Physical Therapy

"The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry."

Tis true, tis true. I did not, in fact, get to harvest my sweet potatoes the other day because the heavens decided to unleash a monsoon to grace the afternoon. Ah well, c'est la vie.

Anyways, sometime Saturday morning one of my ducks managed to injure her leg. I have no idea what she did to herself, but she was limping when I went out there to refill the water in their run. I inspected her leg and discovered no trace of a break or of bumblefoot (it's kinda gross, so be warned), so I suppose she just strained her leg muscles. However, I was already pushing it to get to work on time, and she didn't seem that bad off, so I put her back in the run and left.

When I returned home she was worse. She wouldn't stand up at all but cheeped madly when I approached. I decided to follow my father's advice and quarantine her in a storage bin lined with a towel so that she wouldn't be tempted to run or otherwise damage her already injured leg. I placed food and water in with her, which she ate voraciously; I guess she hadn't been able to stand to eat or drink all day. She seemed to improve over the next few hours, as she began to stand up.

Yesterday morning she was better still, and I was even able to coax her into taking a few timid steps, but she still limped rather heavily. After church I returned home and decided she needed to do a little water aerobics. So I filled the bathtub and placed her in the lukewarm water. She began to swim, clumsily at first, flailing her injured leg around a good bit, but she seemed much better by the end of the half hour session. 

My Bathtub Duck is Cooler Than Yours

I dried her off and returned her to the container that has become the infirmary. She seems to be recovering quite well; I hope that tonight or tomorrow I'll be able to reintegrate her into the bevy.