Dealing With Ducks

Today I may have learned to actually hate an animal… No, ok that word is way too strong but I have definitely developed an extreme dislike of fishers.

What is a fisher? Well it is a mammal, carnivora to be exact and part of the mustelid (weasel) family. And, it ate my duck.

Not just ate it, eviscerated it!

I suppose now would be the time to give some back ground to the situation. We have 5, or had 5 muscovy ducks. In the summer they move to their palatial summer accommodation. It consists of boxed nesting boxes, patio, feeding and roosting areas. It is also fenced, on all sides. Well, each morning we start opening the farm by letting them out of their outdoor enclosure and feeding them breakfast. Usually, the ducks come waddling towards us quaking and wagging their tail feathers. This morning it was different. My Dad must have spotted something wrong from a distance because he shouted back across the yard to where I was eating breakfast that he needed my help quickly. As I rushed to the yard, quite a few scenarios of why he needed me went through my head, finally settling on the idea that a duck must be stuck behind a nesting box somehow.  However, I quickly saw that this wasn’t the case. Our favourite (mainly because she’s incredibly affectionate) duck, Buttercup, was bloody and looked like she was missing an eye. As I crouched down by her to check out the amount of damage Dad looked in the nest boxes for the others. Three were in the newest box and were completely unharmed. Then Dad opened the last nest box and with a bit of a gasp, said “oh my God”. Now, Dad’s not squeamish and neither am I, but my God did it ever look like we were visited by Jack the Ripper during the night. I’ll spare the goriest details, but basically Anne’s body was basically half a shell of what she used to be.

So now we knew the damage, we went into recovery mode. We let everyone out and grabbed Buttercup and took her into our backyard where the clean up began immediately after placing a call to our large animal vet for a consult.

She was surprisingly good for what we did with her!

 So here’s a breakdown of what I did first aid wise for a duck… Duck first aid 101 if you will.

Not surprisingly a lot of the concepts for wound care in animals are the same as those in humans. Number one priority was to assess the damage. This I achieved by the judicious use of warm water, soft cloths and a gentle touch. Basically I rinsed the blood off to see where it was coming from. Buttercup had one gash on the underside of her neck just below her bill. She also had scratches above the carbuncling around her eyes, on the top of her head and lower down on her neck on the left hand side. The worst were the puncture wounds. Basically theses were what gave me a good idea of what had gotten into the pen. The punctures on her neck and side of her head on the right hand side were roughly an inch and a half apart (one set of canines) and the exact opposite side of her head was where the other two punctures were. One below the mandible, right where it meets the maxilla and the other was basically in her eye.

We gave her a break and waited for the vet to call back. Giving her some water and access to food (I even brought out the lettuce, usually a treat of theirs). While I went into the house my Mom went to grab Henrietta to bring her in our yard along with Buttercup (as those two usually wander together). I was relieved to see Buttercup preening and essentially acting normal but was still really concerned about the damage.

As I could see it there was really only one course of action. I was going to re open the punctures to allow them to drain, flush the wounds with warm water (no saline on hand sadly) and apply some sort of topical antibiotic (which I was waiting to hear from the Vets about). As for her eye, I could tell that she had a little bit of vision left in the injured one by the way she’d move from my hand towards her head. However, the eye had definitely lost a lot of aqueous humour. At this point I know that the cornea has been punctured. I’m almost certain there is damage to the lens, but the retina is intact. So what to do now?

Well all I could think of was, enucleation (on a duck?)….. or wait and see what happens, hoping that it heals up without infection and she regains some of the sight.

It was on that thought that the vet called… and I discovered you can use polysporin on a duck. So polysporin it was to the wounds, oral Tetracycline in her water and BNP to the eye…… and hope for the best. Basically the eye can heal up, refill and hopefully she has some residual sight…. Or…. She could develop a corneal abscess and then we’ll have to revaluate the situation. It was at this point I asked about enucleation, which could be done, theoretically. Just not with them (best to go to an exotics vet here as mine had no idea even where to start with anesthesia on a duck… sentiments I can fully appreciate).

So Buttercup was doctored up and released. She definitely has been quieter than usual today. We have moved their nesting boxes into the barn, so tonight they will all be bunking up with the goats and alpaca. At least they will be extra safe… We aren’t going to risk ever using that outdoor pen again as there is no way for them to escape and we’re certain the fisher now has a good idea of where to get an easy meal.

As for her prognosis?…. To be honest I’m not really sure. She wasn’t as gung ho for her food like she usually is. I know she must be very sore so I’m hoping that is it. I just really hope that no further internal structures have been damaged and that no raging infection sets in. I’m hopeful but I’m also aware that carnivores mouths are dirty, dirty, dirty.

Soooooo, at the end of it all… I can’t say that fishers are very quickly going to become my favourite animal and I know that with time my dislike will fade. It’s not that I begrudge any animal a meal and I do fully respect its right to behave within its nature.. I just really wish it wouldn’t enact those rights on my ducks.

Pictures will follow of the invalid… However dial-up is not exactly conducive to image loading.. So, they may have to wait.

After a very long delay.......

