Hi everyone, I have a question about a possible snake attack on my poor hen. I have several chickens that aren't quite fullgrown so they stay in a pen all day but I have two mature chickens named Roo and Isla who free range when I'm home. Yesterday the pair were scratching around in the dead leaves near the trees bordering my yard, I couldn't quite see them since they camoflague in dead leaves haha but I could hear them. All of a sudden my hen Isla screamed and came sprinting up the yard towards her coop. Roo started squawking because Isla scared him and he followed her up. After running for a few yards she slowed to a gimpy kind of walk to the coop where she hid under. She sometimes lays eggs under there so that's what I thought she was doing and left her alone for a few hours. I came back out to check on her and she was just standing under the coop still with no egg. It was bedtime by then so put everyone in the coop and instead of Isla roosting on the perch as usual she settled for a corner on the floor of the coop and slept there all night. The next morning she was a bit lethargic and walking very slowly and oddly. Instead for eating and scratching and roaming the yard like she normally does, I kept on finding her laying down in dark places or in corners. Eventually she took off running down to the lower deck where we store our hay. I followed her to find her sitting on a clutch of eggs to my surpise! So then I figured all of her odd behavior was due to her going broody! I periodically checked on her the rest of the day as she sat on her eggs. I noticed that she was weezing and had discharge coming out of her eyes, she was a rescue and came to us with all sorts of health issues so I figured it was another little bug that she would get over in a day or two. When it was bedtime again I went down to fetch her but unfortunately she was laying dead a few feet from her eggs. I feel so horrible that I probably could've done something to save her if I had known something was seriously wrong. I'm just wondering if anyone has had a hen bitten by a snake and got away from it, only to die 24 hours later. I was also wondering if something could've just scared her really bad and gave her a heart attack? I examined her as thoroughly as I could for a snake bite and didn't find anything. Any ideas?
