My poor Waddles, can you help?

Chassmarie83

Chirping
May 22, 2019
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So, four days ago I heard every duck moms worse nightmare, my flock going crazy in the middle of the night. Out the door with the gun and dog we ran to find the red devil herself, a fox, running out of the yard. After a quick head count sure enough 2 of my young Pekins were missing and I was immediately fearing the worse. Thanks to a spotlight and a hound who was immediately trying to find which way the fox had actually gone I was able to locate both 2 month old ducklings still alive. I quickly brought them inside and put them in a pet carrier, after checking them for any gaping wounds, and let them calm down for the rest of the night. One did not make it until morning, but the other did. I have named it Waddles and have been nursing it since but am unsure if it is a fight that is humane or if I am just essentially setting it up for a life that is going to be cut short any way. I am unable to afford a vet bill for it and am hoping some of you might be able to give me some help that I am not finding through research. Waddles did not have any visible wounds other then some missing feathers off of its back which I have been keeping clean with bathes and sterile saline and have seemed to heal rather nicely and quickly. At first, IT (too young for me to sex) could not stand up without falling over and seemed to not be able to pick its head up at all. I have been feeding it several times a day and keeping it in a small pet carrier where it can not flop its self over on its back. Well, it was putting its head up to the carrier door and looked uncomfortable so I left the door open the other day and was shocked to see it half way across the living room the next morning. Since, then I have been taking it out side during the day when we are out there and letting it lay around and wonder when it can and have seen 100% improvement from that first day. Here are some videos and pics of Waddles that I am hoping help everyone to help me know whether this is something it will recover from. And as a disclaimer it was doing much better then this yesterday and after these videos but these were taken after it had been caged all day because we were gone and I wanted to have something for you all to look at. Thanks to everyone for reading my ramblings..

 
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My opinion... If she wants to fight, let her. I had a Cayuga that was seriously injured at 2 months old. Despite some lasting wing damage, she fought and healed well over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, she was taken by a fox at 9 months old. I soooo hate those things. It took most of my flock over a 2 week period. 1 duck every few days. And it knows not to go near my live trap. :he
 
Sorry, I don't Facebook so can't see the videos. How long has she been injured? Ducks are pretty tough little things and I would give her at least 10 days to improve. I have had raccoon and bobcat attacks that left neck damage without visible wounds. Is she eating, drinking and pooping?

@Magnolia Ducks It has only been 5 days now and I have already seen so much improvement I am hopefully for a full recovery. It is eating, drinking, and pooping like normal the only thing that it seems to have a hard time with is walking foward. I will try to get better videos uploaded. New to this and it was the only way I could figure out to get them on here.
 
My opinion... If she wants to fight, let her. I had a Cayuga that was seriously injured at 2 months old. Despite some lasting wing damage, she fought and healed well over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, she was taken by a fox at 9 months old. I soooo hate those things. It took most of my flock over a 2 week period. 1 duck every few days. And it knows not to go near my live trap. :he

Oh NO!! That is awful!! Yes, they are ferocious little creatures and we have way too many around. And the same problem with live traps. We were able to capture a few of the kits this year and relocated them but there was 4 dens in that area and they were all full of kits.
 
Sorry, I don't Facebook so can't see the videos. How long has she been injured? Ducks are pretty tough little things and I would give her at least 10 days to improve. I have had raccoon and bobcat attacks that left neck damage without visible wounds. Is she eating, drinking and pooping?

@Magnolia Ducks I hope you can view the videos now.
 

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