Another catching-up

Last time I wrote it was about our sunny Monday 4th March, and the very next morning this picture greeted me:

By mid-day, however, the fog had lifted and I found nearly all our little flock asleep near the bottom hut:

A bit later I carried on with tidying up and weeding in the garden, the ducks joined in joyfully:

While I had the camera with me I tried to capture Honey's peculiar high-stepping and awkward walk .....

 



...I think I caught a glimpse of it in this one:



On Wednesday morning at 9 was Honey's appointment at the vet's in Loughborough.  She made a spectacular entrance in the treatment room;  as I opened just one flap of the carton I'd carried her in she flew straight up to the ceiling and landed in a heap on the vet's working surface next to the computer!  After I described what was giving me concern with her awkward walking vet Brian examined Honey thoroughly but could find nothing wrong.  He decided to take an x-ray.  John and I went to B&Q's for some shopping and a coffee/panini, then returned for the x-ray result and to fetch Honey.  Vet Brian was extremely pleased with the x-ray, reckoned it was the best he'd ever taken of a duck regarding the position.
Her skeleton was fine, showed no abnormalities, but her ovaries showed up extremely large and swollen, normal, he said, for a duck getting ready to lay.  He'd also taken a blood sample and the result of that we would get by telephone on Friday.

The weather had turned nasty on Wednesday and Thursday started equally bad but then improved as we went on our walk with the Moira Group.  Friday was horrible, non-stop rain practically, and late afternoon I got the results of the blood test for Honey:  her liver and kidney were fine, her white blood cell count was fine, and the high blood calcium and raised uric acid levels were to do with her pre-egg laying condition which would sort itself when she started.  Vet Brian seemed not at all concerned, it's just me that worries when I see her struggling to walk - this [bad] little video I took of her walking doesn't show the worst of it:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMkhHDjEOg0&ns=1


Early this morning, Sunday, we had a bit of snow, but it didn't remain on the ground.  At ducky bed time it was just very soggy everywhere and dangerously slippy.  Our free trees are due to be planted from tomorrow - it'll be a job to get them out into the field!