Duck Feet problems - Never seen anything like it - Help!

[crazyducklady23]

Okay I have never seen anything like this before and I'm going crazy trying to figure out what is happening to my ducks feet.

I have a 6 month old male Muscovy Duck- last month I noticed he had a little limp to his walk. I took a look at it and noticed his webbings were both cut. I do lock them up at night but let them out during the day to free range in my yard. I have a small creek that runs from my spring house that they all go to and play in and hang around. So I figure okay maybe there was something sharp in there that may have cut it. It never got any worse and continued to check on it and then all of a sudden lastnight I took a look at his feet and I don't know how to put it but half of his feet were gone? His webbings and "toes" (except for his middle one) were just gone? His two toes were actually removed and stuck to his middle "toe" on his one foot.

I attached a picture as well.





If anyone can help me figure this out I would appreciate it!!!

 

[lovelyduckling]

Oh my! That sounds terrible. I don't know what happened, but you could put a game cam out to catch something. Do you have neighbors? Mabye some who are cruel to animals? I don't believe that someone would cut off toes for no reason but I could be wrong. Just keep an eye out for anything suspicious. You should see if the duck can walk. Give him a nice warm bath and mabye rap his foot up. Wish you the best of luck. Keep us posted.

 

[crazyducklady23]

Thanks for the reply! My neighbors don't bother my ducks I give them eggs so they are in debt to them lol! I am just going to keep an eye out of anything else that seems off. He seems to be able to walk he was walking around the chicken coop this morning when I let them out just has a limp. His brother tries to help him out, they stick together always so at least he has a buddy to lay around with.

 

[chickens really]

Do you have snapping Turtles in your area?

Strange for sure.....

Cheers!

 

[crazyducklady23]

No snapping turtles that I know of. All of my ducks hang out there and none of them have any feet problems just this one. I just have no idea?

 

[Miss Lydia]

No snapping turtles that I know of. All of my ducks hang out there and none of them have any feet problems just this one. I just have no idea?

It almost has to be snapping turtles they will bite off toes and feet. You might want to keep them out of the creek. If he loses much more of his feet he won't be able to walk.

I didn't think we had snapping turtles here either until we had flooding and one washed up on the road. This one was big enough to bite a foot off or eat ducklings.

 

[crazyducklady23]

I'll keep a look out for them!

 

[Miss Lydia]

I'll keep a look out for them!

You'll not see them they lay in wait under water for prey.

 

[crazyducklady23]

The water that they go in is no more than a foot deep if that, would snapping turtle lay in shallow water like that? The creek only runs I would say about 15 feet long and connects to the road and the other side connects to our spring house.

 

[DwayneNLiz]

The water that they go in is no more than a foot deep if that, would snapping turtle lay in shallow water like that? The creek only runs I would say about 15 feet long and connects to the road and the other side connects to our spring house.

yes, i had a GIANT one

i have also had several small ones appear

they love culverts, and rock caves