Monday, May 30, 2011

Trying to balance what is best for Keelyn's legs against her very real need for socialization with the flock is tricky. Here is a moment when I was duck sitting close by and I let Kouta and Darrick have a swim with her.


(this is low quality phone video)

~GrMaDuck~

Rehab - Duck Sitting

I am standing guard over Keelyn while she gets some time in the shallow pool. She is feeling well enough to "jump/fly" out of the pool (even the "deep" pool, but not strong or healed enpugh to be landing or walking. AND I stand near/over her to insure no mating. She is still too fragile for that (even though she is a big flirt). ~GrMaDuck~

BEAU

I think I upset "the apple cart" (balance) today when picked up Beau and wouldn't let him bite me. He got down from my lap peacefully on his own, but now he is a VERY grumpy drake. ~GrMaDuck~

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Drakes are Great

We have beautiful boys (drakes).

I titled this Drakes are Great, because I swear when they puff up and sound off, they are singing out "Draaakees are Greaaat, Draaaaakes are Greeaaaaat,Draaaaakes are Greeaaaaat "
:>

This video is dedicated to our drakes, our beautiful boys. They haven't gotten as much video time lately, so we are making up for it today.

another Keelyn update

HD Video highlight Keelyn's leg movements

collage

 


a collage of our beautiful ducks
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FAMILY FUN DAY 1

Family Fun Day for duckies
(This was supposed have been the first post)

Girlie Duckie pool time

VERY VERY Happy Girlie Duckies (The videos are even better.)
Our girlie duckies (Queenie-black-Cayuga, Missy-white-Pekin, Keelyn-multi-Welsh Harlequin) having a blast in the very full and just cleaned pool. (wish the video quality was better- but too cute not to share)

(part 2)

fun fun fun

Queenie

Queenie

FAMILY FUN DAY 5

Duckie family fun... It is so great to be able to have Keelyn "join in" with the whole flock. AND Queenie laid an egg last night/this morning. WOOT WOOT WOOT :-)

FAMILY FUN DAY 4

Sharing=caring 2

FAMILY FUN DAY 3

Sharing=caring :-) (1)

FAMILY FUN DAY 2

A little play pen in the yard for a duckie family fun day.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

two videos 5/25/2011

video 1 - 10 min of boring morning stuff
((REMOVED)) just way too boring :-)

video 2
Queenie and Keelyn in the pool, Missy digging in the mud, and the boys running back and forth outside the avairy ... (and a bit of typing arm interference with the webcam)

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Monday, May 23, 2011

dinner salad

Keelyn' s dinner salad with calcium powder dressing and meal worm croutons

Fighting the bordom

Gave Keelyn a plush toy and a small mirror to hopefully help keep her entertained. We'll see how this works...

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Lots of pictures and considerations...

We are having to consider some hard things related to our little flock. Both of Keelyn's femurs are broken (due mainly to low calcium levels - she has experienced no major trauma). But surgery to pin them is not likely an option because of the low calcium (her bones are simply too weak.) So we are left with very difficult decisions...

put her to sleep OR try and rehab her ourselves OR find a rescue center that can rehab her

After doing some research, MamaDuck found out that those sanctuaries/rehab centers that even take pet ducks, are either so full of rescues that they can’t take any and/or they don’t take lame ducks. There is also the factor of, if we surrender Keelyn to a rehab center, we won’t get her back.


Things to consider
- GrmaDuck usually work 45-55 hours a week, which means that it is a daily challenge for her to make the time to care for and socialize with our little flock, but she manages and it is a delight. BUT adding rehab, will (if we do this right so that we can better manage her pain and increase her potential of a decent outcome) require more frequent care and more time with her and the flock.
- Only GrmaDuck and MamaDuck can work with Keelyn. We don't have anyone else that is comfortable with this. We do have a couple of people who can duck sit healthy ducks, but not injured or sick ducks.
- MamaDuck now lives 25 min away, and starts full-time work in a couple of months. She will always be around and be MamaDuck of the flock, just not every day.
- Happy or not, Keelyn is in pain.
- We wonder if she will ever be able to run and chase bugs again (which was her FAVORITE thing to do)
- We love her so very much. We wish we had a sign that their calcium was so low, but the eggs were fine, everyone was happy, we just couldn't have known before now. Her broken legs are breaking our hearts.
- We don't want to put her down. We selfishly want to keep her with us for all of her life.
- We are trying to be realistic. We are trying to think about what is best overall.
- We aren’t sure that we have the time or energy or money resources to give her the best rehab possible.
- It is more than, is Keelyn capable of being happy. It is, can we keep her happy, and manage her pain level well for months, and likely for years?



