Holiday Cards

chew
“Wow! Who sent all these cards?”
People and ducks and geese who are friends of you and Flapper sent them to us for the holidays.

aww
“Awww, that is so nice!”
I think so too, Chewy.

cards
“Thank you for the holiday cards, everyone.”

what
“What is it?”
I think you knocked one over with your butt.

did
“I did? Oops.”

ooooh
“Oooooh who is THIS one from? She is cute!”
I’m not sure, Flapper. There are lots of cute duckies there.

thanks
“I hope all ducks and geese and their people have a great holiday and a Happy New Year.”
That was nice, Flapper.

mom
“Thanks, mom.”
Whoa, Flapper! The flapping will… oh nevermind.

cleaned
“I cleaned up all the holiday cards for you.”
Yes… sort of. You’re a good helper, buster.

know
“I try. Okay, good night. Put me back outside, please.”
Good night, sweety. Thanks for coming in to pose with your holiday cards.

And special thanks to everyone for sending cards to Flapper! We are just about ready to send out our holiday cards, even if the holidays are almost over. They’ll be late but they’ll be there… soon.

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Blurry O’Malley at the Vet



O’Malley went to the vet this morning. It turns out he just has feather cysts, not lipomas. This is good news! But he did not enjoy having the cysts lanced at all. After some valium he was at least easier to handle.

He probably got the 4-5 cysts by landing on his keel while jumping off the deck, right when feathers were growing in… so they grew inward instead of outward. Now I get to clean the cysts twice a day myself for about a week until they heal – Merry Christmas to me!

Hopefully the cysts won’t return again. If they do, the vet will do a little skin surgery on him to prevent the feathers from growing wrong in the future.

O’Malley weighs 5.94kg or 13.09lbs, which is about a half-pound less than he weighed a year ago. This is a good weight for him.

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Chewy, O’Malley and Simon, Oh My!

how
“How is Chewy doing?”
You’re very sweet to ask, Olivia.

snug
“Yeah how is he?”
Well, fuzzy butt… he is doing better.

thought
“I thought so. He still doesn’t want to snuggle though.”
That is true, Racquel. I’m afraid he won’t ever be a chicken-snuggler.

me
“Me neither.”
Awww… well I guess I’ll have to snuggle with Racquel myself then.

save
“Just save time to snuggle with me, okay?”
You got it, my Flappy Buster.

how
So how are you, Chewy?
“Me? I’m good.”

had
“I had to go back to the vet.”

my
“My number was 33.4 before, but now it’s down to 22.”

thibnk
“Theby menthb I’b gooble.”
What?

that
“THAT MEANS I’M GOOD!”
Oh! Yes, it does.

need
“I just need to get all these HUMAN COOTIES off of me!”
Ha ha good luck, Chewy.

Chewy’s blood work does show he is improving. He will need to do 10 more days of antibiotics and have another blood check to ensure he is all better. But he is definitely feeling good and eating well and acting much more like himself. It’s great to see him improve with simple antibiotics.

In other news, Simon wants everyone to know that he hates my singing.
really
“Please. Stop.”
Simon really can’t stand singing. He is eating a little better, but not good enough. We can’t decide if it is because something is really wrong with him, or if he just doesn’t like any of his 13 diet foods. Tonight he ate really well, because I gave him crappy Friskies wet food. That will cause rashes in him, but right now it’s more important that he eats well. He may start new medication tomorrow to see if we can continue to improve his appetite and get him eating better.

Lastly, O’Malley will be heading to the vet this Thursday morning.
what?
“What? No way. Why?”
Sorry, O’Malley. But we need to have you checked out.

mall
Remember nearly a year ago when O’Malley went to the vet for a fatty bump on his neck? Well now a year later he has several fatty growths on his chest. We think they are benign lipomas, which are literally fat tumors. They can be genetic or from bad breeding or other reasons. They generally aren’t life-threatening but they can get infected. As long as they don’t cause him discomfort, the vet will probably leave them alone. IF that’s what they are. But we need to confirm what they are and have them checked out. I have to say I’m a slight bit irritated that I caught this a year ago and then didn’t do anything more to follow up. Now O’Malley has a whole mess of these on his chest. I’m hopeful that it’s still not serious though, and thankfully he’s happy and active and eating normally. My status on this matter is “hopefully irritated.”

