Meet Doofy Duck!

Doofus Duck is a six month old (very handsome) white duck who came to us in August after a wild animal jumped into owner Claudia's backyard and viciously attacked Doofus and his mate.  Unfortunately, his mate was killed instantly.  Doofus made it out of the attack with very severe wounds along his neck--the wild animal had attempted to decapitate Doofus.

Doofus had skin, tissue and feathers missing along the entire length of his neck and was in a lot of pain.  Since he was so painful, Dr. Burnett administered pain medications and lightly anesthetized Doofus to assess his injuries and clean and dress his wounds.  After some intensive cleaning, a thick coat of a special antibiotic ointment was placed on his wounds and a light bandage was wrapped around the area.  Dr. Burnett told Claudia his injuries were so severe she wasn't sure if he would survive.  Claudia loved Doofus so much she was willing to do what was necessary to save her sweet duck.  They made plans to bring Doofus in a few days later to change his bandage and remove any more dead tissue from his wounds.

In only a few days, Doofus's wounds had started to heal remarkably well!  Claudia told us he was eating fairly well and seemed much more comfortable at home.  The following pictures are a progression of Doofus's wounds.  Beware: The following pictures are graphic!

 Doofus 3 days after we first saw him.  Although this looks very bad, it is actually much better than it looked when he first saw us! His head is to the right and his body is the the left. The pink skin is healing tissue and the black/green tissue is dead or dying skin. (The yellow in his feathers on the left is from the ointment we used)

 Doofus with a new bandage!  His usually white feathers have some "melting" ointment sticking them together on his shoulders.

 Doofy duck 10 days after his firs appointment! The pink is new tissue and the white is ointment.  Already looking much better!

 Doofus three weeks after his first visit! By this time, we didn't need to lightly anesthetize Doofus because he was so much less painful and everything was healing so well! He's already starting to get feather regrowth at the bottom and top of his wound!

Doofus on his last visit to us only a month after his first! Claudia thought his feathers would never grow back and that he'd have a "naked" neck for the rest of his life! Doofus proved all of us wrong by healing better than our greatest expectations!

After only one month, with good care from owner Claudia and both Dr. Burnett and Dr. Caldwell, Doofus was able to make a full recovery and grew back all his feathers!  Claudia reports that Doofus loves laying in her back yard--when he wants attention he lays flat out and rests his chin on the ground to wait for scratches!

Recently, we received a phone call from Claudia.  She told us that Doofus has been laying eggs!!  After all this time, we found out that Doofus is a female!

Written by Dr. Elly Burnett