Helping a pekin duck

Ducks aren’t exactly the rough and tumble type. Sure, there’s a pecking order among ducks that is sometimes settled through, well, pecking. But ducks simply aren’t built the same as true predators.

Pekin duck attacked by predator

Even so, they can be made of some pretty tough stuff. For example, Cedar the Pekin duck from Cedar City, Utah. Her family kept Cedar in an outdoor enclosure that didn’t have a roof. That’s not really a safe place to keep a bird. Outdoor cages need to protect domestic animals on all sides. And sure enough, a predator slipped over the walls during the night and attacked Cedar.

Duck comes to Best Friends for help

By morning, Cedar’s family found her with severe wounds on her skull and rump. But she was alive. Somehow, she had survived the attack. They decided they couldn’t care well enough for her and so she came to Best Friends for recovery and a new home. When she first arrived at the sanctuary, Cedar was really withdrawn. She never made so much as a peep and wouldn’t even leave her little recovery bed. Whatever she had been through left her shaken up in a bad way.

Recovering from her ordeal

However, this gal was only resting up; she wasn’t down for the count! After a little R&R, she started venturing out of her bed. And then the quacking began. Lots and lots of quacking! Followed by strutting and checking out the surroundings. Now she’s actually growing back some skin in her wounded areas. A full recovery probably can’t happen, sad to say, even with all the great progress. Her grooming glands, the glands that allow her to waterproof and clean her feathers, seem to be damaged from the injuries. In that case, she may be a bird with special needs. But with all her resilience and spunky nature, Cedar should do fine regardless. After all, not many ducks could go through what she did and end up strutting her stuff and happily quacking away at the mysteries of life day in and day out.

Find out about Wild Friends at our Sanctuary

Photo by Molly Wald