“This is my belly. This is where I like to store all of my peas, waffles and french fries. I was showing my belly to my people. She likes to pat my belly. Then I usually get some treats.”
Flapper Belly
Lumpy Chin Syndrome
Here is a before and after comparison of Racquel’s chin. Last Sunday she was fine, and then by Wednesday the feathers had fallen off her chin and it was kind of hard and scabby and swollen. She is on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. Hopefully it helps! She is otherwise eating well, so she is okay for now. But what a weird chin thing. It’s always something around here.
Flapper said I should mention that she is also getting waffle treats to help her feel better. He says that’s most important.
My Favorite
“This is Carrie. She is my favorite vet tech at my veterinarian’s office. She held me today while I recovered from brief anesthesia. Then when I woke up completely I bit her three times on the neck. Maybe more. I was a little groggy so I can’t remember. I don’t have to go back to the vet for a whole month now, because I am doing really well. I will miss biting them.” – Flapper
Flapper is doing pretty well these days, which is great. Flapper weighs 3.06kg today, or 6.75lbs. On March 13th he only weighed 2.5kg, or 5.5lbs, so he is definitely feeling better. I even stopped giving him waffle treats for a week and he still gained 1.25lbs in just two weeks! Good boy.
Racquel L’Oreal had to go to the vet this week as well. Somehow she got a sore on her chin and it got infected. Last Sunday when I took her photo, her chin looked fine. Tuesday night to Wednesday night her chin looked weird, so she went to the vet on Thursday. Her chin is bare and swollen. She is on antibiotics for 10 days. Hopefully it will improve. She is otherwise doing fine.
Simon wanted to show off his big belly. He lost too much weight a few months ago when he was on special food. But that was then, and this is now. Clearly being too thin is not his problem.
Here is another angle just to show that the camera does exaggerate size a bit. Now his head looks big. Rest assured his head and his belly are both of average size (okay maybe his belly is a LITTLE big).
Happy weekend, everyone.
Olivia
Hi Livi. How are you feeling today?
“I am doing good.”
And how is your backside after the unfortunate bite last Saturday?
“How does it look?”
It looks fluffy to me. I hope it is healing well.
Do you think you could forgive O’Malley for biting you?
“Why would I forgive him? He hasn’t even apologized to me!”
O’Malley? Do you think you could apologize to Olivia for biting her on the butt?
“I am sorry.”
And what are you sorry for?
“I am sorry for biting Olivia on the butt.”
And why are you sorry for that?
“Because it hurt her. I am sorry for hurting Olivia.”
That was pretty good, O’Malley.
What do you think, Olivia?
“I think I see a bug!”
Hmmm… I think you may have to keep apologizing for awhile, O’Malley. Give it some time. I think Olivia will forgive you eventually.
“You tell that overgrown, buck-beaked turkey that if he comes near Olivia again I will karate chop him, crouching chicken style!”
Wow! Okay, Racquel L’Oreal. I will tell him.
“Nobody messes with my friend Olivia. Nobody!”
“I wouldn’t mess with her. She told Chewy if he looked at her funny one more time, his face would stick that way… and look!”
“Help. Me?”
Ha ha, sorry Chewy. Better steer clear of Racquel. And maybe steer clear of Olivia for now, too.
We hope Olivia’s backside is on the mend, and that she eventually forgives O’Malley for biting her on the butt. Flapper is feeling okay for now, and that is good, too. Chewy has a little limp from Racquel chasing him (seriously) but we think it’ll be okay. That’s the update for now. We’ll post another update when Olivia is feeling more forgiving.
Back to the Vet
Flapper headed back to the vet today for another round of stretching his cloaca. The cloaca is the muscle inside the vent that has scar tissue on it from when Flapper had surgery in August 2008. The scar tissue was causing that muscle to close up so much that Flapper was having trouble eliminating waste, which made toxins build up in his system. Flapper also had blood drawn to re-test his uric acid level, because it was really, really high last week.
My guess was that his uric acid level would test just fine now, and it did. His blood test was really normal and average. Last week when I thought he was dying, his uric acid was 20. This week, now that I know he is passing urates, his uric acid level was 5. Normal range is between 3-10.
