We got home from running errands Saturday night, and found the dog that broke into the ducks' pen snooping around the pen again. The ducks were all in the pen, but Daffy was lying on the ground....alive, thankfully. We got the flashlight and found that one duck, Dolly, had had her gashes re-opened, and the other ducks were scraped up. We got them all inside and washed them off. Dolly had huge gashes and Pearl (a crested Pekin) was slightly bloody. Daffy didn't loo good at all. His leg, we discovered, was the source of his problems. He just held it behind him, never using it. We thought it was either broken or worse: paralyzed. We called the local vet, and they didn't take poultry. So we called Animal Sciences, and just a trip down there would $140. But they gave us some names of other vets that would take "exotics". The first was a keeper. We took Daffy in, and the people were very good and very nice. They did an X-ray on Daffy, and came back with the results. No broken bones, no paralysis! Slight nerve damage, possibly, but after some pain killer, he should be okay. They gave us seven days worth of painkiller, not shots, but honey-flavored medicine. The whole trip was $150, still quite a bit, but less than the Animal Science place would have been!! Daffy is doing so much better already; using his leg little by little. Here are the X-rays:
I just thought it's cool to see a duck X-ray! (The little white spots are just stones in his gizzard)Three Strikes and....You're Out!
Too much. When we got home from the vet, the dog was back in the pen! Third time in two weeks. We got it out quickly. It didn't hurt anybody too badly, but again Dolly's wounds were re-opened. My mom called Animal Control, finally. Sunday, we'd talked to the owners of the dog, and they said they would tie it up. But apparently, they didn't. I feel bad for them, but we haven't seen the dog since. The ducks are doing much better, especially Daffy!
3 comments:
You are a very kind person. I think your neighbor should see the vet bill (and pay it) and see the damage their dog does.
Those x-rays are amazing! Those look like pretty large stones in the gizzard!
Maybe you need an electric fence?
Thank you very much. Well, my dad was talking about that, and the neighbor said they would pay for the ducks (that was before the vet). They'd tried to keep the dogs in their porch with plexi-glass, screen, and everything possible, but it hadn't worked.
I know! They were really nice, but the cost to have them done was about $90.
I thoguht about that... The dogs haven't been back, but other dogs could be. We may need to consider an electric fence, but it might cost quite a bit. Plus, we've worked days to make the pen dog-proof!
Electric fences work really well with dogs as they generally approach a fence and sniff it. This would give them a big surprise!
http://www.premier1supplies.com/poultry/species.php?source=google
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