Monroe and Danny Girl Update
Both Monroe the goose and Danny the duck went to the vet today for re-checks. And as promised, we are sharing a fundraising goal to help cover the cost of their mounting veterinary bills. The total so far is… don’t faint… $911.50. Oops! Now it’s up to $1,306. I should note, we never take in any rescue we cannot afford to care for ourselves. But many people have grown attached to these two already and would like to donate. We can understand that, so to make a donation via paypal, visit our donation page or click the “donate” link on the left navigation.
Now on to the updates.
Danny did well at the vet’s office. She has really come a long way in just a week. Several people at the vet’s office told us they were surprised she was alive. They really thought, as I did, that I was bringing her home to die.
Unfortunately she still has metal inside her. It looks like one big piece, but it is possibly a bunch of little things all close together in her gizzard. Whatever it is, it’s made out of lead. Her blood test showed a lead level over 10x normal. Metal toxicity leads to neurological damage which is why Danny can’t walk well. But she also had a serious infection, which has greatly improved over the last week, taking her from a dying duck to an energetic little kid. She stumbles around from the effects of the metal, but she is greatly improved.
The vet wants to avoid surgery if at all possible, so we are continuing with EDTA chelation medication to bind the metals and remove them from her blood, as well as antibiotics. We also added something else that may help guide the lead OUT of her gizzard, so we’ll go back in another week and see if any of it is gone. She seems pretty stable and pretty happy to me right now. This is great news. She may still need surgery but that’s a last resort.
Monroe is having a more difficult time. Her dog bite wound is both infected and necrotic. That’s normal, but it’s so gross that I didn’t want to post a photo here. If you want to see it, here is the wound. Click at your own risk. The vet cleaned the deep wound, which was the point of today’s visit, and also gave us new pain medication for her. Unfortunately, the infection or the dog bite or the broken pelvis have also affected or punctured Monroe’s air sacs. All told, it’s not great. The vets are more hopeful than I am though. This is a wound that can heal. The broken pelvis is broken in a “good” place and aligned fairly well so that it could heal. The air sacs could heal with rest and antibiotics. Monroe is fairly comfortable with the new pain medication, so she will have a few more days to turn the corner and start to improve. Her recovery is really up to her now, and it could go either way. As long as she is fairly comfortable, I will give her time. But if she starts looking like she is suffering we will need to say goodbye.
Monroe still has a mate, or at least a buddy, who was dumped at the park along with her. Several of us tried to lure him to the shore and catch him for almost 4-hours on Thursday. We’ve named him “Cowboy.” Cowboy is too smart for our silly luring ways and will not fall for our Cheerio tricks. But Cowboy is in danger of dog attacks or worse at the park, just like Monroe, and if we can catch him, he and Monroe (if she recovers) can both go to a forever sanctuary together. So we may be planning a group effort to lasso the Cowboy soon. Stay tuned for news on that. You may think you have tips on catching Cowboy that we haven’t heard, but I’ll bet we’ve tried them. Cowboy is a flighted, uninjured, skittish goose on 8 open ponds with other geese and ducks. It’s going to take a group effort. And a boat. Stay tuned.
That’s just about all the update I can handle for one day. We wish everyone a very happy new year, and a very special thanks for all of your thoughtful support over this past year.
Quacks and clucks (and heps and honks),
Tiff and the flock
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