Mr Flapper Duck

Jane is unfortunately not looking good at all, I’m sorry to say.

I talked with her this morning and we decided to take her to the vet tomorrow morning. If she is still this sick and they agree that she’s suffering… it might be the end for her. She has declined over the last day-and-a-half, and she no longer tries to drink from the water dish or walk around with her buddies. She is tube-fed, of course… so she’s getting food and water. And her medications. But I don’t think she’s improving, and I think she’s getting tired of fighting.

I told her if she wanted to rally, today was the day.

But… I also told her it was okay if she decided she didn’t want to fight anymore.

Jane looked a little better this morning. I thought everyone who saw last night’s photo of her would like to know that.

She was standing up and talking to me and drinking water, even after I got cooties all over her by giving her medicine and tube-feeding her. I didn’t have time to snap a new photo of her, but she did look a little perkier. She will have a fecal re-test tomorrow most likely, to see if the parasite is gone. And then she’ll go back for a re-check at the vet on Saturday or Monday.

The two healthier ducks are thriving and improving. That’s the good news. The sickest girl is still very sick. You can see it in her eyes that she’s just not feeling well. I’m still holding out some hope for her that she can improve, but… I’m also realistic.

I know this is a tough photo to look at. It breaks my heart to see her feeling so bad. Her leg actually looks better and the swelling in her ankle joint has reduced, so that’s good. But I think that’s the least of her problems. She doesn’t seem quite as perky as she did yesterday. She is so incredibly thin and emaciated that giving her injections is really sad. There’s no muscle to put the needle into. She’s being tube fed, but it would be better if she were eating on her own more. She breaks my heart… I know she’s as happy as she can be right now, and her two buddies are looking out for her. She has her comfy spots to sit on so her keel bone is supported. She has her boyfriend sitting next to her talking to her all day. She’s got all the medications and food she can tolerate right now. Unfortunately, that’s the best we can do.

Her name is Jane, by the way. I had to choose a name for her chart at the vet and that’s what popped into my head.

And this is Lily.

Lily laid her egg in the nest today, which I had to laugh at. After rolling yesterday’s egg OUT of the nest, because I put it there… today she laid her own egg in the nest. The one that I touched didn’t belong there, but maybe… maybe I had a good idea about the nest. So she likes it now.

She is perky and active and full of attitude. When I get home from work I can hear her quacking through the floor and vents before I even make it down to the basement to say hello. She’s the first one at the food dish and the first one to give me grief if I’m taking too long to fill up the dish.

And she bites when I give her medication, of course.

She looks pretty good here, I think. She’s not completely healthy or recovered yet, but she seems to be out of danger. Look at how many feathers she is missing. She just has down left. No belly or chest feathers, a weird bald patch on her neck, and of course all her head and back neck feathers are gone from over-mating. I don’t quite understand what happened to her in the past, but at least she is improving now. I hope to see new feathers growing in soon, and that’s what I’m watching and waiting for.

This guy… his name is Sam. He’s a big goofy guy. He’s not doing quite as well as Lily, but he definitely seems stronger and more stable on his feet. He’s eating well, too.

When he’s not hanging at the pool with Lily, he’s sitting next to Jane and keeping her company.

He’s missing a lot of chest and belly feathers, and some of his other feathers are damaged as well. He’s missing his head and neck feathers, too. He was kind of stumbling around like a drunk when I first got him, and that has improved quite a bit this week, thankfully.

When ducks have so many damaged feathers and missing feathers, for whatever reason, they cannot keep themselves waterproofed. Ducks must have their feathers and keep them oiled, or they get wet and lose too much heat, which can lead them to get sick with infections. The parasite these ducks have could have resulted in their slow deterioration over the past four months.

Lily and Sam are doing well tonight, and Jane… we continue to hope for the best and do all we can.

In other bad news, we got a call about an injured, dumped pekin duck tonight. He’s been taken in by someone, but they can’t afford his vet care. He sounds really bad off, and unfortunately I can’t take him in (I don’t have anywhere to put him and I don’t have any more time in the day to care for him). But I did offer up Kozmo Kirby’s Memorial Fund to him tonight. So thanks AGAIN to your donations, yet another injured, domestic duck in need will get veterinary care. He will be taken to Flapper’s vet tomorrow, and Kozmo’s fund will pick up the tab. From what I heard tonight, I don’t think he’s going to make it. But that decision will be left up to the vets.