“I finished my vet treatment. Now where is my waffle treatment?”
Flapper will stay on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and continue to go to the vet once a week for at least two more weeks to have his cloaca stretched. He has been pooping like a champ and I know he feels much better already, so we’re hoping this technique of stretching his cloaca helps keep him healthy and comfortable for the long haul.
For now, he is a happy and healthy ducky. Waffle treats all around!
Funny note: Flapper’s vet is bird-sitting a beautiful green parrot right now, and brings her to the office. They were packing up to go back home for the night and Buddy the parrot was put in a bin for the car-ride home. Buddy the parrot started yelling, “Help! FIRE!… Help! FIRE!” to protest being put in the bin. Very funny, parrot.
Waffle Boy
Flapper’s blood work says he has high urates. We got a message that the vet wants to do an ultrasound, but we want to talk to the vet first. We thought Flapper had urates building up, and he did. But now we see urates in his waste, and that seems like an improvement. So… an ultrasound is not in our plans this week, unless the vet can explain why it needs to happen right now. We think that Flapper’s scar tissue and closed-off cloaca caused him to build up urates. But since the vet stretched out his cloaca on Saturday, he is now able to pass waste more easily and we think that means he has less of a build up of urates.
We can tell he felt terrible on Saturday, and as soon as we picked him up we could tell he was passing urates, which we know was not happening for weeks before that.
Now on Wednesday evening, Flapper is a new duck. He has energy, he’s playing, he doodles in mud puddles and he’s happy. All of that is a big improvement over Saturday. So we just need to talk to the vet and figure out why they want to do an ultrasound, and what’s next for Flapper. Stay tuned.
So far… so good.
Let Us Never Speak of This Day Again
Flapper is home from the vet, and seems to be resting comfortably enough. He had some waffle treats and took his medicine like a sweetheart. We should have blood work results on Tuesday and know more then. Hopefully he will feel okay in the morning. He had a nice swim in his pool before I put him to bed tonight. But the night didn’t end there.
Let’s recap the day.
I brought Flapper in the house at 6am because he was lethargic and sleeping too much. He didn’t eat great for two days. He went to the vet at 9am when they opened and spent the entire day there.
At 2pm I had a furnace repair man at my house because the furnace has been broken since last Tuesday. It is about 48 degrees inside my house.
I started making waffles for the ducks while the repairman was there, and let the ducks and chickens out of their aviary so they could hunt for bugs while I watched them through the kitchen window.
The repairman couldn’t find the right part to fix the furnace, and while we were talking, O’Malley bit Olivia on the butt. The repairman left and will come back on Wednesday when the part arrives to fix the furnace. I have to order the part online. The house is still cold.
I picked up Flapper right as the vet closed at 4pm, returning home to find I had left the waffle iron on and left waffle batter in it. The house thankfully did not burn down. In fact it smells nice like waffles.
I got Flapper settled into his pen and put everyone else away to take a thorough look at Olivia and make sure O’Malley didn’t hurt her. Well… O’Malley managed to rip a 2″ diameter hole in her butt, so we put her in the car and headed to the night time emergency vet for sutures. Her butt looked very sore. The vet gave her some pain medication. Olivia is now home from the emergency vet with sutures in her butt.
Olivia is not happy. I am tired. Flapper is sore. And O’Malley is grounded.
Let’s never speak of this day again.
Update #3: Biting
The vet called and said Flapper is stable for now, and strong. They think what I am seeing is that he’s in a lot of pain. They looked in his vent and his cloaca is almost completely closed off from scar tissue. The opening should be about the size of a nickel maybe, but Flapper’s is so small he can’t pass waste and his digestion isn’t working right.
They want to try stretching it every week for awhile to see if they can enlarge it without surgery, which is just likely to cause more scar tissue anyway. So for now he is on antibiotics and pain medication and he can come home tonight. His blood work won’t be back ’til Tuesday, so we’ll know then how his kidneys are doing and how his other blood chemistry is, and whether or not he has an infection.
