Meet our Ducks

Last week, we gave away 7 of our 10 baby ducks. Although we would have loved to have kept them all, we live on a city lot and don't have enough space. Our plan was to actually only keep 2, to replace the 3 grown males we have to give away before the babies arrived.... but, one little guy has something called wry neck. It makes his neck all twisted. We have been having to give him vitamins every day and it has gotten so much better, but he is still not 100% yet, and we didn't feel comfortable giving him to someone else. Plus, he is a total mama's boy.
So, meet our 3 baby ducks, who now all have names! Dottie, Nana, and Rye (aka Crook). You can see Rye in the back with his neck slightly cock-eyed. They are getting so big so fast!

The bad news is... we woke up today to find Dottie with a bloody head. After bringing her inside and cleaning it, we found 2 puncture wounds into her skull. We are not sure if a raccoon got his claws through the chicken wire (which seems unlikely, as they have a solid wood room to sleep in and only tend to come to the wired-wall area once the sun is up), or if a rat (like the one I saw this morning in our yard) somehow got inside the duck house and attacked her. Can rats attack ducks? I guess. I never would have thought though....
She has been eating some and drinking, but she is wobbly, tired, and I have seen her have a couple of what I think are seizures. We are pretty sure she has brain damage from the puncture wounds into her head. At this point, we are not sure if she will live or not, and it's breaking my heart: this is the duckling that stood out to me from day one, the one duck I knew I wanted to keep. Everyone send good thoughts her way!
Days like today I think I am in over my head with the backyard bird thing. I am just not tough enough. Last year we had one get attacked by a raccoon and survive, much against the odds, and we almost lost our female last fall due to something called "egg bound". Both of them somehow pulled through, and I have my fingers crossed that little Dottie will make it as well.

 Here is Dottie and her head injury. It's 2 small puncture wounds, but it really matted her fluff down.

 Here are Rye and Nana. Dottie and Nana are usually paired up, but they are all giving her a little bit of space today.

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