Duck with broken femur! Advice needed! Help!

[Fairywoodducks]

Sadly my duck Emmy (she's 3) took a tumble and broke her left leg/femer. The vet said I might be able to find a local vet to put a pin in her leg or the other option is amputation. I know birds have a hard time going under for surgery. I'm hoping her leg can be fixed, but is it too risky? Should I just save her the trauma and amputate?
I just got home from the vet so all the information is still sinking in.
The vet said no baths so she stays still. She also gave me meloxicam to give her once very 24 hrs for 3 days at a dosage of 2.8 ml and butorphanol .53 ml every 12 hours.
Shes eating and drinking normally, and laid a very healthy egg this morning.

 

[Spiase20]

Hi,

My female duck was almost 4 months old when she broke her femur. She tripped when running in the back yard and fell wrong. We were devastated.

We took her to a ER Vet, who gave us medicine for pain, etc and a few names of vets who work with ducks. We went to one of them and decided to have the surgery done and two pins put in her leg and rod on the outside. The surgery went very well and she had no issues going under anesthesia. The hard part is the 3 month constant care and vet visits. They cant swim with the pin and rod in their leg, mobility has to be very limited and you have to give medicine to them 2 times a day and some leg therapy to stretch the muscles.

The cage will get messy fast and so will they, so you have to be prepared to clean it multiple times a day.

That being said, after 2 months, the rod was removed. Then the third month was just monitoring her, giving her bath therapy to build some muscles back.

Now? She only can use that leg at 60% capacity and after 5 months was able to move her ankle part of her leg forward again. But only when she moves slowly. She still hobbles around like a pirate with the leg when she wants to move fast. That being said she is 2 years old now and living a very happy fulfilling duck life. Your duck coop will need a special set up to accommodate your duck. Meaning softer flooring to prevent calluses, etc. I have a floor we built with vinyl flooring ontop. Then I put the animal rubber mats and the gym puzzle mats through out the coop. Which I hose off twice a day.

We built a 500 gallon pond inside the duck coop so she can swim as long as she wants. It keeps the strain off of her leg.

It was expensive, it was hard and very stressful/emotional process.....but worth every penny.

 

[Fairywoodducks]

Hi,

My female duck was almost 4 months old when she broke her femur. She tripped when running in the back yard and fell wrong. We were devastated.

We took her to a ER Vet, who gave us medicine for pain, etc and a few names of vets who work with ducks. We went to one of them and decided to have the surgery done and two pins put in her leg and rod on the outside. The surgery went very well and she had no issues going under anesthesia. The hard part is the 3 month constant care and vet visits. They cant swim with the pin and rod in their leg, mobility has to be very limited and you have to give medicine to them 2 times a day and some leg therapy to stretch the muscles.

The cage will get messy fast and so will they, so you have to be prepared to clean it multiple times a day.

That being said, after 2 months, the rod was removed. Then the third month was just monitoring her, giving her bath therapy to build some muscles back.

Now? She only can use that leg at 60% capacity and after 5 months was able to move her ankle part of her leg forward again. But only when she moves slowly. She still hobbles around like a pirate with the leg when she wants to move fast. That being said she is 2 years old now and living a very happy fulfilling duck life. Your duck coop will need a special set up to accommodate your duck. Meaning softer flooring to prevent calluses, etc. I have a floor we built with vinyl flooring ontop. Then I put the animal rubber mats and the gym puzzle mats through out the coop. Which I hose off twice a day.

We built a 500 gallon pond inside the duck coop so she can swim as long as she wants. It keeps the strain off of her leg.

It was expensive, it was hard and very stressful/emotional process.....but worth every penny.

Thank you! Having some knowledge if what to expect is reassuring. If you don't mind me asking, how much did the surgeries cost?

 

[Spiase20]

Yeah, it was expensive....and not easy to pay for.

Everything together was around $5k. That is counting the ER visit, multiple x-rays, all the vet visits, medicine, etc.

 

[Fairywoodducks]

Update!
Emmy had surgery today and had to have 3 pins put in. The break was at a very sharp angle and the surgery took a little longer than expected. However, she pulled through and if all goes well this evening the vet is very hopeful for nearly full recovery!

 

[Spiase20]

Awww! Glad it went okay!

It will be a long recovery filled with lots of good and rough moments. Many bonding moments included

 

[Fairywoodducks]

Shes home! She had 3 pins put in and a rod. I have a soft playpen coming for her, but her carrier in the cage seems to be working well to keep her still. I haven't moved her from her carrier. I just changed the pee pad underneath her and made sure she was clean. She can move around a little bit to preen and stretch if she needs too. She is on an anti-inflammatory, pain med and antibiotics. She hates being given her meds, so that's not so fun. I let her see her friends from her carrier and that seemed to make her happy. My vet told me to mist her so she can clean and preen herself. She goes back in three weeks but I have check in call Monday. We're both tired and hope for and easy and quick recovery.. and that giving her meds will get easier.

 

[Jennygoldie]

My duck has a broken femur right now and the way I give her her pill twice a day is by using a razor to make a slit in a nice fat night crawler worm and then I slip the pill inside the slit. It’s the first thing I give her in the morning and she gobbles it right down. Then I do the same thing later in the day. Her leg is wrapped tightly to her body and she has to be kept in a carrier and kept from moving too much. I’m hating this because I can see she is distressed somewhat and there really is nothing I can do to comfort her. Anything I do just stresses her even more and she is a pretty tame duck