We’re happy Chewy is feeling better, hopeful that Simon will start eating more and hopeful that O’Malley’s growths aren’t serious. Olivia and Racquel are both doing well, and we’re happy for that, too.

And you, Petunia…
who
“Who, me?”
Yes, you. I didn’t want you to feel left out. So I want you to know you’re adorable and I love you and I’m happy that you’re healthy.

thanks
“Aww, thanks. Let’s celebrate with Cheerios.”
Good idea, Toony.

Happy Holidays, everyone.

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Kiss It Better

Chewy still doesn’t seem to be feeling all better. I am hoping some kisses will help.

I may take him to the vet this Saturday if it isn’t too early to re-test his blood to see if his infection is improving. It will be six-days of antibiotics by then, and I’d also like them to examine him (the emergency vet didn’t really know enough about ducks to do a good exam). We’ll keep you posted. Until then, please give him a kiss UNLESS YOU ARE A CHICKEN. Then Chewy said to keep your kisses and cuddles to yourself.

NOTE: There is a kissing booth flash toy above, but some people can’t see it. If you can’t see it, we will just give Chewy kisses for you anyway.

XOXO

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Wednesday Chewy & Simon Update

choo
Today is Wednesday and Chewy wanted everyone to know that he ate his breakfast all by himself. He ate a TON of corn treats and some duck chow, too. Then he ate more corn. He did not need to be force-fed and he came out of his pen to play and look for worms.

We think he is stressed out by Racquel and Olivia, so they unfortunately got locked up in their night pen all day today, so Chewy could spend the day in the aviary with his wingman Flapper… without being chased by chickens who just want to snuggle.

We may build another partition in the aviary this weekend so Chewy doesn’t have to snuggle with Racquel and Olivia anymore. He needs a stress-free environment to recover from his infection. Maybe we will get Racquel and Olivia a big stuffed animal so they don’t miss their snuggles.

In other news, Simon ate a ton of food last night, too. We gave him his old food to see if he would eat it and boy did he ever. Even if it causes a rash again, the vet said it’s better to have him eating. So I think for today, both Simon and Chewy are doing very well.

It’s a good day.

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Chewy Update

chewy
Chewy didn’t want to pose for photos tonight, so this is one from the archives.

Chewy looked really good this morning, but not quite as active tonight. He has a major infection and he is getting antibiotics for it. He is also being tube fed twice a day to make sure he doesn’t lose any more weight. He will go back to the vet in 7 days to have follow-up blood work and see if his infection has improved. All the blood work results were confusing but mostly just mean he has an infection. The baytril he is on should work fine, but we’ll know for sure in 7 days. The really weird result that was super high and abnormal was likely just from contamination when the blood was drawn, and not accurate. The vet was not worried about it.

He is such a sweet guy, I hope he is improving. I think he is. He seemed more of himself tonight, even if he wasn’t very energetic. It might have just been nap time for him. When I brought him inside to tube feed him and give him antibiotics, I let him settle down first. He placed his beak on my arm and closed his eyes and just let me pet him and talk to him for awhile. He seems to know I’m helping him and he is really good about taking his pills and eating his food.

For now he seems strong and alert and hopefully the medication is working. We’ll keep everyone posted when we know more.

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Simon Update

simon
Simon’s blood work came back very very normal. This is GREAT as his liver could have been damaged from losing weight too fast. His liver could still could get damaged if we can’t get him to eat better very soon, but for now… he’s in good shape. This is great news! He will stay on appetite stimulant drugs every day until he is eating a can of wet food each day. He takes pills just fine, and as long as he is eating on his own, I don’t have to force feed him again. Boy I sure hope he keeps eating on his own, because I will not survive if I have to force feed him.

This look he’s giving me in the photo above is the “please stop singing and never sing again” look. I was serenading him and he just hates singing so much that he paws my face and bites my chin to make the horrible noise stop. He ate several bites of food tonight at several different times, and also played with the laser light. Hopefully that means he’s feeling a little better.

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Chewy Update

update
I don’t have much of an update yet, but we did get Chewy’s blood work back.

wbc
Chewy’s white blood count is high, meaning he has some kind of infection. I have not discussed the blood work results with the vet yet, so I don’t know what any of it means. All the stuff in the “out of range” column is bad.

Tonight he came inside and I tube-fed him so he has some food in his belly. I also gave him his antibiotic. Tomorrow I will get to talk to the vet about his blood work results and also pick up some metacam for him (anti-inflammatories and pain medication).

