giving a duck a bath....with soap

[bock]

Okay, so last night we had a lot of rain, and we haven't even prepared the ducks' shelter yet. Needless to say, the cage was a giant mud puddle when I let them out this morning. The white ones were all a little dirty, but my blind crested duck had turned from white to brown overnight. She was shivering in the corner, and there is blood on her left wing and on her beak, I took her up into the garage, and I really need to wash her off. What kind of soap do you use? I will look further into what's wrong with her wing, but I can't even tell until she's cleaned off. Thank you for the replies!

 

[ejctm]

Just use water. soap will take away all her natural feather oils. give her a bath in warm water and rinse as much mud off as you can and let her preen herself as she dries.

If she has got cold then you can keep her in a warm place until she is dry. If she is an adult duck, she should be quite robust and don't worry about her.

 

[katharinad]

Put her into the bath tub and use warm water only. No soap. The warm water will warm her up and get the dirt off. Then dry her with paper towels and put her under a heat lamp. A 100 watt light bulb may do the trick too. Once dry take care of the wounds with betadine and neosporin, if they are minor.

You better figure something out for the next couple of nights, because there is tons more rain in the forecast.

 

[bock]

Okay, no soap. I will go get some warm water and let her clean herself off. I will definitely keep her inside for the next couple of days. I feel so bad that this happened to her, it looks like she got stuck in the fence or something and got all muddy. Thank you!

 

[FunnyBunnies12]

If you want to wash your birds, the safest soap out there for birds is "Dawn Dish Soap". I just went to a Wildlife Rehabilitation Conference and they confirmed all those commercials about Dawn Dish Soap being used and safe for Wildlife to wash off the oil spills/grease, it will wash that oil off but will not strip the natural oils that the birds produce. I did that once already with my 2 ducks after we came back from vacation and they stunk and were dirty because no one changed their pool and such while we were gone, so I had to do that, and it worked beautifully, just don't use a lot because a little goes a long way! JMHO.

 

[katharinad]

Poo and mud comes off nicely with warm water alone. No need whatsoever to use soap. Yes, Dawn is fine for oil removal and safe for birds. I would only use that for oil removal only and not for the natural matters.

 

[bock]

Thank you! I filled a tupperware bit with warm water, and cleaned her off. She still isn't 100% white, but it is good enough. I checked out her wing and there is a cut, which I washed carefully and should heal well. She's hanging out in a dog cage right now, and I think she will stay there untill the rain clears up and we can cover part of the main cage.