Dog attack on ducks

[birdnutz]

A lady in town called me because her ducks were attacked by a dog. Owner of dog got a dog at large ticket. She was told she had to get rid her ducks.
He killed 3 of them before he was stopped. I now have 2 male pekins and 1 female rowen. 2 of them are not so bad. The third pekin is the one that really got it. He's covered in a lot of blood so it makes it hard to see the wounds. He has a puncture under each wing that I found. I cleaned them up with betadine and alcohol. Then put on antibotic cream. He's real lathargic and when he walks,not often. He is tilted forward. I'm starting to think he might have another puncture in his breast some where.
So my question is. Can I give him a bath or would that be inviting infection?

 

[Judy]

I would. I'd put just a little Betadine in the water, and just a little soap/shampoo. Soak him a while if he will let you, like 10-15 minutes. Then just use the antibiotic cream. A bath should do a lot more to remove germs than to expose him to more.

Good luck.

 

[threehorses]

Unfortunately this is my forte'. I've had a number of dog and other critter attacks here, especially on waterfowl, and had to learn the hard way.

Personally, I wouldn't bathe him. He's in shock and unable to dry off (keep warm) normally.

Instead, I would pick them all back up and look very carefully for any additional wounds. Dog wounds are typically punctures and close up very quickly. Thick waterfowl down covers these too well, leaving a wound that prematurely closes and infects. Give them a nother once over.

When you find punctures, here's a very successful protocol:

First cleaning - have these things handy:
hydrogen peroxide
paper towels
Iodine
Very warm water
An empty syringe (easily obtained at most feedstores) Sans needle.
Neosporin or Nitrofurazone ointment (yellow horse wound ointment)
gloves, of course
Scissors
If possible, an anti-fly wound spray (such as screw-worm spray for livestock and poultry from the feedstore)
Q-tips and/or popsicle sticks similar clean things

When you find a wound, use your scissors to clear away the area around - including any feathers that might dip into the wound from the surrounding area. try to get as little as possible, leaving as much feather protection as possible.

When the area is cleared, use a syringe to fill the wound (if not desperately deep) with hydrogen peroxide. When you fill the wound, do it moderately vigorously- strong enough to flush out dirt. Do this a couple of times.

Mix enough iodine in water to make it the color of a strong ice-tea. Use the syringe again (same one is fine), this time quite vigorously. Think shooting water at someone four feet away from you using that syringe - that's the feel of it. Just take care of your eyes. Flush out the wound three or four times at least.. Putting paper towels on your work surface helps it from getting everywhere. Do this several times per wound.

Dry the wound with a clean paper towel. You don't have to rinse the iodine out - let it stay there to kill germs.

Use the q-tips, popsicle sticks or anything similar and clean to pack the wounds with your antibiotic ointment of choice. You can even use a diabetic's syringe to literally syringe the ointment deep into the wounds.

Smear the remaining ointment onto the top of wound in as small an area as you can so as not to get it everywhere and wet the skin excessively.

If you have ANY flies in the area, I highly recommend the spray. The issues with waterfowl is they love to make mud and their poop is very attractive to flies. Flies love wounds, and we hate their larvae. You can even use a dab of Swat ointment (fly repellant wound ointment for horses) on top. That stuff lasts forever, you'll buy a jar and keep it for ages.

Honestly - you don't have to do much recleaning of these. Smell them daily for the first few days. (Yep, smell them - good wounds should smell almost sweet, never gross.) If you need to you can give Procaine injections every other day. This is another post.

If you do have to reclean, leave out the hydrogen peroxide (unless there's pus) as it will burn the skin, disallowing it from healing.

Waterfowl are rather resilient if you can keep the flies away from them. You guys are in shock now. I'd avoid grain feeds and try to get something easily digested and highly nutritious into them. If you have non-medicated chick crumbles, you could wet them (especially with vitamin-electrolyte treated water) and get some fuel back into these babies to help them heal.

I recently had a disasterous flock incident here (with geese) and had to take my own advice but in bulk. I started with 16 and ended up, after having to put many to sleep who were just horrifying, with 7 very badly injured geese. (It was a very very long day.) On these guys, I used vitamin-electrolyte water for three days, making sure everyone got some particularly on the first day. We also wet pellets to encourage eating. We had some very VERY bad injuries, including some that required stitches. They healed, and so can your guys - if they decide they want to live. Some of the ducks, including the shocky one, m ight have internal injuries that you can't see. Try to just do the best you can to doctor him and then let him have some peace with his other buddies. i would keep them together as long as the others neither pick nor tromp on him. I sincerely believe it encourages them to decide to live.