As of now, we are finding ways to keep her happy and as comfortable as possible. We even figured out how to keep her immobile while also with the rest of the flock in the aviary. Other than when she is trying to move, she doesn’t seem to be in great amounts of pain. We know that she has to be hurting; you can’t break both your femurs like that and not be in pain. But we are managing her meds to keep her comfortable and using water therapy as often as we can to relieve the pressure and weight off her legs. We have already started adding vitamins to their water which has calcium plus D (Vitamin D helps the body actually absorb the calcium) to help with her bones, and to prevent future issues with the other ducks.

Keelyn is and always has been very energetic, it is the reason we picked her name, Keelyn means "lively", this means that she is already trying to be adventurous and move more than we would like her to. This can create more problems as she is trying to heal.

If we continue down this road of rehab, it is going to be a very long, long hard road. We know that she will never be the same, and will most likely always be mostly lame. This is harder than we can put into words.

FOLLOW UP NOTE ADDED JUNE 2011: We decided "rehab" her ourselves. It has been a BIG challenge and has impacted every area of our life with the frequent time commitment required, but we are seeing progress and are hopeful that despite some permanent nerve damage in one leg she will walk again (she will likely never run again but walking is looking probable). Of course we will forever supplement their diet to counter the effects of the minerals in our ground and water that limit calcium absorption.

Now, for some pictures.

Family breakfast around Keelyn

Tub (Water therapy) time...Darrick sneaking some of Keelyn's treats :P

Kouta - "My Love!...My Darling!"
Keelyn - "Babe, you ate my treats...you get no love right now."
:P

Time to dry off and preen in the sun on the towel.

"Gotta....get...comfy..."
This is the only way she can move around right now, she pushes herself up to get her legs comfortable.

"I don't like this...but since you're holding my bill, I'll tolerate it."
We have to roll her over to dry her belly off since she can't reach that one spot.

You can see, her right leg (the older less severe break) she can sort of move if it doesn't have weight on it.  But her left leg (the more recent, and worse break) has nerve damage, she can move her foot, but not her leg.

"I'm tired Mama, hold my head for me"  <3

"Ahh...Back in the aviary with everybody, in my new set up, so I can see and talk to everyone, but I can still rest, and not worry about those silly boys getting too close."


~MamaDuck and GrmaDuck

Keelyn

Grass and preening/drying off time.

'family mealtime'

Instead of "family dinner around the table" ... This is "family breakfast around Keelyn" :)

Thursday, May 19, 2011

TWO broken legs

Keelyn has two broken legs up near the knees probably due to low calcium not trauma. without surgery this will be a long slow recovery. we need to add calcium and vitamins to the girls diet.

Actually it is her femurs that are broken.  One of the breaks is at nearly a right angle causing nerve impairment with possible permanent nerve damage.

*tears*

more worries

Keelyn is not able to walk thhis morning. Her legs appear too weak to hold her. She does not act like she is hurting just not able or willing or strong enough to walk. *another trip to the vet*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are VERY VERY worried.  She has been on antibiotics for almost a month, and a second round of anti-inflamintory for almost a week, to treat what the vet thought she has bumble foot and then adding a knee sprain on top of it.   But now... now .....
We are VERY VERY concerned..... Keelyn's condition has significantly changed since yesterday. She mostly drags herself around by her wings. She feels a bit bonier (thinner) today. She doesn't appear to be in pain, but to be sick and wea...k and her the way she barely moves or uses her legs looks like paralysis more than injury. I am wondering if she got into something poisenous. She doesn't want to eat her duck feed only mud or to sleep in the nest. Our vet is off today. We are calling all around for vet to help us.

