Help- badly bitten his tongue, Muscovy Drake

[Teesha]

Hi Everyone,

I'm hoping you have some helpful ideas.

My pet Muscovy Zeb, was shaking his head violently(as they do) and bit his tongue but then when it started bleeding in his mouth, that made him shake his head more, so it kept getting bitten more, so I stroked him, talked to him and finally it would calm him down.

But then he would have a drink which would hurt his tongue and he would shake his head and you guessed it, he would bite his darn tongue again!

He is a hand-raised 6 years old beloved and highly trained therapy indoor boy. He keeps watch over my hubby to wake him when he stops breathing at night and helps me when my anxiety gets out of hand. Plus a member of our family.

So, I gave him salt water to rinse it and some gel from my aloe plant to lick, plus he had some Savlon(basic antiseptic cream that he has a weird thing for) but I am wondering if anyone has any other ideas, we are in Australia so it is very hard to get stuff to treat ducks and our local vet is useless. Tongues are so tricky! I haven't been able to see it well and although it bled like crazy to start with, making him rather stripy on his white feathers, now I think it has stopped. He has the water with Himalayan salt available to rinse it and if he asks for a drink i will give him some honey water.
Oh and I gave him some Maloxicam for swelling/pain management. I have taken his food away for now and will offer him some mashed veg soup when is has been settled for a while.
But would be happy Teesha

 

[Kkrista123]

Wow, what a great duck mom! My indoor girl, Gil, has some similar responsibilities as my indoor duck! I don't stop breathing but I do tend to pass out for many reasons. When I do, she freaks out and lets everyone know I need to be checked on. Luckily it has only happened twice since we added her to our loving home 6 months ago but she did her job great every time by attracting attention from other household members. Aside from that she is pretty much my ESA because I suffer from anxiety. I consider her more for the ESA and a part of the family than anything else.

If his tongue has stopped bleeding, that is 75% of the battle! I think you are doing a great job with treating and it will probably heal great. Just keep him on the easy to eat foods for a little while so it can heal up without another bite. Mouths are the quickest healing organs! Hope he feels all better soon! Would love pics when he's freshened up!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Sorry, can't help with this, but i'm following this thread. Interesting, ducks can bite their tongues too! What i do when such mishap injures my tongue is applying a cream with lidocaine, a local anesthetic, but i have no idea if that is poisonous for ducks…

 

[Fishkeeper]

I'd stop giving him salty water. Himalayan or not, it's salt, and it's going to irritate the wound. Plus, he's going to get it up his nostrils, and that can't be good for him. Just give him regular water and easy-to-eat foods, he'll be fine.

 

[Raenh]

If you have access to it apple cider vinegar raw/unfiltered helps - it's what I used when speedy got her mouth and tongue wrapped in the bird netting I was using to cover their area last year.

 

[WVduckchick]

I would also try some ACV, if available. Otherwise it sounds like you’ve taken care of the critical part. It would be good if you can get a good look at the tongue to see how badly injured it is.

@WannaBeHillBilly the “caine” family of medications can be toxic to birds if used in high concentrations. I probably wouldn’t risk it on a tongue.
An old myth floats around here about using antibiotic ointments without pain reliever. Most of those are not actually high enough concentrations to hurt a bird, and I’ve personally used Neosporin with pain reliever on chicks and ducks.

 

[Teesha]

Wow, what a great duck mom! My indoor girl, Gil, has some similar responsibilities as my indoor duck! I don't stop breathing but I do tend to pass out for many reasons. When I do, she freaks out and lets everyone know I need to be checked on. Luckily it has only happened twice since we added her to our loving home 6 months ago but she did her job great every time by attracting attention from other household members. Aside from that she is pretty much my ESA because I suffer from anxiety. I consider her more for the ESA and a part of the family than anything else.

If his tongue has stopped bleeding, that is 75% of the battle! I think you are doing a great job with treating and it will probably heal great. Just keep him on the easy to eat foods for a little while so it can heal up without another bite. Mouths are the quickest healing organs! Hope he feels all better soon! Would love pics when he's freshened up!

I find with my anxiety and depression that it is just really hard to feel down when I have Zeb huffing at me with a big duck smile as soon as I wake up in the morning! He is very special and I will put up some picks although he is a bit blood stained atm

 

[Teesha]

Sorry, can't help with this, but i'm following this thread. Interesting, ducks can bite their tongues too! What i do when such mishap injures my tongue is applying a cream with lidocaine, a local anesthetic, but i have no idea if that is poisonous for ducks…

Yeah, a I do the same for myself but, anything with caine on the end is deadly to ducks , I give him prescription meloxicam which is an anti inflammatory, I have it for my illness so I just use a quarter of a tablet every 12hrs(same for cats too) but you can get it in solution from the vets too.

 

[Teesha]

Thanks everyone and sorry that I took so long to put this up, I haven't been on the laptop since it happened as my sooky duck needed someone with him rub his beak and to remind him not to go crazy shaking his head.

We used honey on his tongue but I put it in water with some electrolytes and some ACV and he seemed to perk up a bit.
He just sooked and cuddled once we got him to understand that shaking his head was making it worse (took some time), Daniel my hubby, sat with him at the PC while I rubbed his beak, and he watched him playing games and then snuggled up with me in bed until the next day.
Then he got really hungry as he hadn't wanted to eat until then, so I gave him some defrosted peas which he loves and only he ate about 5 the first time and went to sleep that gave him some more energy and he ate a few more every few hours and then this morning he woke up fine- they do heal super fast!
Once he opened his mouth enough for us to see his tongue( if anyone has any tips on how to get a male Muscovy to open their mouths I would love to hear it!!, girls easy but boys so damn stubborn and strong!) he had severed it about 1/2 way down just to the left hand side of the middle, a good 1cm looks like it was fairly deep but it is closed over nicely now, although I am pretty sure it still hurts as he cant eat gains yet- and we give him sprouted so its not too hard. But he will eat his greens, so I am happy with that for now
Cheers Teesha

 

[Fishkeeper]

Keep feeding him whatever he'll eat, and don't mess with it. It should heal up well.