I'm subscribing to your post because I'd love to help you. I think all adversity is put here so that we can have victory over it and help others to victory as well. So I'll use my lemons to try to help you make some nice lemonade, deal?

 

[birdnutz]

Well...... I gave them a bath. Will it be ok to do this tomorrow? We have everything but the bug spray. But they are in the house right now anyway. That way they get 1 on 1 attention.
I guess from talking to the women that Pij was actually laying on top of the rouan duck to protect her. When seen he was being bitten by the dog. She picked him up and the female was under him. I've heard of some thing similair about roosters. Just didn't think about ducks doing the same.
He seems to be resting with his buddies pretty good right now. They seem really proective of him. We'll follow your procedue tomorrow. Thank you for helping us make lemon aide.

 

[threehorses]

I'd just go with looking for the other wounds. If you find any, use the other procedure on them. Bug spray's an option if you have flies. Honestly, if you keep the wound pretty dry you might not have issues but flies always seem to have a nose for wounds. You could even put baby powder on top of the ointment as it's what's inside that counts the most. That way it would dry the top and not be so tempting.

I'm glad to hear that everything's going as well as can be expected. And yes, ducks can be fierce about protecting their mates. It's rather nice, actually.

I can't wait to hear tomorrow's progress. Take care!

 

[birdnutz]

They're doing great today. The one I was worried about didn't have anymore wounds than the ones I'd found. but he is still really staved up. But everyone is eating and drinking today.
Now on to the next problem. They've only had cat food for eating since babies. Today was dog food because I don't have cats. I'm going to give them awhile before trying to transition them over.
I'll let you know how he's doing tomorrow. thnk you for your help. It's greatly appreciated!

 

[threehorses]

I'm glad to hear the good news! Sounds like recovery is starting. And don't you know that poor boy is sore!! Bless him for being brave.

By the way, nice blue and gold.

I'm a parrot lover, too. Cheers!

Nathalie

 

[birdnutz]

Thanks,the blue and gold is Sammy. She was an abused rescue that we bought for $200.00. We lost her in December from kidney failure. To many years of abuse and improper feeding. She fought a hard battle.
I love poultry and almost all animals. But parrots are my passion!! We have another rescued B/g female that we picked up in Wisconson named Pistol (name says it all). But she sure is a lover! Plus a male B/G named Zuess. A white eyed conure named Cuddles and a sun conure named Frankie.
My famly thinks I'm nuts. At one point we had quite a few parrots and smaller caged birds. 2 years ago we had a house fire and lost them. I haven't really gotten over that yet. I was actually checking into getting licensed as a rescue before the fire.

 

[threehorses]

Oh, so you're a "crazy bird lady", too then, huh? LOL

Yeah in addition to our turkeys/geese/ducks/peacock/chickens, I also am mom to an african grey, an eclectus, two mollucans, and a sulfur crested 'too. So there's a lot of bird action going on here.

Funny, I ended up getting into parrots after I lost most of by chickens to raccoons and old age. I called them my "inside chickens" because I did'nt have to go out into the weather to take care of them, and didn't have to worry about predation.

Of course, I couldn't resist filling the barnyard with birds again - it just seemed empty without them. Besides, the chickens and geese are the most awesome poop-destroyers ever. I simply don't have manure piles here as the horses free-range the pasture 24/7 and the chickens knock down any manure they find. I call them the 'clean up crew'.

I'm glad someone else has that passion! I'm so sorry to hear about your birds lost though - heartbreaking! I had heard of someone who lost a lot of birds in a fire. I wonder if you and I haven't crossed paths, or our friends crossed paths anyway, on some of the parrot boards.

Nathalie

 

[birdnutz]

Thats possable. I joined a couple of groups on yahoo. But with the new job(long hours 12+ 3-4 days a week) and summer here,I just don't have the time to get on them anymore.
It's been 2 years May 16th since the fire. I don't think I'm over it yet. Well I'm going way off topic here. Why don't you PM me?
The pekin is doing wayyy better now.

Actually tried flapping his wings today. The soreness reminded him why not to. Eating really well. Not to mention the watery mess I come home to every night. Now hopefully infection doesn't set in.