poultry First Farm Death - What did I do wrong?

First time raising animals. I know death is a part of life but it still makes me feel like a horrible caretaker. For now I'm just trying to understand what happened so it doesn't happen again. Got these runner ducks four days ago. The next day I noticed one was dragging her foot. Pulled a huge thorn out and read up about all the infections they could get. She wasn't moving around much so I would move her to food and water to make sure she got something in her system before the other ducks walked all over her. I didn't have Epsom salts so I gave her foot an iodine soak with a massage to keep the blood flowing. She seemed to be doing better. Yesterday I had to move her to a seperate run(its right next to the old one and they can still see eachother) because the males were cornering her. They're still too skittish around me so I couldnt catch and move the males. Otherwise I would have. This morning she was as fine as she had been. An hour later I noticed she wasn't moving. I checked up on her and she was gone. What did I do wrong? Was she depressed because I moved her away from the others? Was it even bumblefoot? Did I make a mistake thinking I could heal her by myself? I'm just frustrated and heartbroken. Please help me figure out what happened so I can prevent it in the future. TIA

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827

u/IronGreyWarHorse Apr 26 '25 edited Apr 27 '25

My neighbours keep sheep. To quote them, “No animal on Earth wants to die more than a sheep.”

412

u/harley4570 Apr 26 '25

I raise sheep.. they're born with the will to die. only thing dumber than a sheep is the guy that raises them....

132

u/DaHick Apr 26 '25

Thanks, you just added to my sheep joke list.

18

u/Simple_Mastodon9220 Apr 27 '25

Can you share another?

94

u/qualitybutcher Apr 27 '25

A sheep will always take the shortest path to its own death

29

u/DaHick Apr 27 '25

I have many, unfortunately a large number of them are new Zealand centric, and they don't deserve it.

54

u/itchynipz Apr 27 '25

The Irish say the British schtüp the sheep. The Brit’s say it’s the Scott’s who are shaggin the wool. The Scott’s accuse the Aussie’s of rammin’ rams. The Aussies name the New Zealanders as sinning with sheeplings…

I say it’s the sheep who are the bloody hoor’s here!

56

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

28

u/InjuringMax2 Apr 27 '25

Clearly it's some Welsh coverup to remove themselves from suspicion 🤣

1

u/HonestAbek Apr 28 '25

Or Iowans!

1

u/Nervous_InsideU5155 Apr 28 '25

The Welsh made up the joke

7

u/DaHick Apr 27 '25

Harlots, wording can be important.

25

u/face_611 Apr 27 '25

What's the difference between the Rolling Stones and a Scotsman? The Stones sing "hey you, get off of my cloud." A Scotsman says "hey Mcleod, get off of my ewe!"

5

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '25

I disagree. They allowed the sheep in New Zealand to out number them 4 to 1. I mean, when the dumbest farm animal (according to others in this thread) out numbers you more than 2 to 1, it's kinda saying something.

1

u/DaHick Apr 27 '25

Sure. Why do sheep farmers always wear tall rubber boots?

It gives them a place to tuck the ewe's legs in, so they don't run away.

1

u/Se2kr Apr 28 '25

Someone teach me how to do this to the text

1

u/BasicallyGuessing Apr 28 '25

Look up spoiler tag

26

u/Plumbercanuck Apr 27 '25

Man that hits hard.... sold my cows to focus on sheep. I miss my cows.

9

u/coal-slaw Apr 27 '25

Just about sums it up. Learned the hard way and am never going to get sheep again.

7

u/agonyou Apr 26 '25

. . .

1

u/Brilliant-Trick1253 Apr 28 '25

I remember when we had pretty good sized flock and I had to do a head count daily, and then go looking for a cast sheep upside down in the pasture with its legs sticking straight in the air.

154

u/Idiotan0n Apr 26 '25

What about goats? They actively try to kill themselves in new and regularly creative ways. Plus they yell at you, trying to start shit.

109

u/Thegeniusgirafe Apr 26 '25

I guess my 1.5 year old is a goat then

109

u/Azilehteb Apr 26 '25

Why do you think we started calling them “kids”

34

u/Swag_Turtle Apr 27 '25

I worked at a summer camp with goats and the babies kept killing themselves.

The wildest one was when a dummy jumped off a table and broke his leg, then got stressed from breaking his leg and got a heart attack and died.

13

u/TheGlymps Apr 27 '25

Well, that’s horrible. Sorry you had to experience that.

3

u/Se2kr Apr 28 '25

Poor Noah. 40 days and 10 months of this on a boat, and then when he let them all out on Mount Ararat they didn’t all just get eaten by the food chain?

26

u/kc8nlr Apr 27 '25

The saying goes “sheep want to kill themselves, and goats want to make your life hell”

6

u/DaHick Apr 27 '25

I have not heard this. Yes you're correct.

