We finally put a bird down today, and after reading about all the different methods, this is the one that my husband and I both agreed seemed best for our situation. I'm sharing the experience because I know there are probably lots of folks out there who (like me) will eventually find themselves in a similar situation, and may find the information useful. We chose this method based on humans reporting no pain, and basically being unaware when being being poisoned by carbon monoxide...just feeling drowsy, going to sleep.
Background: We keep chickens for pets. Our oldest girls are four, and will be here until they die, whether they lay eggs or not (as will all of our birds). We keep various large fowl breeds, a few bantam breeds such as silkies and d'uccles, and seramas. Over the past four years, I've had one chicken die of interal laying issues, and two to unkown ailments (unexpected deaths of seemingly very healthy birds). I've paid $40 to have one tiny serama put down at our local vet; he was ailing and slowly starving to death - no longer had quality of life. They are not avian doctors, so her best guess on his illness was a fungal infection in his lungs. When I took him in, I didn't realize it would cost that much (he probably only weighed 12 ounces). My husband used to hunt quite a bit, so he can "do the deed" if needed, but it's a lot different when it's a pet-like animal you've held and become attached to.
Approximately three weeks ago, this young hen (Chloe - serama, 13 months) began acting "off." Because our chickens are pets and I spent so much time interacting with them, I recognize things that aren't usual pretty quickly. At first, I just thought that she was going broody, because she'd give that broody warning call and puff up when other birds approached her, and she stayed in the coop, close to two setting broodies. But then, maybe a week and a half ago, I noticed that she was closing her eyes quite often. Soon, it became apparent that she was either losing her sight, that her sight was very distorted, or that she was blind. She's one of my more skittish birds, and I could run my hand right up beside her face with pretty much no reaction. Her pupils were staying dialated, no longer telescoping the way most chickens' pupils do when focusing on different objects. Over the week, it'd come down to me having to put a feeder and waterer right up against her and peck with my fingers so that she could eat/drink. I was doing that several times each day to be sure she was able to eat. It was pitiful watching her reach down to eat from the feeder, or get a drink, only to miss by a good inch or so even after I'd pecked at it with my finger, so she could hear where it was. I'd also have to lift her to the roost each evening, and take her down each morning. She was not scratching about or doing any "chickeny" things. And although she was managing to get at least a little food down, she'd lost quite a bit of weight (and she was a small bird to begin with). To me, she was no longer enjoying quality of life.
Procedure: I will describe the procedure we used to euthanize Chloe. I did take pictures of our trial run set-up, and can email those if desired. I wasn't sure that it was appropriate to post them. We did a trial run without Chloe, because we wanted to make sure things would go smoothly - I was trying to keep this procedure as stress-free as possible for her AND for us. Equipment we used: a cat carrier, section of tubing/hose that would fit over my car's exhaust pipe (the hose from a wet vac was suggested by some), a large plastic garbage bag, duct tape or something similar, and wire.
This was our trial run - without the chicken:
I put a bath towel in the carrier, formed to make a comfortable cubby/nest.
I placed the carrier as far back inside the garbage bag as it'd go, with the door of the carrier facing front...bag and contents resting on ground.
We placed one end of the hose over the end of the exhaust pipe. Our hose was adjustable by twisting, so we didn't need to tape for a decent seal. Duct tape could be used if it was really loose though.
We gathered the front of the garbage bag (still resting on the ground) as quietly as possibly around the other end of the hose, and twisted the wire around it snugly to keep it in place...like a twist tie on a bread bag.
We started the car.
What we found was that the bag filled up QUICKLY, so we cut a three - four inch slit in the back of the bag to allow gases to escape. Also, we found that it gets hots pretty quickly too, so even a few minutes of the car running was too much. If the air coming from the slit is getting really warm, cut the engine.
When we actually euthanized Chloe, we cuddled her a little, reached her back into the carrier, closed the door, gathered and tied/wired the bag around the hose end as quietly as possible, and started the car. We let it run for about a minute (the bag was full), turned the car off, put a strip of tape over the slit in the bag, removed the hose from the exhaust and covered the end with duct tape (a hand sealed over it would work too). We did this a total of THREE times (because the bag began to deflate within a few minutes), although we didn't run the car as long each succeeding time. We think she was dead on the first attempt, because we didn't hear anything/no movement sensed, but we wanted to make sure. Our concern was perhaps that she was just unconscious. From start to finish, it took us about 20 minutes. Again though, we're pretty certain she was dead within the first 5 minutes.