At least tonight he is warm and dry and knows that someone cares about him. And that’s a lot.

The ducks are still doing well, and even the sickest girl is holding her own. She really is still very sick and emaciated, but she tries to feed herself and walks around on her own like a champ. The other boy and girl are pretty darn good. I didn’t take any photos of them today because I was busy caring for them and now they’re snoozing. Other than medicating them and visiting with them for a bit, I like to let them do their own thing so they have time to rest and recuperate.

The sickest girl will go back to the vet on Saturday or Monday for a re-check, to see if she is really improving, and to check on the parasites… which will hopefully be GONE by then.

I’d like to take them outside soon, so they could graze on the front lawn (away from my own ducks) and get a good swim in a baby pool, but I don’t want to tax the sickest girl too much, so we’ll probably wait a few more days.

The healthier girl lays an egg a day, and she continues to gobble up the oyster shell to supplement her calcium. This morning I put her egg in the nest area I made for them, and told her to stop laying eggs just any old place. But she rolled it out of the nest area, so I will stop giving her advice.

More updates to come.

G’night.

P.S. A special thanks to everyone who has contributed to the donation fund to help pay the vet bills for these ducks. I really appreciate the help and I know these ducks do, too. Sometimes when you hold a sick duck, it actually feels like they are grateful for your help. These ducks are grateful all day long, and super-sweet about taking their medicine. Even though they are a ton of work… I’m really loving having them around, and am happy I was able to help them out, with your help. So thank you.

Just received another comment note from Mr. Dodo’s new family:

“Well, I can now say that this transition has been as easy as pie. All 3 ducks are happy as clams, if that’s an analogy that works – or does it make it clam pie? They troop around the yard together, sleep tucked into the same corner in their pen, and Mr. Dodo is the one I hear first in the morning with his low voice and soft sounds. Then the 2 girls kick in and it gets noisy.

The most interesting thing to me is that Juno was *very* defensive of their territory after Thor’s departure. She took on the role of BA duck, but instantly on Mr. Dodo’s arrival, she is mellow as can be and doesn’t even rush me when I step into their enclosure. It’s like she knows she can step down now that there’s a male in the mix. Very interesting development – especially considering that Mr. Dodo is the smallest of the 3 ducks right now. We are so happy that it was a smooth transition for all.”

Yesterday this girl was feeling horrible.

But after a bath, some tube feeding, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and anti-parasitics… I think she looks a little better already. She has a long road ahead of her, and she’s not out of the woods yet… especially with her bum ankle. But I think she looks a little better.

After we found out the ducks had a parasite, we moved them to the basement where my cats and my own feet won’t have a chance for any contact with their feces. I can’t have them in the same space as me and my cats until they are free of cryptosporidiosis. I can only hope the 1,000 times I’ve washed my hands and the floors this weekend will keep us parasite-free. Blech.

They seem happy in their new digs, except when I accidentally turned off the basement light, plummeting them into total darkness. They let me know immediately that they weren’t happy with the darkness, and I turned the light right back on.

You can see the healthier-girl here on the left, and the sicker girl on the right with her bum ankle. The healthy girl is laying eggs and has gobbled up handfuls of oyster shell. All three ducks are pretty friendly.

The boy has the biggest head I’ve ever seen. He’s just got a big head. I keep telling him about it, too. He’s probably sick of me mentioning it, but as I open his mouth to give him baytril tablets, I can’t help but notice his head is nearly twice the size of Flapper’s. It’s HUGE. There’s nothing wrong with it, he’s just a big guy. When he gets some weight back on him, he’s going to be a tank. He’s tall, too!

Maybe I am just reacting to the difference between these kids and Mr. Dodo the shrunken tiny guy.

In other news, we managed to fit in a little work on the aviary this weekend, and got all the hardware cloth attached to the lower part of the fencing. Now we can fill in the trench and seed it with grass.

I already re-filled the pools and let my own ducks play in the new aviary, even though the net for the top won’t arrive ’til Tuesday. They are enjoying it so far, though I know it will be an adjustment when they get to spend all day in there.

It rained off and on, so I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped. But I did get to spend some time with my Flapper & my O’Malley, so it was a good weekend all around.

Thank you to everyone who has donated to far to the Kozmo Kirby Memorial Fund for these new sick ducks. It has really helped with their vet bills, and I know they appreciate it.