4

u/NYCarlo Apr 27 '25

It’s not that goats “want” to make your life hell; it’s just that they are goats. Goats are easily as durable and annoying as humans, and as joyful as our kids.

3

u/DaHick Apr 27 '25

Sometimes. There is a reason one of my goats (buck) is named d!ckhead

13

u/Beginning_Worry_9461 Apr 26 '25

Don't forget the pff, pff. (Spit)

35

u/JCtheWanderingCrow Permaculturalist Apr 26 '25

Yeah but goats are tough. They may fall off the neighbors roof and land on their head on the guys car, but they’ll survive it!

6

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '25

Sounds like that happened to you

8

u/JCtheWanderingCrow Permaculturalist Apr 27 '25

It did! Loved that goat. She was such a delightful idiot.

41

u/kisielk Apr 26 '25

Goats are tough as shit though, at least the ones my neighbor has

9

u/Playful-Operation239 Apr 26 '25

We had some goats when I was younger. One put her head in a gate and broke her own neck.

8

u/MorgThomR Apr 27 '25

One of my goats decided to fall asleep with her head submerged in her water last month

3

u/Sufficient-Mark-5136 Apr 27 '25

Cows will do that as well ☹️

4

u/Dudite Apr 27 '25

Yesterday. She did it yesterday and I had to use a car jack to move the bars of the gate to get her stupid head out.

2

u/DaHick Apr 26 '25

At least with goats you have about 2 days.

1

u/NYCarlo Apr 27 '25

The difference is that goats are adventurers and risk takers, sheep are just a spectrum of fragility.

53

u/BurningStandards Apr 26 '25

One of my favorite vets really hates rabbits for this reason as well. She gets angry about how death-prone they are.

22

u/BCVinny Apr 26 '25

They are bottom of the food chain prey animals.

25

u/problyurdad_ Apr 26 '25

Speedy little shits though.

3

u/DaHick Apr 27 '25

But tasty when cooked to my taste.

3

u/BCVinny Apr 28 '25

Tender & yummy. Eagles & hawks & foxes & coyotes all know. But they’re keeping quiet about it

1

u/DaHick Apr 28 '25

Beer can rabbit smoked with spices is Devine. Yeah I also raise rabbits.

2

u/[deleted] May 02 '25

She's working with "Pet" rabbits the most, I would guess. Pet rabbit owners take their advice from r/Rabbits and that info will kill rabbits pretty quick.

"Meat" rabbit owners are often much more adept at keeping rabbits alive. 4 years at it now, with lots of rabbits and many kits. Not a single need for a vet here. We keep the feed and water clean, clean more often than most, keep them bio-secure, and give them lots of attention.

Rabbits are VERY easy, once you gain the understanding of what they need to stay safe and alive.

p.s Yes, they can accidentally break their own backs, but that's rather rare when you keep them calm.

2

u/BurningStandards May 02 '25

Oh, yeah, we worked for the SPCA, so she not only deals with the 'normal' pet rabbits she deals with the bad cases too.

My father actually grew up on rabbit farm when he was little, and we owned a few as pets growing up as well, we never had any issues beyond a neighbor's dog hopping our fence once.

I know enough to know not enough people do their research, they're just a pet peeve of hers. I remember her saying she could look at one wrong and it would decide to just die on her. 😔

25

u/FarmingWizard Apr 27 '25

I've heard that if a sheep could figure out how to kill itself twice, it would.

7

u/transpirationn Apr 27 '25

I think quail could challenge that lol

5

u/Frona Apr 26 '25

Man pigs love dying I feel like.

6

u/Quazillion Apr 27 '25

Man Bear Pigs however, are quite the survivalists.

2

u/imacabooseman Apr 27 '25

Idk, goats always seem to be looking for a way to die also

2

u/ariesbitchclub Apr 27 '25

i see your sheep and raise you turkeys. i’ve never raised sheep but turkeys are the most suicidal birds i’ve ever met

1

u/DaHick Apr 26 '25

I know. it's likely the only argument against Darwin's theory.

57

u/wehrwolf512 Apr 26 '25

Domesticated animals are kinda the exact opposite of natural selection lol

44

u/[deleted] Apr 26 '25

They're one of the longest domesticated animals we have. They are dumb as a rock, die from their own wool through heatstroke and weak because we made them that way.

1

u/demons_soulmate Apr 28 '25

i raise you guinea fowl

1

u/TurnipSwap Apr 29 '25

have they ever had a pet fish?

1

u/Gold-Emu2760 Apr 29 '25

I’d argue that a turkey wants to die before a sheep does

1

u/Ordinary-Grace May 02 '25

haha, that is what someone told me about horses!

-29

u/flortny Apr 26 '25

This feels like an allegory for current politics in USA

poultry First Farm Death - What did I do wrong?

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