What a Weekend!
Okay let’s start from the beginning. Friday night we went out with former coworkers. Very fun. Great to see them.
Saturday we took Benson to the vet. We think Michelle, the vet tech, is smitten.
Benson’s leg has improved, but this old x-ray shows that he will always have a pretty bad limp. The joint feels much better though.
Benson had a fecal test to see if he and Reggie could be let out of confinement to roam the yard. Both parasites we knew they had before have cleared up, but while we were there, Benson pooped a tapeworm. (Yeah, sorry, we hope you weren’t enjoying lunch or dinner).
Surprise! We didn’t know they had tapeworms. They don’t show up on the fecal test, so frankly we got really lucky that Benson held a show and tell for us.
So they both have new medication and are locked up for another 2 weeks. Then we have to watch poo. Yep, we have to keep an eye on poo and make sure we don’t see any more tapeworms. Super gross!
Saturday night we had a silent auction for NARN, the Northwest Animal Rights Network. We’re on the Board of Directors. It’s our big yearly fundraiser and it went great! It was a lot of fun and we had a great turnout.
One guy walked up to me at the auction and started taking his shirt off. That was fun, so I just encouraged him. It turned out he was trying to show me this tattoo, which apparently means “mallard.” He heard I was the duck lady and had to show it to me. He was super cool and we chatted about ducks and chickens for a while. “A tour of Flapper’s aviary” was one of the auction items, but we’re not sure who won it yet.
Later at the auction, another guy said he works with the Seattle Animal Shelter and they had a female muscovy duck who just came in. He asked if we might be able to give her a home. I went to the shelter on Sunday and found this girl next to some big barking dogs. There isn’t anywhere else to keep a little duck in the shelter. A female muscovy is the exact duck I still have room for here, so we brought her home as a permanent member of the family. We can’t keep Benson & Reggie because they are both boys and O’Malley is our muscovy drake. Two muscovy drakes don’t really get along. George we couldn’t keep because he was a little loud for our neighborhood and he needed to be with other geese. But a female muscovy can be integrated with Petunia and O’Malley, and then she won’t even take up extra cage space. It’ll take a little time, but it’ll be a good match for them, and it’s better for a muscovy drake to have more than one hen for company.
Isn’t she pretty? That’s Reggie trying to put the moves on her through the partition. She actually has coloring very similar to O’Malley. We think we know her name, but we’re going to sleep on it. She was found at a light rail station in Seattle and brought to the shelter. It’s my guess that she was probably looking for a good nesting spot and flew out of her yard, then couldn’t find her way back. It’s pretty common this time of year.
Here Petunia and O’Malley meet the new girl for the first time. She will be able to come out and play with them once she passes a fecal test. Hopefully she’ll do better on her test than Benson & Reggie did!
So that’s it for the busy, busy weekend. We’ll keep you posted. Have a good week!
15 Comments
Looks like a busy weekend indeed. Great fun to see Malley and Petunia welcome the new girl. I’m happy she can stay, she’s gorgeous and will fit right in (though Petuina will give it her best shot to show the new kid she’s top dog (er duck;-).
Good, that will give Petunia a break. Malley is very excited!
Since she was walking the streets maybe Irma La Duck would be a fitting name;-D
How cooperative of Benson to show you the tapeworm, good boy.
Great news all around, have a great week everyone!
The new girl is very pretty!
Yeah, a new duck, a forever duck to stay with Flapper and all. I loved the poop photo. Can’t wait to see what the Muscovie will be called. So glad the tapework problem was so easy to find out about. Maybe they will gain some weight now with not having worms in there to eat the grass, grain, and french fries.
it’s spring they say in Seattle. that means the french fry tree should be blossoming pretty soon. it probably needs some fertilizer like ketcup or mustard.
Boy, they sure look happy & silly with their tushies wagging. I’m glad that the new girl has a great home, and I hope she tells you her name soon.
Oh by the way, the tattoo reads ‘real’ in Chinese.
omggg those wagging tails when O’Malley and Petunia first saw the female muscovy!! I can’t wait to learn her name and to hear how it goes when she meets them outside of her pen for the first time.
Those tail wags crack me up!
Yay! I`m so excited you got a new forever duck. She`s such a pretty girl too! They all look so excited to meet each other.
LOL at Clarice. Thank you for the tattoo info. I wonder now if he really thinks it means “mallard.” it was a fun, loud night. Maybe I misunderstood. Too funny!
The new muscovy duck sure is a cutie! She looks so much more comfortable away from the barking dogs and around other ducks. That’s some very enthusiastic tail wagging there, O’Malley!
Welcome new duck! She is very pretty
Yay for a new girl muscovy! How wonderful for her to find a new happy home. I think O’Malley may bust down the wall to get to that cute girl! And I know Petunia is just itching to get her claws on the newbie to let her know that Toonie is IN CHARGE. Well, we can see Toonie is telling her that already.
Most pond ducks have tapeworm. They are not harmful unless the duck has an overload or ill with something else. Luckily, they are very easy to treat – just the two spaced out doses of tapewormer. And I’m told that they shed all the worms in the 24 hours after the first dose and then any eggs hatch just prior to the second dose and those are shed in the 24 hours after that dose. So they aren’t shedding constantly during the 2 weeks between doses which is good.
So sorry about Benson’s bum leg. I’ve dealt with those too often, poor duckies. He’s such a good looking guy.
I’d love it for a man to sidle up to me and take off his shirt, if that man were, say, Christian Bale.
A competitor for Malley’s affections? And a gorgeous one at that? I can’t see Toonie liking this at all. I can just hear her now: “You best step off, b—, and take your hands off my man. I will cut you” (translated from the Muscovese).
Oh My Word. Those wagging feathered bums are too much!! She sure is a pretty one.
Greetings,
I came across your blog and in particular your post entitled F#$% You, Raccoons! while googling for information about crows that act like ducks. I wanted to see if anyone else had noticed this type of behavior. Anyhow, the reason I’m writing is that we have ducks and we have had raccoon problems too though they have been most interested in our chickens, and I can really relate especially to the title of your post! Raccoons are F*&%#ing pests! So I thought while I was here at your blog I’d drop you a line and let you know that by adding geese, male geese especially, to our flock of ducks we have completely alleviated our raccoon problem. Haven’t seen one of the little buggers in nearly a year! I have our whole raccoon saga posted on my blog here http://johnnysgarden.wordpress.com/category/racoons/ in case you have an interest. Hope that information is of some value to you.
And since I’m here, have you happened to notice crows intermingling with your ducks and imitating their behavior in order to be able to eat their food?