The Ducklings; an Intro"duck"tion to Frank

 You might remember that a couple days after I quit my job last spring, I got two ducklings.  Over the summer, my son asked for ducks for his 17th birthday because he fell in love with mine.  He wanted a specific breed called Cayuga.  They are black and tend to have a green sheen to their feathers and that is his favorite color.  So what do you think sucker me did?  I bought the kid ducks.

Actually, I ordered 5 ducklings from a hatchery.  When they arrived, we got a call from the post office at 6 in the morning to go pick them up.  We got their and opened our very loud box. We were a little surprised by what we found...

Yeah, your eyes aren't deceiving you; there are more than just 5 ducklings in that box.

There were also 5 baby roosters.  Turns out, the company I ordered from, sends the roosters like packing peanuts to keep the ducklings warm.  I had read that on their site but had assumed that since it was almost July and they were shipping from Texas to Tennessee, extra warmth wouldn't be needed.  I WAS WRONG!  Oh well, I got on Facebook, found a local buy, sell, and trade group and found them a new home.  First crisis averted...

The next crisis came too soon after the first one was averted though.  The adorable little yellow and gray one on the far right (a female Blue Swedish) seemed lethargic all day and died by the next morning.  My son was heart broken.  Three days later, one of the black ones (one of the 2 Cayuga's we ordered) started to act lethargic and passed within 24 hours.  Despite my efforts to locate an avian vet in time to save it (we ordered a boy and a girl Cayuga, not sure which one that was), we could find no one that would help.  A week after we got the babies, the other Cayuga showed signs of the same illness and by this time it was painfully obvious that this baby wasn't growing at the same rate as the other two that were left.  My son and I scoured the internet, talked to duck rescuers in Facebook groups and finally found a vet in the next county over that agreed to see the baby after hours.  We took all three of the remaining ducklings in, just in case the other two needed to be treated.  The vet said it was obvious that they came from the hatchery sick because the sick one was half the size of the other two.  She gave us antibiotics and supplements to give the sick duckling.  In a week, he/she was better, but his legs were beginning to splay.   We took him back to the vet (who was surprised he had even survived) and she put splints on his legs and we worked with him for a few weeks trying to save his legs.  It was of no use.  They were permanently deformed.  The last two ducklings never got sick.  They are Runner ducks, a black one and a fawn and white one.  The little sick baby is now named Frank despite the fact that we don't really know what sex he is.  He lives in the house in a playpen during the day, and a padded clothes basket at night.  My son dotes on that sweet duck and plays with him constantly. 

 This is Frank during his recovery.  We had his legs in splint so he had to be wrapped in towels to keep him from trying to walk. 

This is the other two surviving ducklings when they were little.

This is what Franks legs look like.  He was only about 6 weeks old here.

This is the two healthy ducklings on their first day in the duck run outside.  They are happy and healthy.

This is Frank on his first day in his playpen.