Advice on a Wild muscovy duck/duckling who may have swallowed a fishing hook?

R

Ryan J

New member
I live along a canal in South Florida and there a lot of Muscovy ducklings and ducks around. This afternoon I happened to notice one ducking(maybe actually juvenile aged) with about 8-10 feet of fishing twine coming out of its mouth. I was able to restrain the poor thing to see if maybe the hook was just inside it mouth, but it looked way beyond that. I didn't want to hurt the duck by pulling on the string or scare it anymore by holding it, so I let it go along with its group of 11 other duckings and mother. Is there any solution to situation, or is it best to just let nature run its course, all though man caused this horrible situation. If I see it again should at least try to cut most of the twine that's coming from its mouth or would that do more harm then good. Its painful to watch him walk around and have other ducks constantly stepping on the string and hurting it. One other problem is the the Muscovy duck is not native to Florida which means its not protected nor our vets permitted to release it back into the wild. I have three cats of my own, so there is no chance of me trying to adopt it. This is truly breaking my heart typing this question and any advice is greatly appreciated.
 
Hi hun, aren't you so sweet and you've done the right thing cause if it does have a hook it will need to be removed by a vet so I suggest you call the vet or a wild life carer who will take it to the vet.

Poor little thing ~Good luck.
 
Can't you call a wildlife rescue in your area? We had the same problem with a brown pelican and we called the local rescue and they took care of him. We were even invited to see the release.
 
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