For over a month I have been treating an injured duck with a bad right leg.
She first came to my attention by flying onto the grass bank area on the harbour street side of the river, looking for food.
She had her mate with her but was unable to stand on two legs and lay down on the grass. She was only able to hop for a foot or two before laying down again. Treating an injured wild bird in the open is very difficult, as they are free to fly away and nigh on impossible to catch.
Getting an accurate diagnosis of the problem is the first hurdle, and I use the camera and observations based on my knowledge of the subject. Occasionally the duck would put the right leg down but reluctant to put weight on it, she did sometimes scratch her face with it showing the ability to flex her foot. Seemed to me that it was not an obvious broken bone, maybe a muscle or tendon sprain was the problem.
She flew to me once a day at some point knowing I would feed her, so I decided to give her an anti inflammatory to see if this would do the trick. After 5 or 6 days she appeared to improve and would start to use the leg sparingly, but at least using it. I continued the treatment for a further two weeks, but this did not appear to advance her recovery any more.
Taking some more photos of the leg I noticed a slight swelling at the ankle just over a week ago. After further consultations and research, I came to the conclusion that she might have an infection, and a course of antibiotics would be required.
Six days ago I started giving her the oral antibiotics once a day as this was the only way of administering it - twice a day would have been better but impossible to do in the wild. During this time I watched her improve day by day, using the leg more and more.
To make matters even more satisfying I watched her return to a nest site each day after treatment and feeding. I have one more dose to give her and hoping this will finally fix the problem. The big advantage of her sitting on eggs now, is the fact that the leg will get the rest required to heal whatever ails her. My observations and patience does have it's rewards. Sequence of pics to date.
Nairnshire Community Newspaper SCIO
2 weeks ago
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