(Read previous posts for more perky-Perky info.)

After enduring being shot, dragged by a dog and then having her presumed dead body thrown in a kitchen fridge, US wonder-fowl Perky the duck has again shown her lust for life during an operation to repair her injured wing yesterday.

Perky suddenly stopped breathing during the operation, said Noni Beck, wildlife rehabilitator at the Goose Creek Wildlife Sanctuary in Tallahassee, Florida.

“It was a rough day yesterday,” she told smh.com.au.

She said she had taken Perky to a local veterinarian for the operation, where she was told it would be touch-and-go for the fragile bird.

The vet began to operate and had just finished pinning Perky’s wing when she abruptly stopped breathing, Ms Beck said.

“He’s giving her oxygen, he’s kind of tapping on her chest – he actually took a needle and kind of stuck her, because a little pain response can make you gag – and then he turned to me and said, ‘She’s gone, I am so sorry.’ ”

But suddenly the duck came back.

“We were sitting there looking at each other and then it’s been 10 seconds and somebody said: ‘She just took a breath.’ “

Ms Beck didn’t realise how affected she was by Perky’s close call until she went to her car afterwards to call a friend.

“I literally broke down, I was sobbing on the phone. I think the first words to come out of my mouth were: ‘She’s alive.’ It was an emotional rollercoaster.

“She’s stolen all our hearts, she’s such a perky little thing.”

Perky is now back at the sanctuary, doing well and spending much of her time on her personal heating pad, Ms Beck said.

Perky’s amazing story has generated an huge amount of interest in what the sanctuary does.

“The response has just been unbelievable,” Ms Beck said.

Numerous donations had been received as well as an almost overwhelming number of telephone calls from concerned citizens.

But the best thing, she said, was when one of the volunteers’ sisters hit upon an idea.

“She said: ‘Y’all need to make a T-shirt.’ “

So Ms Beck and her team are now selling T-shirts with all funds going to Perky’s recuperation and the sanctuary.

The T-shirt says “I helped the lucky duck” and has a picture of Perky on it.

A local mall has a stall for the T-shirts and they are also being sold on a local man’s website.

Ms Beck said about 80 shirts had already been sold.

She was shot, dragged by a dog, hung upside down and then left in a household refrigerator for two days, but the duck dubbed “Perky” seems now to be back from the dead after a startlingly quick recovery.

“I think right now her chances are really good, she’s made it,” Noni Beck, wildlife rehabilitator at the Goose Creek Wildlife Sanctuary in Tallahassee, Florida, told smh.com.au this afternoon.

And not only is Perky on the road to recovery, it seems she’s been guaranteed a comfortable life at a local reserve where she will spend her days educating Floridians on why shooting ducks–or at least shooting at them inaccurately – can have consequences.

“The odds are that this girl is not going back to the wild, the wing break is that bad,” Ms Beck said.

“She will hopefully go to an education facility, and we have several here in Florida that have really nice habitats.”

Perky was hit in the leg, neck and wing by a local hunter last weekend. Ms Beck said the duck was felled, carried back to the hunter by his dog, hung in a brace of dead ducks, taken to his house and placed in a refrigerator.

Two days later the hunter’s wife went to the fridge.

“When she opened the door this little duck raised her head … she immediately called her daughter and said they had to do something,” said Ms Beck.

The daughter took the duck to a local vet for treatment and told Ms Beck the story.

The bird, a 450-gram dark brown Canadian ring-neck, which had flown to Florida for the cold months, was treated for pellet wounds, a broken wing and a broken leg.

After that she was given to Goose Creek for recovery.

One of the vets who has treated Perky, David Hale, said it was easy to understand how the hunter would have thought the duck was dead.

“This duck is very passive,” Dr Hale said. “It’s not like trying to pick up a Muscovy … where you put your life in your hands.”

Muscovies are large, South American ducks known for their aggressive behaviour.

Perky’s ordeal immediately became big news, with websites, newspapers and television leaping on the story of her near miraculous survival.

Ms Beck said she had received numerous calls from people wanting to support Perky in her recovery, and some wanting to give her a name.

“Everybody’s been calling her the Lucky Duck, but tonight one of my volunteers called and they want to name her Perky, because she really has gotten so much better.”

Ms Beck also revealed Perky’s saviour, the wife of the hunter, was coming to visit tomorrow.

“She’s kind of excited that the duck can be saved. She said she really didn’t like it [her husband's hunting] and she’s already told him if he shoots something he better kill it because if he doesn’t she’s going to take it to a vet clinic.”

The duck would not die.

Wildlife officials said the feathered Lazarus had been shot by a hunter and put into his refrigerator for two days. That’s when the hunter’s wife opened the door and the duck lifted his head, giving her a scare.

The man’s wife “was going to check on the refrigerator because it hadn’t been working right and when she opened the door, it looked up at her”, said Laina Whipple, a receptionist at Killearn Animal Hospital. “She freaked out and told the daughter to take it to the hospital right then and there.”

The hospital’s staff had the daughter take the 450-gram female ring-neck to Goose Creek Wildlife Sanctuary, where it has been treated since January 16 for wounds to its wing and leg.

Sanctuary veterinarian David Hale said it has about a 75 per cent chance of survival, but probably will not ever be well enough to be released back into the wild.

He said the duck, which has a low metabolism, could have survived in a big enough refrigerator, especially if the door was opened and closed several times.

