Play Date Outside
Lester Leroy went outside today to get some much-needed sunshine.
He and Flapper both needed to get out of the house and enjoy the great outdoors, so I set up a little play area out front and gave Flapper a little pool to swim in.
Lester Leroy really needed a bath too, as his eyes were getting crusty. Duck tears have an oil in them that they spread onto their feathers while preening. Ducks need to dip their entire head in water every day to clean those tears away and to clean any feathers out of their beak. Lester hasn’t had a bath though, because he has been recovering from his injuries.
Here you can see the big wound area on Lester’s back. This is probably where he was bitten by a dog, but it has been awhile ago. We think it has been longer than a few weeks, and this injury is probably what caused the damage to Lester’s legs, if it is in fact nerve damage.
This video below is tough to watch, but it shows just how bad Lester’s legs are.
Lester Leroy loves to be near Flapper, but since they are both boys, they also love to talk tough. When I broke them up, Lester had latched on to Flapper’s face and Flapper had latched on to Lester’s chest. Silly boys. Both were of course fine, and they really do like each others company.
As you can see, Lester’s legs are a real mess. He is still on antibiotics for the bone marrow infection (osteomyelitis) and both legs do have motion, but I am really doubtful that he’ll ever walk again. This means that as long as he is happy and hanging out with Flapper, he has a life and a home here. It is very tough to euthanize a duck like Lester, because even though his legs are terrible, his body is fine and his will to live is very, very strong. If you remember a few years ago we had another handicapped duck, Sunny, who we decided to euthanize after awhile. She had declined and did not have a strong will to live anymore. She would have hated being in the house alone. She was not happy or content, and not at all people friendly. Lester comes to us at a time when Flapper is already living inside due to his severe arthritis and congestive heart failure. He is doing well now, but he can’t walk much. He seems happy inside and having Lester around actually keeps him occupied while I’m at work. Lester having Flapper around is great as well. Lester seems happy and content, even though he does not care to be picked up and treated by me. So for now, he will do fine here, but his long-term prognosis is not likely to be a full recovery or a normal outdoor life.
After hanging out in the sunshine, Lester and Flapper came in and took over the bed while I cleaned up their playpens and wiped duck poop off my bedroom wall. Lester really seemed to enjoy the bed and made himself right at home on my pillow.
Because of Flapper’s arthritis, he has had to get resourceful to reach his tail feathers and preen his belly.
Here he shows his extreme near somersault preening move. I’m thinking of helping him over and giving him a french fry to see if he’ll do it again. A somersaulting duck would be even better than an arthritic duck with congestive heart failure, don’t you think?
In other news, the most awesome blog, Seattle Vegan Score, named me VEGAN OF THE WEEK!
Photo by Rebecca Bolte, All Rights Reserved ©2011, www.rebeccabolte.com
Read more about Vegan of the Week here.
Thanks to Anika, Rebecca and Rex for coming over to interview me and take photos and video of the feathered family. It is an honor to be in such great company and I’m so happy to be a part of the active animal rights community in Seattle.
7 Comments
The boys have been flinging duck poop on your walls?
Yes, yes they have. Well see Lester Leroy is on antibiotics and those give him diarrhea. So he can poop from one area all the way across the playpen and out onto the wall. It’s getting better now, but it was quite a clean-up job today. We considered just leaving the house and starting over somewhere new with an assumed name.
It breaks my heart to see Lester move around, I hope his legs will get better but I’m not sure either. Let’s hope for a miracle.
I understand what you’re saying about his will to live. I see the same thing when I look at Snuggles, he spends his days on his nest and only manages to hop around for a little while. But he has still enough quality of life and enjoys being with us.
You will know when ife gets too heavy for them. In the meanwhile I’m happy for both Lester and Flapper to have eachother’s company.
Congratulations on your new title, that’s a really nice picture of you and Olly:-)
Congratulations Tif on everything mentioned here in your blog. Taking care of Lester is a good thing and it is so exciting to see how he and Flapper inter-relate and keep each other company during the day. You don’t have to be as concerned with them then.
Someone is a real animal person when they can clean off duck poop from the bedroom walls. LOL It sounds to me like Flap and Les are having way too much fun while you are gone.
I gave one of my cats (torti) “butt baths” for 4 years because she stopped cleaning herself. My dad kept telling me to put her down but i was committed to her and she was fine, happy. But after 4 years she did shut down and didn’t want the baths. Once i didn’t see her for 3 weeks and I knew she was no longer part of the living so I had to put her down. But i have no regrets. Spunkie was a great cat and we do what we have to do.
The photo/video of Flapper almost doing that cartwheel to get that tail cleaned is priceless.
Tiff, congrats on the Vegan of the Week!
Thank you for all you do for our furry and feathered angels out there!
What’s a little duck poop on the wall? Amateur. Try having two mobile and very douchey parrots in your life, THEN talk to me about bird poop.
I love Flappy’s acrobatics. You could get him a little gymnastics bar for him to do somersaults over.
I’m not going to watch the Lester video because I know I won’t be able to handle it. Thank you for giving this little fighter a chance for happiness.
Congrats on being named Vegan of the Week!
wow, just saw this while going through your posts to show Amelie some of the feathered kids. Congrats on being vegan of the week!