Four-legged duckling shocks owner

[Annest]

An ugly duckling has made waves on a farm - when he was born with four legs.

A rare mutation has left eight-day-old Stumpy with two extra legs behind the two he moves around on.

Owner Nicky Janaway, of Warrawee Duck Farm in the New Forest, Hampshire, said she was gobsmacked when she turned Stumpy over to check his sex.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hampshire/6371901.stm

[forestrangergrrl]

it's so odd it's cute!

[TheWomanMonster]

hehe aww he's cute.
I wonder how his extra legs will work when he's older...

[BlueEyedWolf]

He's Adorable!!!!!!!!1

[Shanti]

Cases like this are often not to great. The extra appendages are usually useless and from the article, it seems to be the case here.
Often what you have is a high possibility of injury to the nonfunctional legs. Cuts and scrapes often lead to nasty infections. Getting the extra legs tangled and caught is a high risk too, with the added fear of accidentally breaking the nonfunctional legs.

This poor baby wont ever have a normal ducky life. The best thing to do, would probably be to have the extra legs removed, but that would be a tad costly. Heck they farm could have a fund raiser to pay for it :)

[Willow Rosette]

AWWWWWWWWWW he was adorable. Poor little thing though I hope he survives....

[halfwaynowhere]

maybe they could charge admission for people to come see him, to raise money to have the legs removed? They are cute, but Shanti has a point... if he can't use them, they will just get in the way, and cause problems later on... thats why you don't see four legged ducks in the wild...

[Morrigan_Wolfwind]

He reminds me a teensy bit of a turtleduck from Avatar: The Last Airbender, four legs and all. He's so cute!! :wub:

Also, why would it be costly to remove the extra legs? It looks like removing the legs would be like a normal amputation.

[halfwaynowhere]

well, i don't think it would cost anymore than it would to amputate two legs from a regular duck... but i don't see that procedure being cheap, anyways... i mean, vets are expensive... but maybe thats just a local thing, everything seems to be a lot more expensive where i am... maybe vets cost less over there...