She passed yesterday afternoon. It was so weird and sudden, husband and I did a necropsy and found a giant 1 1/4 inch staple bent all out of shape, one end protruding from her crop that caused her stomach contents to go into her body cavity. Wasn't pretty. I was worried we wouldn't find the cause but you couldn't miss that. Blockage of the digestive track is an understatement.
So weird this morning not hearing her loud mouth sound off. The new spokesduck doesn't take her new role as seriously as she did. This also means no more eggs for another 3 months. She was my best marked female and had just started laying a week ago.
This stinks. Husband said I can hatch some more since the brooder has been so quiet lately. But I'm not ready yet. he's totally trying to enable me through this and distract me. he said I could get quail, submit another Holderread order for 10 more Saxony, whatever I need to do.
We don't use that kind of staple, so I need to go over the yard again and see if there's some long forgotten build site with more debris or what. I know the side of the yard used to be an alley back in the day and it's normal to find old bits of glass and ceramic and things... but that's a new type staple. On the thread I made about the cause of death some folks were saying they went around with a strong magnet, I think I need to do more than a visual now to protect the rest.
Father in law has a metal detector. When husband tilled up an area for reseeding he found a gold ring with a tiny diamond in it... lot's of incentive now to hunt... potential bird tragedy or treasure. All foreign objects must be found, more painstakingly done than before.
Even though when we moved in I found 2 garbage bags worth of garbage bits, and am always grabbing everything I see. I mean... Really duck? A staple? That's so NOT grit! It's not like it was some little thing easily confused with something else... it was a giant STAPLE. Had to have been in it's U shape when she swallowed it.
Now I'll have PTSD over this when ever I see a duck acting lethargic or a little off. There was nothing that could have been done for her besides an x-ray and immediate surgery and then treating for... what's the term? Sepsis? Not good odds of survival at all.
Hens go broody when you don’t want them to… and won’t go broody when you do. 
