Trying to figure out how my duck died - could it have been a snake?

[AvengerofSquids]

Madge, one of my three Welsh Harlequin ducks, passed away yesterday. We found her a few minutes after her death a small distance from where the ducks normally free-range. Her sisters were calm, so she must have passed away quietly or they would have heard her and freaked out. She had no visible injuries, just a smear of blood on her hip and blood around her nose and mouth. At first we thought a predator had grabbed her because of the blood on her hip - we lost a duck to a possum once - but closer examination revealed no injury.

We opened her mouth and found that it was filled with dark gunk, and when we tried to see if she had choked on anything specific all we could see was more of this muck. I felt along her throat and found no lumps. We assumed that she had either choked on mud somehow or possibly eaten something poisonous and tried to throw it up. I did not perform an autopsy on her and we buried her not long after.

However, after doing some research I wondered if she had been killed by a snake. We have copperheads and water moccasins in the area - I have not seen any personally, but other family members have seen them just off the property as roadkill before - and Madge had been wandering around further than normal. This is because it had rained the day before and she was excited about all of the mud and puddles. She would not have gone far without her sisters, and they were near her when we found her, but it is possible that she stumbled across a snake and it bit her.

I worry about snakebite because I did not examine the blood-smeared area on her hip too closely. I was looking for evidence that a possum had grabbed her, and once I had ruled that out I focused on her mouth. Could I have missed the puncture marks from a venomous snake? We buried her, so I cannot look at the body again to see it more clearly.

Whatever happened to her was quick. We had seen her an hour before walking around normally with her sisters, so if it was something poisonous she ate it would have to have acted quickly. Her sisters were calm, unlike when one was grabbed by a possum last year, so they either didn't see the snake or Madge was very quiet when she ate whatever it was and they didn't notice until it was too late.

Does anyone have any advice? Sorry that this is so long! I just want to see if I can narrow this down so I can protect my other ducks.

 

[Miss Lydia]

You must be pretty far south to have snakes out this time of year.
Too bad you didn't look closer at her hip that may have been you answer. What ever it was I agree it was fast acting so keep your other ducks closer. They may have walked up on a den.
Very sorry for your loss.

 

[AvengerofSquids]

You must be pretty far south to have snakes out this time of year.
Too bad you didn't look closer at her hip that may have been you answer. What ever it was I agree it was fast acting so keep your other ducks closer. They may have walked up on a den.
Very sorry for your loss.

Yesterday was unusually warm for this time of year - close to 60 degrees F - so it's possible that and the rain flushed something out. I do wish that I had looked at her hip more closely - the idea of snakebite hadn't occurred to me until more than an hour later, after we had buried her.
Thank you.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Very true I know we don't usually see snakes until April or May and that depends on temps, but rain could have been something that got them moving. Only other thing is to scout the area for something toxic, when you found her was she laying like she was asleep? Or was she laying like she may have had a seizure with head and body at odd angle? Water standing out for long period of time, antifreeze poisonous plants like Elephant ear etc.

 

[AvengerofSquids]

Very true I know we don't usually see snakes until April or May and that depends on temps, but rain could have been something that got them moving. Only other thing is to scout the area for something toxic, when you found her was she laying like she was asleep? Or was she laying like she may have had a seizure with head and body at odd angle? Water standing out for long period of time, antifreeze poisonous plants like Elephant ear etc.

She was lying down like she had been standing just a little bit ago. Not like she had been asleep, but not at any odd angles either. Her wings were the tiniest bit outstretched and her head was not tucked up like she had been sleeping, but not twisted or in an odd position. A vulture had landed by her and when checking her out when we found her so it is possible that it messed with her position.

I explored the area where we found her and didn't find any kind of plant or litter (nails, string, trash, etc.) that she might have swallowed, but it is entirely possible that she ate a mushroom or something buried under the leaves that I couldn't see. There were a lot of puddles from the rain we just had, but they shouldn't be more than a few days old. We don't use any kind of pesticide or weedkiller that she could have gotten into. Her sisters aren't showing any kind of discomfort so whatever happened, it looks like she was the only one who ate the food or choked or got hurt.

The reason that I am unsure about snakebite is that I couldn't see any kind of swelling or anything like that. Swelling and discoloration of the skin is a symptom of all the types of snakes in the area beside coral snakes. Coral snakes cause rapid paralysis and respiratory failure in smaller animals as well as vomiting (for people, symptoms take a while to show up, but not in smaller animals) and rarely cause swelling but I doubt that was what got her because they are rare in this area and have more trouble injecting venom. They usually have to chew, not just bite, so I'm not sure about it. The most likely scenario is that she choked on something, but I just wanted to rule out other options because if there is a venomous snake nearby, my other ducks, my dog, and we could be in trouble. I was just wondering what other people thought about this situation.

Thank you for your advice!

 

[Miss Lydia]

You could go to Predator and pest thread and ask there too.