Hello and thanks in advance!! What a great forum to find - just what I was hoping for today!!

My husband took in a mute swan about one year ago. It had been someone's pet but was being majorly abused by another male swan. It was brought to our lake - sounds easier than it was!! - by the owner and he has been living a very blissful life along with our other 52 animals (ducks, chickens, pony, rabbits, etc). We just love this swan and were quite distressed to see that he seemed injured day before yesterday.

He would not vacate the water, which is odd for him, and continually kept his leg up on his back. Now, I know that is normal, but it is not something he does continually. When he finally exited the water approx 36 hours later, he was limping. We have been unable to get close enough to him to get a good look at what was going on until this afternoon. He seems to be avoiding us, much more so than normal.

Today, a friend observed what seems to be a tear or hole in his foot. She said the outer part and all around the foot looks fine, but that when he held his foot up, she could see light coming through a part of it.

He has gone from not walking on it, to walking on it, so I'm hoping that whatever happened is improving. We have had issues with snapping turtles, and work constantly trying to catch and re-release them to protect our water fowl.

I hope to not tramautize him any further and would like to avoid a trip in a vehicle for him if at all possible. My main concern is infection. As a newbie at this, I would greatly appreciate any information regarding treatments. If you feel that it is mandatory that he go straight to a vet, we will make that happen.

Thank you so much for any input.

Julie