How Essential Oils Saved A Duck

   This is a story that I can't help but share with people. Essential oils can be beneficial to animals as well as humans! In this case, they helped saved a life.

    Our neighbors bought 4 ducks a few years ago. They really enjoyed our pond. We didn't mind as they are so beautiful and it really brings life to the pond and yard. Ducks seem to be a little like rabbits. Let's just say that 4 ducks turned into more very quickly. We live in the country and unfortunately there are many wild animals out here. The eggs don't always make it to a hatching point since there is something out there that enjoys eating the eggs. Once they DO hatch, the babies start to disappear quickly.
   My kids decided that they wanted to protect a couple of the eggs from being eaten and take care of the ducks once they hatched. They did a good job of this because both ducks grew up to be healthy and happy. The kids let them go so they could swim the whole pond and not have to be so confined. After some time went by we noticed that for a couple days the white duck was sitting in the same spot and didn't appear to be moving. My husband went over to look at her and realized that she had a big, open wound with maggots in it. She appeared to be in a lot of pain and quite sick.
   We had 3 options; let her die naturally, put her down ourselves, or try to save her. We chose the latter. We noticed that along with the wound, her leg was also injured. Whatever bit her (we think it may have been a snapping turtle due to the wound being underneath) took a good chunk but worst of all, injured her leg to the point where she could not open the webbing of her foot.
   The first step was to remove the maggots (gross!). They were clearly going to eat her alive. They were buried so deep that we had to suffocate them. We used cornstarch and applied it to the wound. The maggots started to come to the surface so we could remove them with tweezers. My husband and I took turns doing this. It took 2 days to remove all of them.
   I decided to use essential oils. I didn't have a lot of information about which oils to use on which animals so I just did my best. I used lavender at times while we were removing the maggots to relax her and help with pain. She was very anxious at first but the lavender did it's job well.
   Next, I used melaleuca (tea tree) oil because it is an excellent antibacterial and anti fungal. I created a "wash" with the melaleuca in it. I know that bugs and creepy crawly things don't like tea tree so I figured if there were any maggots or other bugs lingering it would take care of them.
   The following day I started using a blend made by doTerra called On Guard. It is a mixture of wild orange, clove, cinnamon, eucalyptus and rosemary. In this situation, these oils would serve as a natural antibiotic to prevent infection from occurring. After all that work I certainly didn't want her to die from infection! I added a drop or 2 to her water and also applied the oil directly to her wound.
   She had terrible diarrhea for 4 days as we were trying to help her recover and get to a stable point. Once I started the On Guard the diarrhea went away. After one week, she was ready to come out of her confined space and try to walk around. She had some trouble trying to gain balance again with only one working foot. She used her wing a little at first to balance but quickly learned how to limp around using her other leg.
  It has been about 4 weeks since then and she is now out and about swimming the whole pond and enjoying her space and hopefully her life. Thank goodness for essential oils!!!