Heatwave

Refrigerated Alfalfa "tea" with semi frozen peas a cool treat to help deal with the heat and humidity.

~heatwave~

Right Now (10:30 pm) 86°F Humidity 83%

We have had temperatures climbing to near 100 with high humidity with little wind over the last couple of days.  The weather people are saying it is going to be worse over the two days. 

Our poor duckies really struggle to keep cool.  We are changing out their water as often as possible.  Normally the water buckets are changed once or twice a day, but we are trying to freshen up the water buckets and the pools with the well water more often than that hoping that will provide cooler water. 

Today the human flock members all had to work, so our duckies had to tough it out.  Keelyn must have jump flew over her fence, into main area in the aviary.  The regular pools are harder for her to get in and out of.  This evening she clearly was very hot and very sore from doing too much.  She was treated with an extra late night trip to the pool.  That should help some.  

*sigh*  too much to worry about. 

We will tag team tomorrow through Sunday checking on their conditions and switching out water frequently.  Hmmm.... maybe it is time to try semi-thawed frozen peas as a new treat, that might help cool them down too. 

Sat 7/16/2011

New area for Keelyn for when we are not home.

Missy

Kouta & Keelyn

Keelyn's new area

Keelyn's new big area. Even though she is doing much betteer she can not be left alone with the flock if we aren't home. This area gives her water to splash in room to really walk and a big nest box to get out of the rain and sun.

Sat. Morning 'rehab' - recovering well from leg injury

After an hour walking, foraging, and socializing now for at least 30 minutes non-weight bearing time in the freshly cleaned "big" pool. Friends near by to enjoy the mud from the water Keelyn splashes out.

'sister' duckies'

Missy is hanging out with Keelyn during naptime.

Sat. Fun (01)

A place to get away from the boys "romantic" advances and still walk, dig in the mud, forage, and socialize - for Keelyn (and any of the girls).

Our six pet duckies are playing in the mud

Our six pet duckies are playing in the mud while I think about getting around to cleaning out the pools, house ,etc. But they are so cute that I keep taking pictures instead.

Foraging

Keelyn chatting with the boys

Girltime (now including vid-clips of Keelyn's walking progress )

Getting some girl time in ...
A chance for Keelyn to walk a little bit
and mingle without making her feel like
she must run and keep up with the flock.

Below are a couple of low quality video clips
showing Keelyn walking
So happy is is getting better.






None of these videos are great, but it is so nice
to see Keelyn making progress.

7.7.11

Our happy duckies

Toxic Plants ...reminders & more info ...

Thanks to another blogger and duck lover ... we were surprised or had forgotten about the ones below in bold (of course most of the time ducks will not eat something that is poisonous because of the taste but in my rural area we have to extra careful ... because most of the time is not ALL of the time)

You can see Shanti Perez / Augie March - King of Doodles post at the link below.
http://kingofdoodles.blogspot.com/2011/06/plants-toxic-and-safe-to-pet-ducks-and.html
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"birds [ducks] are at risk from laburnum seeds, potato sprouts, black nightshade, henbane, most irises, privet, rhubarb leaves, rhododendron, oleander, yew, castor bean, sweet pea, rapeseed, corn cockle, clematis, common St. John’s Wort, meadow buttercup, vetch, ragwort and some fungi. Blue-green algae is quickly fatal, so water containers should be kept clean, especially in hot weather and access to stagnant water should be prevented."
http://www.poultryclub.org/poultry/poisonous-plants-and-toxins/
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"Eggplant, Stem, leaves, sprouts (ripe fruits are OK) Solanine, atropine-like alkaloids Vomiting, diarrhea, irregular or rapid heart rate, difficulty swallowing, labored breathng, dilated pupils, no urine production, paralysis, seizures
Potatoes Stem, leaves, sprouts, green skins Solanine, atropine-like alkaloids Vomiting, diarrhea, irregular or rapid heart rate, difficulty swallowing, labored breathng, dilated pupils, no urine production, paralysis, seizures
Tomatoes , Stem, leaves, sprouts (ripe fruits are OK) Solanine, atropine-like alkaloids Vomiting, diarrhea, irregular or rapid heart rate, difficulty swallowing, labored breathng, dilated pupils, no urine production, paralysis, seizures
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=15+1912&aid=2236
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One Month Progress Report - Keelyn's Recovery

Three video clips documenting Keelyn's recovery progress

First clip:
Just out of the pool she is able to stand and preen etc. You can really see the nerve damage and weakness in her right leg (which had the worst break). It can hold some weight but has limited strength and control. We expect much of that to be permanent. Dispite all that she is making good progress and learning to compensate. If we can keep her from reinjury for another month or so, she should have a good chance at being independently mobile.


