- Jun 16, 2012
- 84
- 6
- 96
I came home one day to find that my younger brother killed a copperhead snake where the ducks where ranging.
This is how it happened.
My siblings told me that they found the ducks all in a circle staring at something in the grass. That something turned out to be a copperhead which my brother then chopped to death.
They all said that none of the ducks had been bitten, but an hour or so later I found one of the females sitting by the fence with her feathers all ruffled. She did not get up with the others to eat the food I just put out for them.
She seemed ill, so I examined her and found a puffy coral-red patch of flesh on her back with the feather fallen out.
Apparently the snake bit one after all.
My mother looked up treatment on the internet, but the treatments were all supposed to be given right after the attack so we figured that it was too late to save the poor bird.
I held her comfortably, certain that the end was near. I gave her clean water in the pool to bathe in so that she would die happy. I noticed that she was limping badly on one side.
I saw nine vultures flying overhead. Apparently they were waiting for the duck to die too.
However, it seemed it would take her longer to croak than we thought.
She also had a black blister on the foot she was favoring.
We set her up in the poultry sick bay (a.k.a., my parents' bathtub) and applied some coloidal silver topically to fight infection in case she survived.
The next day, the swelling had gone down and the redness had disappeared.
Two days after the attack, she is running with the flock and acting normal.
Ducks are nuts.
Have you ever dealt with a snake bite in your flock?
This is how it happened.
My siblings told me that they found the ducks all in a circle staring at something in the grass. That something turned out to be a copperhead which my brother then chopped to death.
They all said that none of the ducks had been bitten, but an hour or so later I found one of the females sitting by the fence with her feathers all ruffled. She did not get up with the others to eat the food I just put out for them.
She seemed ill, so I examined her and found a puffy coral-red patch of flesh on her back with the feather fallen out.
Apparently the snake bit one after all.
My mother looked up treatment on the internet, but the treatments were all supposed to be given right after the attack so we figured that it was too late to save the poor bird.
I held her comfortably, certain that the end was near. I gave her clean water in the pool to bathe in so that she would die happy. I noticed that she was limping badly on one side.
I saw nine vultures flying overhead. Apparently they were waiting for the duck to die too.
However, it seemed it would take her longer to croak than we thought.
She also had a black blister on the foot she was favoring.
We set her up in the poultry sick bay (a.k.a., my parents' bathtub) and applied some coloidal silver topically to fight infection in case she survived.
The next day, the swelling had gone down and the redness had disappeared.
Two days after the attack, she is running with the flock and acting normal.
Ducks are nuts.
Have you ever dealt with a snake bite in your flock?
