only four little ducks

Queenie, who was the friendliest and smartest of our pet ducks, died during the night last night. She wasn't sick. She died trying to lay an egg. Egg bound. It happened very very quick.

I spent all morning cleaning and disinfecting the duck house, pools, and aviary, which made me late to church.

My mind keeps singing, "five little ducks went out to play, over the hills and far away, GrMa Duck said quack quack quack, but only four little ducks came back." I know it isn't the same; Queenie passed with her flock family around her. But yesterday we had five duckies and now we are down to four. Loving and caring for such fragile creatures is not for the faint of heart.

One more things I want to say. It was sadly sweet to see our other duckies love her and comfort her in her last hours.

We do everything we can ... and sometimes that is not enough. Rest in peace Queenie, the humans will certainly miss you.

This was written by GrMaDuck Sam

Sometimes the right thing to do breaks your heart

Keelyn ...Sick again ...Re-injured again.....


This is no life for a duck - always hurt, separated from the flock, and often sick. All we are doing now is prolonging her suffering. Her passing is inevitable but will be slow and painful if we don't do something. She can not stay active enough to be healthy and she always has to be protected from the rest of the ducks (she is too fragile to be mated or even walked over), and even in times of improvement she re-injures herself. Saturday morning her breathing was slow and labored. Medication and a warm bath inside in the human bath-tub helped, but she is weak, tired, and losing weight AND Kouta (big white male Pekin) jumped over her fence and got in her dog house nest box so now her legs are re-injured too. The kindest thing to do for her is to put her to sleep, but it is really hard. We have cared for her and worked hard to give her a happy life and to manage her pain and injuries ... but now it is time to say good-bye. We love her too much to do anything else.   We just want her to go sleep in peace and be free from her suffering.

**written 1/16/2012 .... our emotions are/were too raw to post publicly
______________

We waited to post this until we were ready to share, we will likely not be responsive to any one's suggestions or questions about how we could have / should have done things differently.  This is not YOUR feathered loved one it is ours - please respect our grief and decision(s).

I (MamaDuck) truly believe that God had His hand in the situation.  On her last day we were supposed to get rain all day, but we were praying for sunshine so she could have some pool time without getting too cold.  This of course did happen, she had one last "good" (considering her condition) day with sunshine, fun with the girls, foraging and lots of one-on-one attention from GmaDuck.  We know she knew what was happening and that she trusted us, we both felt her say good-bye and that she loves us.  I told her to have fun with Alex and Bianca up in Heaven and don't give Bianca too hard of a time.
It has been a week, and I still ache with how much I miss her, but I know it was the right decision, and I am thankful that she is pain free and sickness free.

Rest in peace our Little One, my Sweet Baby Girl, Keelyn.  We love you dearly.

RIP Keelyn   10/12/10 - 1/17/12

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

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*

Sunday, March 14, 2010 Was a very sad day for us.
(This is a copy of a post from another blog)

Lord please send our ducks home safe and sound.
I posted that before we got home from church.
Daddy ... found out what happened.
...
Our pet ducks were taken by a pack of coyote.
We are VERY sad. These sweet beautiful white little ones, were truly a joy to us.
We will miss them very much.

Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one
of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
(words of Jesus - Matt 10:29)