(Read previous posts for more perky-Perky info.)

After enduring being shot, dragged by a dog and then having her presumed dead body thrown in a kitchen fridge, US wonder-fowl Perky the duck has again shown her lust for life during an operation to repair her injured wing yesterday.

Perky suddenly stopped breathing during the operation, said Noni Beck, wildlife rehabilitator at the Goose Creek Wildlife Sanctuary in Tallahassee, Florida.

“It was a rough day yesterday,” she told smh.com.au.

She said she had taken Perky to a local veterinarian for the operation, where she was told it would be touch-and-go for the fragile bird.

The vet began to operate and had just finished pinning Perky’s wing when she abruptly stopped breathing, Ms Beck said.

“He’s giving her oxygen, he’s kind of tapping on her chest – he actually took a needle and kind of stuck her, because a little pain response can make you gag – and then he turned to me and said, ‘She’s gone, I am so sorry.’ ”

But suddenly the duck came back.

“We were sitting there looking at each other and then it’s been 10 seconds and somebody said: ‘She just took a breath.’ “

Ms Beck didn’t realise how affected she was by Perky’s close call until she went to her car afterwards to call a friend.

“I literally broke down, I was sobbing on the phone. I think the first words to come out of my mouth were: ‘She’s alive.’ It was an emotional rollercoaster.

“She’s stolen all our hearts, she’s such a perky little thing.”

Perky is now back at the sanctuary, doing well and spending much of her time on her personal heating pad, Ms Beck said.

Perky’s amazing story has generated an huge amount of interest in what the sanctuary does.

“The response has just been unbelievable,” Ms Beck said.

Numerous donations had been received as well as an almost overwhelming number of telephone calls from concerned citizens.

But the best thing, she said, was when one of the volunteers’ sisters hit upon an idea.

“She said: ‘Y’all need to make a T-shirt.’ “

So Ms Beck and her team are now selling T-shirts with all funds going to Perky’s recuperation and the sanctuary.

The T-shirt says “I helped the lucky duck” and has a picture of Perky on it.

A local mall has a stall for the T-shirts and they are also being sold on a local man’s website.

Ms Beck said about 80 shirts had already been sold.

She was shot, dragged by a dog, hung upside down and then left in a household refrigerator for two days, but the duck dubbed “Perky” seems now to be back from the dead after a startlingly quick recovery.

“I think right now her chances are really good, she’s made it,” Noni Beck, wildlife rehabilitator at the Goose Creek Wildlife Sanctuary in Tallahassee, Florida, told smh.com.au this afternoon.

And not only is Perky on the road to recovery, it seems she’s been guaranteed a comfortable life at a local reserve where she will spend her days educating Floridians on why shooting ducks–or at least shooting at them inaccurately – can have consequences.

“The odds are that this girl is not going back to the wild, the wing break is that bad,” Ms Beck said.

“She will hopefully go to an education facility, and we have several here in Florida that have really nice habitats.”

Perky was hit in the leg, neck and wing by a local hunter last weekend. Ms Beck said the duck was felled, carried back to the hunter by his dog, hung in a brace of dead ducks, taken to his house and placed in a refrigerator.

Two days later the hunter’s wife went to the fridge.

“When she opened the door this little duck raised her head … she immediately called her daughter and said they had to do something,” said Ms Beck.

The daughter took the duck to a local vet for treatment and told Ms Beck the story.

The bird, a 450-gram dark brown Canadian ring-neck, which had flown to Florida for the cold months, was treated for pellet wounds, a broken wing and a broken leg.

After that she was given to Goose Creek for recovery.

One of the vets who has treated Perky, David Hale, said it was easy to understand how the hunter would have thought the duck was dead.

“This duck is very passive,” Dr Hale said. “It’s not like trying to pick up a Muscovy … where you put your life in your hands.”

Muscovies are large, South American ducks known for their aggressive behaviour.

Perky’s ordeal immediately became big news, with websites, newspapers and television leaping on the story of her near miraculous survival.

Ms Beck said she had received numerous calls from people wanting to support Perky in her recovery, and some wanting to give her a name.

“Everybody’s been calling her the Lucky Duck, but tonight one of my volunteers called and they want to name her Perky, because she really has gotten so much better.”

Ms Beck also revealed Perky’s saviour, the wife of the hunter, was coming to visit tomorrow.

“She’s kind of excited that the duck can be saved. She said she really didn’t like it [her husband's hunting] and she’s already told him if he shoots something he better kill it because if he doesn’t she’s going to take it to a vet clinic.”

The duck would not die.

Wildlife officials said the feathered Lazarus had been shot by a hunter and put into his refrigerator for two days. That’s when the hunter’s wife opened the door and the duck lifted his head, giving her a scare.

The man’s wife “was going to check on the refrigerator because it hadn’t been working right and when she opened the door, it looked up at her”, said Laina Whipple, a receptionist at Killearn Animal Hospital. “She freaked out and told the daughter to take it to the hospital right then and there.”

The hospital’s staff had the daughter take the 450-gram female ring-neck to Goose Creek Wildlife Sanctuary, where it has been treated since January 16 for wounds to its wing and leg.

Sanctuary veterinarian David Hale said it has about a 75 per cent chance of survival, but probably will not ever be well enough to be released back into the wild.

He said the duck, which has a low metabolism, could have survived in a big enough refrigerator, especially if the door was opened and closed several times.