They don’t think he looks as bad as I do, as far as being lethargic and not moving. So what I’m seeing is probably his pain. Apparently he has been biting them with great force.
And that is a good sign.
We’ll know more Tuesday, and then we’ll try to see if we can keep him comfortable and out of pain for the long term.
Update #2: Hospital
Flapper is at the ducky hospital today. I hope the vets can figure out what’s wrong. I always assume the problem is his chronic plumbing issues, but maybe it is an infection like Chewy had earlier in the year. That scared me when Chewy had it and he acted similar to how Flapper is acting now. A random infection would be much better than problems related to his digestive system/chronic problems.
Flapper came in the house at 6am to hang out on the bed with me. He slept with me on the bed while we waited for the vet’s office to open. He is lethargic and listless. He just stands wherever you put him. I can’t tell if he is in any pain or not at all. He does shake his tail now and then, but those chronic problems do cause him discomfort even when he’s not critically ill. He ate a few peas and drank some water and we rested for a few hours. As soon as the vet’s office opened we took him there.
I made Flapper a waffle square for the road and he perked up quite a bit to eat the bits of waffle. When we got to the vet they said “he looks pretty active,” so that is good. Hopefully he’ll stay strong today. He’ll get oxygen and an IV if he needs it, while they figure out what’s wrong (if they can).
Keep your fingers crossed for us. Or your webbed feet.
Light of My Life
The light of my life, my buster Flapper, is not doing well tonight.
Friday morning he didn’t quite seem himself, so I gave him a bit of pain medication to see if that was what was bothering him, because of his chronic plumbing problems.
It perked him right up and when I left for work he was swimming in his pond. But through the day I could see him on Flapper cam from work, and he was hiding in the corner of the aviary. He doesn’t normally do that. That’s a very bad sign.
Tonight when I got home he didn’t quack or come to greet me. In fact he was barely moving. I put all the other ducks away and got his dinner ready and sat with him for a bit. He sat with me and seemed okay, but not quite all there. But when I put him down at his food dish, he ate like a champ and laid down for a nap. So I left him alone.
I could take him to the emergency vet tonight, and I called them, but all they can really do is stabilize him until he can go to his exotic vet in the morning. So I decided against that since he’s fairly stable. I asked if they could rush blood work and they said no, it had already been picked up for the night.
So it’s after midnight, and I just went out to check on Flapper. He was laying down but not asleep. He does not look well at all. I sat with him for awhile and then I brought him in and gave him a few peas while I prepared a shot of pain medicine for him.
Again, that seemed to perk him up, and he got into his baby pool when I took him back outside. His digestive system really seems to be hurting, and I don’t know if he can get better. He was able to poop on his own, but he’s shaking his tail like it hurts.
I have a theory, but it’s completely baseless at this point. I know scar tissue has built up so much that he can barely poop. I think scar tissue from his surgery in fall 2008 finally built up to where it is blocking his ureters… the ducts to his kidneys. This is just completely my theory, but I haven’t seen white urates in his poop like I should normally see from him in quite a few weeks. I also suspect this because of his fairly sudden arthritis. I think his arthritis could really be built-up crystals from his kidneys being unable to evacuate.
Again, it’s just a hunch. And I don’t even know if the science is right. But if his kidneys have not been working normally for some time and it has progressed so far that he is listless… I’m very concerned that he’s not going to get better. It happened so sudden today that I’m in shock, and I hope I’m wrong. I’ve been dreaming about him all week though, so on some level I know he’s not alright, and I’ve been trying to figure it out. He has been a worry for years now, so I didn’t realize it was anything different, even this morning.
Hopefully I can get him into the vet in the morning, and maybe they can do an endoscopy and see if my hunch is right, or see why else Flapper is in pain and listless.
Tonight he was such a sweetheart. He is not very active, and he seems in pain, but somewhere inside those feathers he’s still his sweet, upbeat self and he sat with me tonight and chatted like it was just another conversation. He has always been such a trooper. I hope he can continue on for awhile longer.
I love him more than anything.