Tonight after I fed him I put him in a carrier for awhile to see if he would settle down and rest. He got agitated and just wanted to go back outside with his buddy Flapper, so I let him go back outside. He seems strong and alert tonight, especially after I fed him. I will tube-feed him again in the morning and hopefully the antibiotics will start to kick in.

Then we can start to think about what caused the infection.

In other news, Simon is not eating well tonight, so I’m just about to force-feed him. Wish me luck… I think it’s going to be harder on me than it is on him.

UPDATE: Force-feeding Simon was the most asinine 8-minutes of my life so far. And my life has been pretty asinine. After I tried to force-feed Simon I did laundry and mopped the floor. Now I’m dressing and disinfecting my wounds.

I’ll share more when we know more.

Thanks for all the well-wishes.

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Chewy to the Vet

choo
Chewy hasn’t been feeling like himself since sometime Thursday night, so we took him to the vet this evening.

hide
He really, really hates to go to the vet, and he hides in my arms so he’ll be invisible. Chewy has been so healthy his entire life, that he hasn’t had to go to the vet much.

X-ray
[Click the x-ray for a larger view]Chewy had an x-ray, just to be sure he didn’t eat anything metal. I was a little bit worried because I woke up Thursday night to find him standing in the kitchen, instead of in his regular sleeping area. Thankfully, his x-ray looks good. He also had blood work drawn tonight and was given some baytril and sub-q fluids to keep him hydrated.

choo
Chewy will go to his regular vet tomorrow, and his blood results should be back then, too. Hopefully he is just a little under the weather from the cold snap we’ve had and the stress of having to sleep in the dining room for a few days.

Flapper doesn’t like it when his best wingman isn’t feeling well, so we wish Chewy a very speedy recovering from whatever’s bugging him.

In other news, Racquel’s cold is finally better. But Simon has been having health issues too.

vet
Simon had to go to the vet on Saturday because he hasn’t been eating well. I know! Crazy, right? SIMON not eating?? He has been on a special drug for his rashes for about six weeks. He was also supposed to lose weight during that time because he is too fat. But unfortunately that drug for his rashes didn’t agree with him and he ended up losing way too much weight, way too fast. In six weeks he went from over 19lbs to 15.7lbs! That drastic weight loss can be very bad for a cat’s liver. So Simon’s blood results will be back on Tuesday and in the meantime he is on anti-nausea medication, pain medication and appetite stimulant to help make sure he eats enough. I think he ate enough today, but if he doesn’t eat better every day he will need to be force-fed until his appetite picks up again.

In addition to having both Simon and Chewy at the vet this weekend, we also finished up two final papers for two graduate courses that were due at 9pm tonight. Never a dull moment at Flapper’s house!

Thankfully it is warm enough for the ducks to be back outside, and I know Chewy prefers that. I’ll update more on both Simon and Chewy as we get more info, and in the meantime, send a few good thoughts if you have some to spare.

Best,

Tiff and the gang

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A Cold Snap

hello
“Well hello there. I am in the people tub tonight. We have a cold snap in Seattle so I am staying indoors.”

me
“Me and Chewy are warming up in the tub. It is cold water but it is sure warmer than outside.”

meep
“Yeah, it’s cold outside! Meep meep coming through!”

done
“Okay I’m done.”
Then I’ll carry you back to your nesting spot, Chewy.

aah
“Aaah. Now I have the whole tub to myself.”

snack
“One last snack before bed time.”

tucked
Are you all tucked in, Racquel and Olivia?
“Yep. Roger that. We’re good. Good night.”
Goodnight, ladies.

you two
Hey you two… none of that frisky business in the house, you hear?
“Awww fine. I’ll find some other trouble to get into.”

how about this
“How about this, Mom?”
No! O’Malley there is NO perching in the house, buster. You get down right now. I think it’s time for bed, young man. Good night everyone.

There’s a cold snap in Seattle for the next few days, and the ducks and rescued chickens are sleeping in the dining room tonight and tomorrow night. We bring them in when the temperatures drop below 25-degrees Fahrenheit. Flapper is funny in the house. He is close to the TV and can hear the TiVo sound effects. When he hears the TiVo go “boop bop” he says “quack quack” back to it. So all evening I hear “boop bop” when I change channels, followed by “quack quack.”

“Boop bop.”
“Quack quack.”

Stay warm, everyone. Brrrr!

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