Died right after laying egg it looks like

[RJKnott]

One of my pekin girls Delilah I found dead this morning

Just a foot from the nest she laid her egg in

No signs of trauma, no wounds, neck doesn’t appear broken

Just dead seemingly right after laying her egg. Rigor hadn’t set in yet

Of course was worried a male had mated her to death but neck isn’t broken and aside from some ducks walking over the corpse no signs of being pressed to the ground and neck feathers not ruffled or missing as if a male had been holding on


She was my second biggest female and fit as a fiddle

Any thought as to what may be the cause?
Cleaned out the pen and nesting area as thoroughly as possible

 

[Miss Lydia]

I am so sorry.
You know they are so good at hiding illness or injury we can not know sometimes until they pass they were even sick.
She could have had some kind of infection. Been egg bound or internally laying no way of knowing unless you do an necropsy.

 

[RJKnott]

I am so sorry.
You know they are so good at hiding illness or injury we can not know sometimes until they pass they were even sick.
She could have had some kind of infection. Been egg bound or internally laying no way of knowing unless you do an necropsy.

The way she is still sticking out in the back. I see that sometimes when my girls lay a very large egg. Maybe she had an issue and the strain of pushing it out was too much for her

She was the one that hung around with the male Muscovy that killed one of my other females. We rehomed him and Delilah was finally being accepted by the rest of the flock and was making friends. Poor thing

 

[RJKnott]

So the egg she laid. It wasn’t large in terms of size but it is noticeably heavier than the other eggs collected today. So wondering if she had to strain too hard to push it out

 

[Miss Lydia]

We can speculate all we want but it's just hard to know.
I had a Muscovy duck that appeared to be egg bound I kept her inside and gave her frequent soaks during the day she actually laid her egg on a Sunday morning and died that evening. She must have had an infection going on too. I could not bring myself to open her up. But egg laying problems seems to be what kills many of our females.

 

[RJKnott]

A friend let me know if a vet in the area that can do a necropsy to see if there was anything else going on. If it was a week day I might. But I’ve already buried Delilah and am just going to let her rest.

The flock we took her from, we took in 4 ducks. The male Muscovy Pita who was super aggressive, my male pekin Howard who is laid back but one of his legs is way larger than the other, Daisy who had been over mated an had an untreated and infected broken toe, and Delilah who seemed healthy. The flock was fairly inbred, Daisy was the mother of most of that flock going in 2 generations havin mated with some of her own ducklings most likely

So that may have played a part as well

 

[Miss Lydia]

You gave her a nice life better than she ever had. Hopefully that will give you comfort.

 

[BelovedBirds]

One of my pekin girls Delilah I found dead this morning

Just a foot from the nest she laid her egg in

No signs of trauma, no wounds, neck doesn’t appear broken

Just dead seemingly right after laying her egg. Rigor hadn’t set in yet

Of course was worried a male had mated her to death but neck isn’t broken and aside from some ducks walking over the corpse no signs of being pressed to the ground and neck feathers not ruffled or missing as if a male had been holding on


She was my second biggest female and fit as a fiddle

Any thought as to what may be the cause?
Cleaned out the pen and nesting area as thoroughly as possible

Im so sorry for your loss!

 

[CoriM]

It was so great that you rescued her and gave her such a good life. I'm so sorry you lost her.

 

[RJKnott]

Looks like her egg is forming yes?