I'm back... well rather.. My computer is.

Well not back per se... but rather brand spanking new.. It only took how many months? Essentially what happened was my laptop was stolen the day after my last post and insurance really didn't want to give me the money to replace it right away.... but now I'm back on board!

So an update... I'm in exams at the moment so I will get back to my musings as soon as I have some free brain space. Sorry for the massive delay but hopefully I will have something to add (or rather, review) shortly.

Cheers
-P

Beautiful Joe

Well, I could be doing some actual schoolwork at this point in time but instead I strongly felt the need to share with you one of my favourite books.

Perhaps it’s due to the fact that I’m away from home and it’s a Canadian author. Or perhaps it’s because I’m missing my own dogs. But for whatever the reason I’ve started to read one of my favourite childhood books over again.

Now I’ve read this one many times as a child/teen/young adult (whatever the PC terms may be). But until today I haven’t yet read it as an adult. Funny that.

The book is called Beautiful Joe. Written in 1893 by a Canadian woman (yes woman) author. Margaret Marshall Saunders (better known as Marshall Saunders) wrote this story of a medium sized ‘cur’ that not only contributed to a worldwide awareness of animal cruelty but my own.

Beautiful Joe was a real dog. A medium sized terrier cross dog, he was often times described as a mongrel, cur or mutt. Originally, Joe had been owned by a Meaford man. This man greatly abused him, starving him and cutting off his ears and tail. At one point after being nearly beaten to death in 1809, Joe was rescued by a relative of Marshall Saunders. Saunders met Joe not too long after on a visit to her brother and was apparently so touched by his story that she wrote a novel. Joe’s fictionalized autobiography. The book was submitted to a literary contest sponsored by the American Humane Education Society and went on to win. By the 1900’s over 800 000 copies had been sold in the United States, 40 000 in Canada and 100 000 in the United Kingdom. Today he is honoured with a statue and park dedicated to his name in Meaford, Ontario. A society, The Beautiful Joe Heritage Society in Meaford, has been established in his name not only to ensure that this part of our cultural heritage lives on but to ensure the continued awareness of animal cruelty and the humane treatment of animals. I’m certain that both Saunders and Joe would be proud.

 

In the story, Joe after his rescue goes to live with the Morris family. From his experience with both the people in his new family and the animals he shares his life with he gives the reader a good overview of how animals were treated in the late 1800’s, both good and bad. Through Joe’s eyes we see good people and bad, we see ignorance and enlightenment and ultimately we gain a respect for other lives and creatures… no matter how great or small.

I love this story, not only because it was told from Joe’s own viewpoint, but because it greatly humanized the idea of animal cruelty. Somehow, Saunders managed to write from the viewpoint of an animal without fully anthropomorphizing it. Joe does “speak” to the reader, but still seems to be very much a dog.

Now when I read the story, I am struck by many things that I would not have been aware of as a child. The story is set in the late 1800’s which does account for many instances of what would be appreciated as cruelty today, yet would have been the standard then. Yet at the same time, I am blown away by just how much it does to bring forward the notion of animal cruelty and it’s condemnation without seeming preachy. (Which is funny considering that the father of the Morris family in the story happens to be a pastor). You can’t avoid comparison with Anna Sewell and Black Beauty. The author herself makes reference to it early in the novel as Joe describes his mistress “laughing and crying over a little book that she says is a story of a horse’s life”. Yet this is a different story with again a different though similarly powerful impact. Saunders has not only managed to discuss animal cruelty in terms that made it easy to understand, but also in a way that opened my eyes to the fact that cruelty does not always stem from brute barbarity but also from ignorance.

I have to say that even when reading it as an adult, though I am now aware of some of it’s faults, I still love this book. And in hindsight I now begin to wonder if having read it as a child managed to change not only the way I look at the world and the species we share the planet with, but also how I look at human society and the idea of cruelty.

I do think that cruelty is not just a byproduct of an “evil” person but is a symptom of greater problems in society. It’s a byproduct of ignorance and of cultural standards usually developed out of poverty and more ignorance. I do think that there can be some people out there who are just plain cruel, but at the same time I think that most can be redeemed. That if they could be brought to understand what they are doing and its actual effect on other living beings (human, feathered and four legged) the world would be a better place overall. A bit of ‘head in the clouds’ idealism there? Yes, possibly but I feel that it is always better to think something good of a situation or of a person than to believe otherwise.

I think Joe himself would agree.

Back to school.... and Exams.... ugh

Alrighty, sorry for the delay in posting, thoughts will be coming fast and furious once I get some of these exams under my belt. I can't say I'm a huge fan of the 100% final.
However at least this blog provides me one way of procrastinating and studying at the same time, so much more productive than facebook.

This term will provide some comparative anatomy for the more rare species treated in practice (re: exotics), neuroanatomy (yay?), animal maintenance (essentially how to feed your animals/pets), introductory epidemiology and something called integrated and applied veterinary biology which I am certain is just a nice way of saying "yet more microbiology that you probably won't use unless you become a lab specialist".

Hope I can continue to make things interesting..

Mostly on topic and rambling-ly yours
-Phil