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Inka duck 1st gotcha day!

William

Wise Old Thumper
Some of you might remember Inka as the duckling that had a 'popped out' eyeball due to a drake attacking her.

Now she's a whole year old (actually her gotcha day was on the 13th but I was only just able to get the pics off my cam!) and has grown into a very confident, feisty girl that doesn't let anyone mess with her, and she gets around great with only one eye! When she was a young duckling and I'd supervise her and Billy having playtime in the duck pen, she would be nervous around the other ducks (except for her adopted sister Billy) because they'd peck at her. Instead of just calmly keeping away from them like Billy would do she'd freak out and turn in circles when a duck came near or pecked her because she could obviously only see the duck through one eye and that made her really nervous how she couldn't properly 'keep an eye out'.

She was fine with nice ducks like Nymeria and Percy, funnily enough. You would think that she'd have been afraid of all adult ducks after being brutally attacked and drowned but no, none of the ducklings I get that have been nearly killed by a duck (drake, really) are afraid of them. Somehow I find that endearing - ducklings are so utterly naive and innocent <3

She also had some mobility problems because having only one eye meant her balance was off and she kinda had to relearn how to do certain things i.e. she couldn't jump up and climb around on things like a 'normal' duckling could, but that also went away by the time she was about 12 weeks old and she learned to fly and leapt/flutter on top of furniture like a completely normal duck.

I'm so proud of her <3 She's so brave and full of life. She learned how to cope with her disability so well, to the point that it's not really a disability at all. You'd barely even know that she doesn't have full eyesight. and that's huge because ducks rely on their eyes probably even more than humans do.

And I'm so glad I went with my gut instincts on how to treat her eye. Part of the eye is sort of still there as you can see -the outside part just disappeared, since it was basically dead flesh, so now it's just flat against her head like one of Percy's eyes is (he was born with an eye defect). But it doesn't cause her any problems at all, after the initial infection (any time I get a duckling that has been injured in some way they get infected eyes, though of course the damage to her eye meant a more severe infection!) went away there's never been an infection or discomfort since.

This sort of shows her journey, from day 1 up until a few days or so ago :)

From the first day. She was quite bruised up and both her eyes were damaged so at this point she could barely see, but the un-ruptured one healed up thankfully:

20140614_114842 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

20140614_114916 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

20140614_000006 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

As her eye started healing (lots of gunk from infection!)

20140618_140914 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

Her and her adopted sister Billy, who was carried off and terrorized by 3 cats but luckily found by my mom. Billy also has a disability because she was born with a deformed bill which makes her overheat easily and then have problems breathing. Like a brachy dog I guess.

When I let them interact for the first time she and Billy immediately cuddled up together and became best friends <3 They're like very close sisters now, in my head I think of them as twins.

20140705_175042 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

20140705_174526 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

IMG_8182 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

20140702_102332 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

20140702_104423 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

IMG_8605 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

IMG_8416 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

She's always been very close to me even though for the first week or so the only time I'd handle her was when I washed her eye, so that I didn't stress her out. So you'd think she'd have been afraid of me but once I started handling her she couldn't get enough of me <3 She's the ultimate cuddlebug and loves being picked up, carried around, kissed and cuddled and always happily shakes her head when I say 'I wuv voo'.

20140702_104315 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

20140706_002639 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

20140630_025931 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

20140705_192034 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

20140705_193547 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

20140726_141610 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

IMG_8360 by dylanduck14, on Flickr
 
As she grows up...

IMG_8405 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

20140724_175054 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

20140724_174845 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

IMG_8401 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

IMG_8501 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

IMG_9873 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

IMG_9196 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

IMG_9185 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

From left to right: Myrcella, Billy, Percy, Inka

IMG_9159 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

IMG_1406 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

IMG_1404 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

IMG_1352 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

Having a nice soak on a hot afternoon...while Summer watches and Junie dunks herself in the waterpan in the background lol

IMG_1346 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

IMG_1348 by dylanduck14, on Flickr

And this is where I got them some oak logs and I'm trying to get Inka to check one out but they were all terrified of it and wouldn't go near :lol: Inka went rigid and then got away from it as fast as possible! After several days they're finally ok with it but haven't dared perch on it like I'd hoped :roll: Sometimes it takes them awhile to get used to new things lol.

IMG_1398 by dylanduck14, on Flickr
 
I do love a happy ending, what a lovely story brought to life through the pictures too.
Happy gotcha day Inka.
 
Thanks :D

I do love a happy ending, what a lovely story brought to life through the pictures too.
Happy gotcha day Inka.

Yeah me too, I remember being quite worried about her for the first week that I had her but at the same time I knew if anyone could pull out of something like that it was a duckling, and specifically Inka because she just seemed to take everything in stride and have a spark for life despite being injured, not knowing where her mom or siblings was and being in a strange place :love:
 
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