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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.