Brooklyn man pays $3,500 for pet duck’s eye surgery

An eye surgery patient going in for her final check-up Thursday is ruffling some feathers of her own.
Elias Orbe has a final post-surgery check-up for his pet duck.
“It’s amazing just to see how much she’s progressed,” says Orbe.
The ballroom dance instructor adopted Lucky in 2011 and has three other rescue ducks that all live with his mom in Patterson, New Jersey.
Lucky is a Pekin Duck. She just turned 8 years old back in June, but it was more than a year ago that her owners started noticing she was having trouble with her sight.
“You could really see the cataracts in her eyes, it was sad,” says Orbe.
His vet sent him to VERG, or Veterinary Emergency Referral Group, in Gowanus where Lucky found a veterinary ophthalmologist willing to operate on his first duck patient
Orbe was on board for the 40-minute cataract surgery in both eyes.
“I said why not, if the quality of life can help anyone, animal or person, why wouldn’t you do it?” says Orbe.
One month since surgery, Lucky is back to having perfect vision
“I think I started to cry. I moved to one side and she followed me, and I was like no way, she can see me,” says Orbe.
Despite the joy of Lucky having a clean bill of health, surgery wasn’t cheap, costing $3,500.
“I just have to work more, pricey but for me, definitely worth it,” says Orbe.