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.
