Paralyzed Duckling. I need some insight please

[Amk94509]

Hello, so I have a duckling, we call him Buddy. About 2 weeks ago my daughter accidentally pushed a board over and it hit him on the way down. I took him to a bird doctor who said his hip is completely fractured and there was no hope and the best thing to do was put him down. I feel absolutely obligated to help him regain mobility since my daughter is the one who caused the accident so putting him down is not an option. His leg lays straight behind him now and in his attempts to walk on his own with one leg, he flops all over the place and usually ends up on his back. I've tried several different braces and wheel chair designs and I think this new one is the best most practical design, although he is still too small to push it around. But it holds him in the upright position where he can eat and drink stand in his pool etc. When I put him in there sometimes he is relentlessly trying to wiggle out of it and then I put him on the floor and he relentlessly tries to walk ends up flopping around and I have to wrap him in a blanket to calm him down. And this time he ended up on his back and his good leg was shaking more then normal. As I'm writing this and looking at him wrapped up in his blanket I'm realizing he keeps twitching and shaking his head which breaks my heart because I hope it's not a brain injury as well. He seems to be all there when he's relaxing with his goose friend most of the time. Am I just torturing the poor thing? And has anyone else delt with resilience to the wheel chair at first?

[CarolC]

Hi Amk94509,



One of our members here had a paralyzed duck named Sebastian who she cared for for 12 or 13 years. She started a Facebook group called Ducks With Disabilities.

https://www.facebook.com/people/Ducks-w ... 801984018/

You may get some ideas from the story of Lemon the Duck.

http://lemontheduck.com/

There are some DIY duck wheelchairs if you'd like more examples. Sounds like you've got a pretty good one for now.

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=11267&start=30

viewtopic.php?f=66&t=21849

Hopefully Sebastian's mom will have some ideas on helping him. The other place that might help is Youtube, because there are a lot of videos if you look up "one legged duck". I don't know why he's shaking. It seems like the bird vet you took him to should have noticed if he had a head injury, but I might be wondering the same thing in your situation.

Would love to see pictures of your duckling and his wheelchair. Hope something in this helps.

[critters]