Chloe is now buried beneath our line of cedar trees.
Background: We keep chickens for pets. Our oldest girls are four, and will be here until they die, whether they lay eggs or not (as will all of our birds). We keep various large fowl breeds, a few bantam breeds such as silkies and d'uccles, and seramas. Over the past four years, I've had one chicken die of interal laying issues, and two to unkown ailments (unexpected deaths of seemingly very healthy birds). I've paid $40 to have one tiny serama put down at our local vet; he was ailing and slowly starving to death - no longer had quality of life. They are not avian doctors, so her best guess on his illness was a fungal infection in his lungs. When I took him in, I didn't realize it would cost that much (he probably only weighed 12 ounces). My husband used to hunt quite a bit, so he can "do the deed" if needed, but it's a lot different when it's a pet-like animal you've held and become attached to.
Approximately three weeks ago, this young hen (Chloe - serama, 13 months) began acting "off." Because our chickens are pets and I spent so much time interacting with them, I recognize things that aren't usual pretty quickly. At first, I just thought that she was going broody, because she'd give that broody warning call and puff up when other birds approached her, and she stayed in the coop, close to two setting broodies. But then, maybe a week and a half ago, I noticed that she was closing her eyes quite often. Soon, it became apparent that she was either losing her sight, that her sight was very distorted, or that she was blind. She's one of my more skittish birds, and I could run my hand right up beside her face with pretty much no reaction. Her pupils were staying dialated, no longer telescoping the way most chickens' pupils do when focusing on different objects. Over the week, it'd come down to me having to put a feeder and waterer right up against her and peck with my fingers so that she could eat/drink. I was doing that several times each day to be sure she was able to eat. It was pitiful watching her reach down to eat from the feeder, or get a drink, only to miss by a good inch or so even after I'd pecked at it with my finger, so she could hear where it was. I'd also have to lift her to the roost each evening, and take her down each morning. She was not scratching about or doing any "chickeny" things. And although she was managing to get at least a little food down, she'd lost quite a bit of weight (and she was a small bird to begin with). To me, she was no longer enjoying quality of life.
Procedure: I will describe the procedure we used to euthanize Chloe. I did take pictures of our trial run set-up, and can email those if desired. I wasn't sure that it was appropriate to post them. We did a trial run without Chloe, because we wanted to make sure things would go smoothly - I was trying to keep this procedure as stress-free as possible for her AND for us. Equipment we used: a cat carrier, section of tubing/hose that would fit over my car's exhaust pipe (the hose from a wet vac was suggested by some), a large plastic garbage bag, duct tape or something similar, and wire.
This was our trial run - without the chicken:
I put a bath towel in the carrier, formed to make a comfortable cubby/nest.
I placed the carrier as far back inside the garbage bag as it'd go, with the door of the carrier facing front...bag and contents resting on ground.
We placed one end of the hose over the end of the exhaust pipe. Our hose was adjustable by twisting, so we didn't need to tape for a decent seal. Duct tape could be used if it was really loose though.
We gathered the front of the garbage bag (still resting on the ground) as quietly as possibly around the other end of the hose, and twisted the wire around it snugly to keep it in place...like a twist tie on a bread bag.
We started the car.
What we found was that the bag filled up QUICKLY, so we cut a three - four inch slit in the back of the bag to allow gases to escape. Also, we found that it gets hots pretty quickly too, so even a few minutes of the car running was too much. If the air coming from the slit is getting really warm, cut the engine.
When we actually euthanized Chloe, we cuddled her a little, reached her back into the carrier, closed the door, gathered and tied/wired the bag around the hose end as quietly as possible, and started the car. We let it run for about a minute (the bag was full), turned the car off, put a strip of tape over the slit in the bag, removed the hose from the exhaust and covered the end with duct tape (a hand sealed over it would work too). We did this a total of THREE times (because the bag began to deflate within a few minutes), although we didn't run the car as long each succeeding time. We think she was dead on the first attempt, because we didn't hear anything/no movement sensed, but we wanted to make sure. Our concern was perhaps that she was just unconscious. From start to finish, it took us about 20 minutes. Again though, we're pretty certain she was dead within the first 5 minutes.
Chloe is now buried beneath our line of cedar trees.
