srose0116
Chirping
- Jul 27, 2020
- 61
- 57
- 81
Hello backyardChickens and duck lovers. I am in a very unique situation. So about two and a half weeks ago we had a Fisher attack our flocks. We lost four of our chickens and two of our ducks. It was heartbreaking as we love our birds like a part of our family. After the attack we became duck nurses, as our four surviving ducks were all badly injured. We ended up taking our Pekin drake, Darling, to the vet and he was put on antibiotics, pain killer, and an anti-inflammatory. All four of the ducks still sleep in our basement at night, as we are not ready to put them back in the coop and pond until they are completely better. We have a walk out basement, so we are able to let the ducks walk out into an outdoor pen during the day. Two and a half weeks later, and the other three ducks are all acting pretty normal and healthy. We noticed yesterday that Baby, our Khaki drake, was picking on Darling, and even opened up one of the wounds on his neck. We know we have to separate the drakes.
Here’s my predicament. We have two drakes, as mentioned, Darling the Pekin, and Baby the Khaki. We also have two females, Honey the Pekin, and Bear the Khaki. We’ve been separating by breed at night, to limit any fighting. Today we decided to just let the Khakis out, and to keep the Pekins inside. However Honey went nuts because she knew Bear and Baby were outside. So we let her out. Now we just have Darling inside. He seemed upset at first, but now he’s calmed down. We really don’t know how long it’ll take for him to heal, or if he will ever have full mobility back. His neck is stiff from the bites and bruising, so he can’t even reach his oil gland to preen. He also needs assistance eating and drinking sometimes as it’s hard to get his neck all the way down, and to eat solid foods such as cut up veggies. We’ve been feeding him “slurries” which is essentially scrambled eggs and peas blended up like a smoothie. He loves it. He also has started eating duck food. Should we try to separate our flock by breed completely, so Darling has Honey? Or should we let Honey be with Bear and Baby because she’s also all healed? Would it be cruel to keep Darling separated as long as he needs assistance? We love him very much, (as we do all of them) so giving anyone away, or putting him down is not an option. He wants to live, he fought so hard to get where he is now, and he keeps making improvement. But unfortunately if we keep them all together Baby will keep picking on him and stall his progress more.
Here’s my predicament. We have two drakes, as mentioned, Darling the Pekin, and Baby the Khaki. We also have two females, Honey the Pekin, and Bear the Khaki. We’ve been separating by breed at night, to limit any fighting. Today we decided to just let the Khakis out, and to keep the Pekins inside. However Honey went nuts because she knew Bear and Baby were outside. So we let her out. Now we just have Darling inside. He seemed upset at first, but now he’s calmed down. We really don’t know how long it’ll take for him to heal, or if he will ever have full mobility back. His neck is stiff from the bites and bruising, so he can’t even reach his oil gland to preen. He also needs assistance eating and drinking sometimes as it’s hard to get his neck all the way down, and to eat solid foods such as cut up veggies. We’ve been feeding him “slurries” which is essentially scrambled eggs and peas blended up like a smoothie. He loves it. He also has started eating duck food. Should we try to separate our flock by breed completely, so Darling has Honey? Or should we let Honey be with Bear and Baby because she’s also all healed? Would it be cruel to keep Darling separated as long as he needs assistance? We love him very much, (as we do all of them) so giving anyone away, or putting him down is not an option. He wants to live, he fought so hard to get where he is now, and he keeps making improvement. But unfortunately if we keep them all together Baby will keep picking on him and stall his progress more.
