Anyone have any clues what could have happened to my Muscovy hen?? 5 months old and this morning we found her lying on the ground unable to fly or use her legs, just flopping around. My husband saw her first, said she was lying on her back as if the back half of her body was paralyzed and useless. When I went out her legs were out straight behind her un-moving, and she was trying in vain to flap her wings and just flopping around on the ground. I put her in a box with dry straw and her own food and water and brought her into the laundry room where it's warmer (30s-50s outside right now). I did a quick check and didn't see signs of obvious injury. A little bit later I heard her thrashing around and wondered if she was reviving, but when I next went to check on her she was lying still, neck at an unnatural angle, eyes unseeing... We hadn't noticed anything wrong before, but many of our ducks don't have clipped wings so they roam around and we don't get to monitor them much. Does this sound like disease? Injury? Poison? With her roaming around the neighborhood, it's entirely possible she got into something and we wouldn't know. They do try and eat everything. Thanks in advance for any help!
Here's a pic of her - you can see her leg sticking out uselessly, right before I moved her to the box inside.
Here's a pic of her - you can see her leg sticking out uselessly, right before I moved her to the box inside.
let me know what state you livin in and I will get you the name of your state lab. There they can do a necropsy and that will tell you what the cause of death was.
