What could have killed my scovy duck?

[EeyoreD]

I went out to tuck the chickens in last night and as I was walking back to the coop I saw one of my female scovies on her back. She was gone but not for long. A little stiff but not entirely (I guess she could have been coming out of it but I saw her late morning and she was fine, it's not that warm, wouldn't rigor take longer to pass? I only know it from the fridge so...)

I'm almost certain she wasn't ill. I know birds hide things well (and I've had birds die from disease) but there are usually at least SOME signs when they get to the point that they're going to keel over. She didn't.

There was no obvious signs of trauma. No blood, no wounds. MAYBE a nick between her eyes but that could just as easily been from a turkey during feeding.

I'm leaning toward predator but why would it kill the duck and then not even attempt to eat it?

So far the rest of the fowl look fine but then again so did she.

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[olijo123]

I went out to tuck the chickens in last night and as I was walking back to the coop I saw one of my female scovies on her back. She was gone but not for long. A little stiff but not entirely (I guess she could have been coming out of it but I saw her late morning and she was fine, it's not that warm, wouldn't rigor take longer to pass? I only know it from the fridge so...)

I'm almost certain she wasn't ill. I know birds hide things well (and I've had birds die from disease) but there are usually at least SOME signs when they get to the point that they're going to keel over. She didn't.

There was no obvious signs of trauma. No blood, no wounds. MAYBE a nick between her eyes but that could just as easily been from a turkey during feeding.

I'm leaning toward predator but why would it kill the duck and then not even attempt to eat it?

So far the rest of the fowl look fine but then again so did she.

Anyone have any thoughts?

That's a tough question to answer. I had the same incident. I had a black and white Muscovy hen drop dead right in front of me. It was in the morning and she was running around like she normally did. She was fine and then all of the sudden she fell down. I ran over to her and she died in my arms in less than a minute. It was very strange but I did some research and just decided to guess that she had a heart attack. Hope you find out what happened and sorry for your loss!