At the vet today, Mr. Dodo was very patient to wait his turn while the sick ducks were taken care of first.

After a clean bill of health, Mr. Dodo and I had a little delay on our way to his forever home.

The Montlake bridge opened to let boats get through, but Mr. Dodo knew just how to deal with it.

He settled in for a nap while we waited for the bridge to close. Then we were on our way.

This is Adrian and Fling. Adrian is going to be in the regional spelling bee tomorrow. Wish him luck! Fling was considering the lettuces that Adrian was offering to her.

Fling & Juno have been on their own for a few months, and are getting along great. But we thought Mr. Dodo would make a great boyfriend for these girls.

After a brief display of shoving by Fling & Mr. Dodo, Mr. Dodo went right into his routine of trying to impress the ladies, and I think it worked.

While Fling noshed on some lettuces, Juno and Mr. Dodo did their best to look just like each other. They are very, very similar.

Juno and Fling talked a little bit about Mr. Dodo while he wasn’t looking, but I think it was good talk.

Then they decided to show Mr. Dodo their big pool, which is next to their predator-proof enclosure.

Mr. Dodo fluffed up his head feathers to try and impress Juno, but so far she is playing hard to get.

We received this update from Mr. Dodo’s new forever home:

Mr. Dodo has made himself right at home, and there is peace in the valley. Nothing like the hazing that took place when Juno joined Fling and Thor. Either the absence of Thor the Thunder duck or the fact that Mr. Dodo is a male may be the difference – but I am thrilled to report that all 3 ducks are bonding well and keeping close together. He is eating and drinking and doing the head bob thing that tells the others “look at me”! I think it will continue to go well – we’re thrilled to have him and he looks right at home.

It’s a very happy ending for Mr. Dodo. He is in love with the new ladies and enjoying his new digs. We’ll post updates in the future when we hear from his forever home.

Good luck, Mr. Dodo!

XOXOX

So the update on the sick ducks is that they are very sick, especially this girl.

They all have capillaria, a parasite that causes diarrhea, malaise and weight loss. They also all have infections, and the sickest girl’s infection has gone septic (systemic) which is probably what caused her ankle joint to swell.

She also has respiratory infection and infected eyes. There’s not much about her that isn’t infected, frankly.

We brought her home from the vet, and gave her a warm bath. She was filthy and her feathers couldn’t keep her dry at all. She’s also very, very skinny.

After drying her off a bit, we tube fed her, gave her a medicine paste to rid her of parasites, an antibiotic for the septic joint infection, another general antibiotic, an anti-inflammatory for pain and swelling and a pat on the head for being such a good girl.

The other two ducks just need the anti-parasitic medication and the general antibiotic for now, thankfully. We’ll keep up medicating them for 10 days and see how they’re doing at that point. I need to leave town for 3 1/2 days in early April, so these kids will hopefully be outside by then in one of my cages, so the petsitter can care for them while I’m away. Until they are healthier and rid of parasites, they can’t be anywhere near my own ducks.

For now, they seem perfectly comfy in my dining room.

Mr. Dodo is doing great and seemed to sleep just fine here at Casa del Flapper.

He definitely wants to be with the other ducks though, so after a dip in the pool I let him roam around the yard with my ducks.

He walked right up to Chewy and joined him for some foraging on the lawn. Then Flapper decided to charge him but he gave that attitude right back and they did a little tumble maneuver on the lawn while I ran to separate them. Mr. Dodo clearly won that match, so I grabbed Flapper and stroked his bruised ego.

O’Malley is in rare form today, and held down Chewy and ripped a few feathers out while I clipped one of Mr. Dodo’s wings. So when Mr. Dodo got a little too close to O’Malley, I decided that was enough play time for him today. I wondered if he would be difficult to catch once he was out in the yard, but O’Malley caught him for me, so I just scooped him up.

Right now he’s pacing back and forth in O’Malley & Petunia’s pen, wishing he could be back out with the other ducks. But I’m going to sign off and hold him on my lap for a bit, before getting ready for the 11am vet appointment.

Quacks,

Tiff

UPDATE: Clean bill of health for Mr. Dodo. He heads to his forever home at 2pm today. I’ll try to take photos at his forever home because I know we’re going to miss him here! He’s made quite an impression already.