Queenie

Queenie under went an egg extraction yesterday. She had a very large egg stuck sideways inside her. She is doing very well and got to eat lots of grass in our cousins yard.................now it seems that Keelyn condition has suddenly become much worse....worries....expenses....and lots of time and care..... a loving pet parent's lot in life....we love our pet duckies .... We hope all is WELL (no illness no injury ) soon 

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

A quick but necessary update

Just wanted to let everyone know, that MamaDuck has moved out of GrmaDuck's house, about 20min away.  I will still be around very often to keep my role as #1 in the flock, and to help with the responsibilities (especially while we are still dealing with health issues since GrmaDuck and myself - MamaDuck - are the only ones who know how to give medicine.)

Also, Queenie has an appointment with the vet tonight...we are thinking that it's not going to be a great prognosis.  She has not laid eggs in quite some time, and is visibly heavy with egg.  This may (most likely) require surgery to take care of.  Depending on what the Vet says, we are going to have to wiegh our options and see if we can afford that kind of care, plus the added time and responsibility of post-op care.  I (MamaDuck) really wants to just do what will make her healthy again...but I also know that it costs money that we may not have.  :-\  I've been very worried, but trying not to let it get to me.
Anywho...enough of that.  We will update later with what the vet says and our decisions.

~MamaDuck

Mutiny and Duck Poo

This picture was taken right before the little mutiny this morning. Beau and Missy conspired against me and rest of the flock went along. Spent the morning chasing and cajoling Missy and Darrick (our two fastest escapees) around the yard. then got duck poo all over me for the second day in a row. I am so over the pet carrier mess and I think so is Keelyn. This ridiculous...maybe I am just not as on top of things as usual due to not feeling very well. ANYWHO!!! What a morning! Comical really... just another day in the life of a duck family.

Monday, May 16, 2011

I, GrMaDuck, arrived home after a meeting tonight, to find all our six duckies asleep in their house.  If I hadn't needed to give Keelyn medication it would have been just a simple nighty-nighty and close and latch the duck house door for added safety.  It was so cute that they put themselves to bed.
:-)

(Remember we have a pretty predator proof pen/aviary, and INSIDE the pen/aviary is a duck house that provides additional protection and weather-proof comfort.  After loosing our first two precious feathered family members last year, well we are VERY cautious.  Alex and Bianca were only three years old and very healthy.  Oh how we loved them and they us.  We have no soft spot in our heart for coyote since last year.)

But anyway I digress... They were very sweet duckies this evening, well that is until I woke up everyone to give a very grumpy Keelyn her medication.

~Nighty Night all
GrMaDuck

P.S.

Earlier in the day, MamaDuck, killed a big black snake that was trying to figure out how to get in the aviary.  We are so grateful that we added the hardware fabric around the bottom.  But the avairy netting that covers the avairy is 2"x2", it might have taken this snake awhile to figure out how to climb to the top, but GrMaDuck is 99.9% sure this is the same snake that climbed up the gutters to get to and eat a nest full of young song birds.  (The birds had nested over the flood lights on our house.)  The snakes are mostly after small animals and eggs but they will strike at a duck to get to an egg.  Thank you MamaDuck for protecting the flock.


all is well

Our little flock is doing well this morning. GrMaDuck is on full-time now and they did great last night and this morning. Beau has a thing against the "duck boots" but he will get used to them. The girls got a bath in the big pool without the boys and while they seemed to really enjoy the time to clean and splash without being run off, they clearly missed their loves this morning. Keelyn your knee needs to heal QUICKLY.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Keelyn update ... a short video


Keelyn injured her leg, turns out she sprained her knee pretty badly. She can hobble around but she has a hard time balancing and she chooses to sit a lot.

Girl are in the R&R pen during the day.
Everyone goes back in the duck house at night with Keelyn is in the pet carrier.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

*sigh* Came home tonight to see that Keelyn can't walk on her right leg and is using her wings to balance herself. Back to the vet tomorrow for an X ray. For tonight she's in the pet carrier, inside the house, to keep her from trying to stand or walk, but also to keep her with everyone to prevent attitude issues. *stress* *stress* *stress* Trusting God.

We are also watching Queenie closely she is always heavy and not laying much.  If she doesn't show improvement Queenie may also be getting a ride to the vet later this week.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

After a week on her new eye medicine her eye is looking so so so much better. :)

We had company this weekend.
The duckies made a new human friend.

   






Happy Duckies and Curious Drakes

Saturday Morning
Letting the duckies out of the duck house.

  
Happy Duckies and Curious Drakes