11 week old FOAMING at the mouth

[SpottedCrow]

I don't want to rain on the old timer's parade, but Black Snakes are NON venomous.
If a non venomous snake bites you, the worst that you can get is an infection if it draws blood.
I've been bitten by a bunch at work: Ball Pythons, Corn Snakes, and a cantakerous Milk Snake, which tried to eat me...no slime there at all.
I am certainly glad that she's better...my girls won't touch ants, so maybe that's what BlackButt got into...

 

[fowlweatherfriends]

Did any of the snakes make you even a tiny bit ill? I hate all the misinformation about snakes I've been given from the locals. Seems like everyone in this area has a snake story, or is a snake "expert". But all their info seems to conflict, and now I am more confused than ever.

I still can't explain the clear slime on Blackbutt's head and neck. We have water nearby and HUGE turtles that come in our yard. They are 2 diff snapping turtles-one type is alligator snapping, and lots of box turtles. Could they have attempted to eat the pullet and slimed it?

 

[chickbea]

Egads! It sounds dangerous down in your parts!
This is just a general question - if a constrictor type snake(like a black rat snake) squeezed a chicken that had a full crop, what would happen to the contents? Would the contents get squeezed further down the digestive tract, or come up and out the mouth? I assume the latter - maybe that is what happened and the stuff you saw is what got squeezed out of the crop.
At any rate, my chickens LOVE to eat baby snakes, so maybe yours will start controlling your snake population. I get mad at my girls, though, because I have only garter snakes and I need the snakes to eat the slugs!

 

[fowlweatherfriends]

Yes, It really is dangerous in my parts !
When I bought the land, I also bought my children those heavy duty mud boots. We saw snakes almost from day one-even before we started land clearing for our home. So, I figured...kids and snakes = better foot and shin protection. They wear their boots almost every time they are out.

Well, it took Blackbutt (my kids kept calling her the one with the "black butt" hence her name) awhile to start vomiting the food/bile. She foamed at the mouth for about 1/2 hour to 45 mins before starting to throw up. And I wish I had taken a pic-the slime was a complete ring all around her beak, head, and down the neck until it widens out at the body. I would say Blackbutt (looks Americauna) is about 3/4 grown size-wise. The more I think on it (and the less emotional I am from finding her that way) the more I truly believe snake attack. And when I think about it-poor girl! Can't imagine being attacked and having my HEAD in the snakes mouth and being ALIVE while in that position-yikes .

I imagine I will encounter more of those type events in the future here. There is just so much wildlife-saw a fox running through here one day too. I hate to have to curb their freeranging, but it may become a bit more limited if my babies are in jepardy. My Silkies stay in the fenced run because I just couldn't think of letting them out without the capability of flight.

 

[SpottedCrow]

Not a one of them made me sick...I was even bitten by a tarantula...no harm done.
The snapping turtles would've bitten chunks out of her with their sharp beaks. Boxes wouldn't have bothered her.
If it was a snake, and that would be the way that I'd be guessing after all, the "vomit" from the pressure on the crop would've made the snake "vomit" itself I would presume. Snakes CAN regurgitate their semidigested food, if it's too big or they get disturbed...
http://discovermagazine.com/1994/apr/diningwiththesna362
Well, I just found this...I will stand corrected about the slime...
I should've remembered because I noticed when I first started my job that one of the baby ball pythons wasn't looking right and I got the dept manager and she said that he had been "urped up"...one of the other Pythons tried to eat him...blech, and he was "slimy".
Snakes "hunt" by heat so she was probably the warmest thing around and was selected for dinner, but when the snake got to the end of her neck, he found that she was too big for him and he urped her out...

 

[AccidentalFarm]

I just can't imagine this was due to a snake. Snakes kill before they attempt to swallow their prey. There is a very important reason for this..when the snake is in the process of swallowing, it is at its most vulnerable. Constrictors will hold their prey for a very long time- and can tell when it is completely dead. I've watched this process countless times - we've had various constrictors as pets for years. It is also very rare for a snake to vomit or abort a meal.
Yes, the slime sounds a bit like an urped-up meal, but the chicken wouldn't be alive if it was a snake. Even a non-venomous snake.
The vomiting/foaming also doesn't sound like a result of a snake bite. I've been bit, and no sickness followed. I've had cats and dogs bit, with no vomiting/foaming resulting from the bite.
For what it's worth, I was just at the vet yesterday with my Lab, starting her rattlesnake vaccinations and he told me that more often than not, animals that get bit by venomous snakes die due to the resulting bacterial infections transferred from the bite itself. Snakes have notoriously dirty mouths.

It really sounds more like poisoning to me. Or possibly that the chick stuck it's head into something yucky? I've had a pup get into fly poison and the slimy vomit/urping/foaming thing was just as you describe. He had it all over him.

I don't know, I just can't see the snake angle. JMO.