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Urgent Help Needed For Injured Duck At Acle Bridge


Mandyw

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Can anyone help? We were recently boating on the broads and came across an injured duck at Acle Bridge. She has fishing line wound so tightly around her leg that it is badly swollen and she can't stand on it. We tried to catch her several times but she eluded us. The RSPCA visited once but didn't catch her.

We are no longer there so am hoping others will step in and help her.

She seems to stay around Acle Bridge by the Dunes Cafe, or shelters with her three ducklings in a boat shed opposite. (If you could access that it would be the ideal place to corner and catch her).

Can't bear to think of her suffering when it would be such a simple job to cut the line off her leg, if only she could be caught.

Is there anyone out there who can help her?

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When considering the sheer number of birds we have on the Broads its very sad we don't have an organisation interested in looking out for their welfare, especially when they are getting tangled up in man made fishing tackle its a very sad state of affairs.

I have managed to remove loose tackle from a Swans neck before  and a size 12 hook that was embedded in a ducks upper beak, somehow the hook had penetrated from the outside in not the inside out as I’d have thought.  

The difficult part is catching them

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If you manage to catch the duck and to anyone else that finds wild fowl that have been injured, you can take them to your local vet, but please check before you do.

I came across a Mallard in the sticks that some callous driver had hit and just left her there in the middle of the road. Her wing was clearly broken and also she could only use one of her legs. I got out and moved her to the side of the road and this bloke who had got out of his car said that he had never seen someone do this before!

I got a mile or so down the road and the thought of that injured duck being left to defend itself really played on my mind, so I turned around and went back to the spot to find her. She had managed to find her way into a ditch and I just about caught her before she went into the undergrowth, knowing to well she would be an easy target for foxes.

I kept her overnight and tried to give her some food and water which I think she did have some, but I think she was in a lot of pain as she couldn't fold in her injured wing as it was bleeding and it looked like bone was showing. I rang my local vet in the morning to get some advice as they are the same ones that I take my dog too, and was surprised when they told me to bring her in as they do this for wild fowl found injured.

She still seemed alert when I took her in, but they told me that it didn't look good as her wing was badly damaged and her leg was broken. I thought about ringing up the vets to see what had happened to her, but was hoping for the best, also that they were able to help and really didn't want to know what the outcome was. 

I am a bit of a soppy git when it comes to animals and have even in the past stopped my car in the road, held up 4 cars behind me, just for me to get out of my car to pick up a hedgehog to assist him to the other side of the road. The good thing about this on this occasion, was not one car beeped his or her horn!

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59 minutes ago, dnks34 said:

When considering the sheer number of birds we have on the Broads its very sad we don't have an organisation interested in looking out for their welfare, especially when they are getting tangled up in man made fishing tackle its a very sad state of affairs.

I have managed to remove loose tackle from a Swans neck before  and a size 12 hook that was embedded in a ducks upper beak, somehow the hook had penetrated from the outside in not the inside out as I’d have thought.  

The difficult part is catching them

Yes I agree. With the fishing season about to start, these birds need all the help they can get.

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1 hour ago, dnks34 said:

When considering the sheer number of birds we have on the Broads its very sad we don't have an organisation interested in looking out for their welfare, especially when they are getting tangled up in man made fishing tackle its a very sad state of affairs.

I have managed to remove loose tackle from a Swans neck before  and a size 12 hook that was embedded in a ducks upper beak, somehow the hook had penetrated from the outside in not the inside out as I’d have thought.  

The difficult part is catching them

Having had to deal with one angry swan whilst taking a fountain  pump out of a lake I take my hat off to you for getting that close.

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8 hours ago, Ray said:

I have found this organisation online who may be able to help if the duck is seen again or caught.

https://helpwildlife.co.uk/rescues/0777/

Perhaps it is worth adding to the Useful Information pages?

I have added it to the bottom of the doctors page as an interim measure, if we can gather some information about vets etc we can add a whole page for vets and wildlife services.

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2 hours ago, grendel said:

if we can gather some information about vets etc we can add a whole page for vets and wildlife services.

I would add Broadland Vets at the top of Stalham High Street. I've taken my dogs there and on one occasion they kindly took in wildlife I found in need of urgent help. 

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Thank you for all your help and concern you wonderful people! I was in despair at the suffering of this creature, which has been caused by man, and at my inability to do anything for her.

Not only do I have hope that someone will help her, but you are now setting up a website and support for your local birds who need our help. It will be wonderful if something so positive comes out of this. 

It is heartwarming to find so many people who care. 

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I have added a section to the handy information page of the forum for vets and wildlife, and moved it out of the doctors section. it just has the wildlife webpage at the moment, but as information becomes available I will add it to that page.

It's available from the link in the forum, but not showing on the link from the top of the page yet. Still working on that.

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I have now added additional contact details to the listing, including 4 veterinary practices and their locations, please note, this is just a listing for information, so please don't think that we are in any manner endorsing these businesses, these are just the ones I have found by searching the internet, gathered into one place. There are also contact details for several wildlife rescue organizations.

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I think when we find wildlife (or farm/domestic animals) in distress we will try and do what we can for them, especially when the cause of the distress is man made. But how should we deal with wildlife being... well wild? This year we spent our first night in the usually peaceful Salhouse Broad. Not long after we arrived I could see a commotion amongst the ducks. Getting closer I could see about 4-5 male mallards ferociously attacking and seemingly drowning a female mallard. I tried to break them up with a pole from the boat, but the males seemed intent on 'finishing off' the female. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has seen this type of behaviour and indeed what it was. Was it simply one group of ducks attacking another either a turf war of over mating? Or was the female sick and this is what ducks do to prevent suffering?

In the end I could not break them up and had to let nature take its course and having watched Springwatch this is something you sometimes have to do, however distressing it may be.

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15 hours ago, Mandyw said:

Thank you for info. I don't know how to do that but I will ring them.

Thank you for this link. I have phoned them and their lovely chap is going there today to try to catch her and will return tomorrow if he's not successful today.

🤞

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13 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

I have stopped to help out the rspca  catching an injured swan so they are also worth a call for wildlife issues.

I'm impressed that so many have shown concern and no-one has posted links to cheap orange sauce.

shame on you Smoggy for suggesting that one of us might- besides, she still has ducklings.

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