutering, sometimes fixing broken bones.

Birds have holow bones so that doesn't work well for them.

But a good thing is that young of any species including birds would have softer bones that would bend more instead of breaking. This means chances are you don't have broken bones but may have sprains or tendon issues possibly.

I went out to see her and she isn’t angry anymore. It’s pretty late, so she was sleeping. She woke up and let me pet her for a while, but she did flinch when I touched the top of her head. It wasn’t more tender than usual, but I would guess it does hurt. She seems okay for now, o think.

 

[nao57]

I went out to see her and she isn’t angry anymore. It’s pretty late, so she was sleeping. She woke up and let me pet her for a while, but she did flinch when I touched the top of her head. It wasn’t more tender than usual, but I would guess it does hurt. She seems okay for now, o think.

Good.

For the next few days you'll want to keep stress down on her. This can mean stress from lots of things; temperature stress, weather stress, etc. More checks and you can do more treats with water.

 

[BornToBeeWild]

Thank you to everyone who offered advice; Pickles still seems to be doing well. I can’t attach a video, but she’s very happy (I think) running around the pen.

 

[nao57]

Pickles seems like a great duck name. Haha. I like it.

Ducks are really fun.