Roger had an elderly duck that wasn’t eating lately, so he took his old duck to the vet as he was concerned about it.
The vet explained that as ducks get older, their upper bills grow down over their lower bills and make it difficult for the animal to pick up it’s food.
“What you need to do”, the vet said, “is to gently file the upper bill down so it becomes even with the lower bill. But you must be extra careful when doing this, because the duck’s nostrils are located in the upper bill and if you file down too far, when the duck takes a drink of water it will drown”.
Roger thanked the vet and left to go home.
About a week later, the vet runs into Roger at the grocery store.
“Well Roger, how is that duck of yours?” the vet inquired.
“He’s dead”, declared a heartbroken Roger.
“I told you not to file his upper bill down too far!”, the vet said.
He took a drink of water and drowned didn’t he?”, insisted the vet.
“No”, Roger replied. “It wasn’t that. I think he was dead before I took him out of the vice”.
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