Angel Wing

I think it worked! I bound up the duck that had the angel wing three days ago. This morning he slipped out of the tapes so I took the whole wrap off and it looks as if he is "cured". I'll have to see if it lasts. All of the ducks are letting their wings sag; I assume because the new blood feathers are heavy? They can hold them tightly folded, but they sort of pedal with them when they walk. Has anyone seen this before? These are the first of Muscovys we've had. When it stops raining I'll get some pictures.

Hi Porkpal: I don't have ducks, but am always interested in what your doing. I'm tired of being strong and silent. LOL Hope it works for you and also that you have a great day. Howie

I sure hope it works

You can (sort of) see what the duck looked like "before" on the thread about Another Duck Question, now he looks like this:

Beautiful birds.

i don't have waterfowl but take care of zoo animals when the traveling zoo comes up and we had a goose this year with angel wing. i didn't know what it was till my boss told me what he had. here is good info on it i found when i looked it up. see if it helps ya any.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_Wing

Thanks, Silkie, but I think the wing is corrected. I bound it up as suggested in an article I found when I googled Angel Wing. After only three days (the duck in the article was wrapped for five) his wing looked normal so I left the tape off. It still is ok today. I guess if it has a relapse, I can repeat the process.

PP I sure hope it stays fixed for you and them

Yeah, wrapping a duck in surgical tape isn't actually very easy! - Unwrapping is almost as bad. So far so good...

I haven't seen our Muscovies pedal their wings, but we got our flock as adult birds, and just now have 4 week old ducklings. Their wings are so tiny they look ridiculous. :) It'll be a little while yet before they have full feathering.

I think mine are just not very physically fit. I had kept them pretty confined, waiting for them to be too big to be viewed as hor d'oeuvres by the semi-feral barn cats. With the exercise they now get free ranging with the chickens, they ought to tone up a bit. Right now they are rather comical: they rarely run very far without tripping over something or other, and lose their balance when they stand up and stretch their wings!

is it still holding???

Yes, so far his wing looks just like all the others' so perhaps it has been corrected! All of the ducks let their wings sag, however, when they are just loafing along; they can fold them tightly. Perhaps the big blood feathers are just too heavy? - Another fitness issue!

Instead of surgical tape, I use vet wrap. It is sort of like an ace bandage, but tacky and comes on a roll. They use it to tape up horses legs. Not expensive at all and does not stick to the feathers, but to it's self. I use it on all kinds of animals I rehab.

I decided against vet wrap because I needed something that would stick to the feathers. And even then it didn't stay on as long as I had planned, but long enough - the duck is still "corrected". I like vet wrap but had I used it, I would have had to wrap up the whole duck like a cast to keep it in place; The surgical tape just formed a 3" band over the last joint of the wings and on around the duck. He was still able to walk normally.

You're right, sometimes you have to resort to the tape. When I am ready to remove it, I just clip it in the major places and the birds take care of it pretty quickly by going in the water.