Second Clip:
You can see here that after a few minutes of standing, preening and snacking she starts to get sore and weak, at which point she uses her head and neck to balance/stabilize herself and shift her weight. She has a two water bowls in her small “play pen” area, a low bowl for easy sipping from a sitting position and a coffee cup deep enough for washing her face, but still reachable from a seated position. You see her washing her nose out toward the end of this clip.


Third clip:
The final clip for today makes us both happy and sad. We are pleased to see that when her she gets sore she will sit down and rest her legs. Continued rest with very little standing and walk/wobbling (for another month or so) is what she needs to let her leg bones finish healing. However, it saddens our hearts to see the extent of the nerve damage in her right leg. She is our little Keelyn; still flirty, feisty, and sweet; and although she will very likely never again run to chase bugs, she is making good progress and learning to compensate for her disability. We are hopeful that as she continues to heal she will learn to walk and be strong enough to spend time with the rest of our little flock unaccompanied by the human family/flock members.

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NOTE: Keelyn is recovering from two broken femurs, one is worse than the other. Today (June 23) is about one month after the acute injury, and about two weeks after reinjuring her left leg in an over zealous attempt to walk and follow other ducks when they walked away from her.

BEAU (June 23 2011)

Most of Beau's beautiful iridescent green feathers are being replaced with white. Our beautiful boy seems to be fading to "Pekin" (he is a bit jealous of our King Kouta) or going gray.  Actually this may be a light molt, with only his "under coat of feathers" showing now. 

GrMaDuck loves Beau's "toenails" :-) They look like they have toenail polish on them. 

GrMaDuck says, "Very pretty Beau!"

Freckles

Missy's "freckles" are so cute! We don't know if they show up here, but trust us this sweet bossy but submissive yet funny sweetie has a very pretty face. We love her freckles!
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Here is a better close up on Missy's "freckles"  <3

2011-06-17

2011-06-18

a visiting female mallard interupts our morning routine

We had a female mallard fly in to visit the duckies this morning.

Keelyn was doing her loud, "come over here everybody" quack while the other girls were preening from their first bath, and the boys were outside the aviary foraging. (Our normal morning routine while Keelyn is on the mend.) Beau tried twice to walk through the aviary fencing confussed and upset about something. It wasn't until then that I noticed her flying over. She circled then landed in the yard between the aviary and the garden. She seemed to be interested in pool and food.

It was so funny; as soon as this young female landed she started walking over caustiously. Darrick was the only on willing to go out and "greet" her. He was so excited to see this other girlie duckie. However, Darrick is not very good at flirting and our visitor was not impressed. I guess she doesn't appreciate being chased. Darrick cracked me up. He ran over to her, chased her, gave up, came back over and bragged at bit to the other boys, then did that again a few times.

Our visting female came over a foraged a bit with the boys where the pools had over flowed outside the aviary. She seemed to be looking for a way to get to the pool, but settled for a little digging around for goodies in the dirt with the boys (not too close mind you).

Then Darrick tried the run around and chase her yet another time. She had enough of that and fly away.

It was a very enjoyable thing to watch.

I personally have concerns about the wild ducks getting used to sharing with our pet ducks. But if Darrick continues "greet" all vistors by running about wildly chasing them, we may have no reason to be concerned.

movie from last Sat 6/6/11

This is a "movie" from last Saturday June 6.
MamaDuck dialed in to webchat and GrMaDuck and our six pet duckies all spent the morning together.

2011-06-11 cooling off

Our duckies (Missy, Beau, Kouta, Darrick cooling off with a drink and a dip in the pool)

Keelyn 2011-06-11

Keelyn thru the "bars" of her rest and recover area