Decrowing Roosters.

[chickenzoo]

I think it would be a good option for a beloved pet. I have paid $175 to have a young pet rooster treated at a bird vet. They charged him as an exotic....acted like he was a big risk to all the other clients and did test that they never gave me results of and told me to keep treating him with what I had been.... Luckily at age seven, he is still here. If the vet had acted better and given better care I would have had no problems with what I paid.... And my funds are limited. I have a livestock vet that knows little of birds but helps me anyway he can. He is worth every penny he charges and I gladly pay it..... His prices are fair and the care he gives is worth it.
I think that if a client truly feels that you have compassion for the animal, you understand it is their pet and that the care you give equals the price charged, then you can be very successful with this. I hope more vets realize that chickens can be very important pets to people...and try to find cures and medicines to help them like they do other animals. I would have paid all I could to have saved my Sophie puff.... Or to have someone spay her to prevent problems. But most vets here think of them as a silly farm animal that they don't need to research.

On the note of shipping adult birds...I have had many shipped in during cooler months. When I go to pick them up I can normally tell we're my box is by the crowing rooster inside...lol. I don't know how I'd feel about shipping after surgery, I would worry about the stress and healing....but chickens are remarkable healers and as you get more advanced then I'm sure recovery will be quicker.
And if you do guiena....lol...you may be on to something if you can quiet one of those...lol

 

[Pele]

What an interesting thread!

I personally would land on the side of caution in accepting this procedure, only because chickens are highly vocal creatures. It seems the same as crippling a dog's sense of smell for the sake of human convenience ("well I don't like him getting into the trash").

Chickens have over 300 vocalizations, many of them below or beyond the range of human hearing. The rooster would effectively lose thier primary form of social interaction that thier species relies on. This could effect their lives negatively, because let's face it, they will be spending most of their time with other chickens, not humans.

Modifying an animal to be more acceptable to a human, to the detriment of their interaction with their own kind, then dumping them into a pen with their own kind for the majority of the day seems... non-sensical. I could see a roo failing to impress hens because he's not good at calling them over for food (so they can hear), or properly breaking up fights, or calling out predators. This would lead to hens not offering him any 'step up', which could lead to the roo becoming aggressive with the hens as frustration mounts.

Then, all in all, you have the end result the same. The owner can't keep a roo that is a frustrated social incompetant, and stewpots or Craigslists him. But along the way the owner lost 200 bucks in the deal.

Doesn't seem to be in the best interest of anyone involved.

 

[janinepeters]

Well put Pele. It is a catch 22. There have been enough animal studies to convince me personally that animals can suffer extreme frustration, so for me there is no question that a rooster would be aware of his disability and find it tremendously frustrating. Then again, he'd probably choose it over death.

 

[CluckyCharms]

I would pay the $250 in a heartbeat, if the ordinances were different. The ordinances in a lot of cities are "no roosters, period", not "no roosters that make noise", so even with decrowing them, we still could not have one due to the fact that it's a rooster. There are a lot of cities with this ordinance out there and the powers that be will take a rooster away without any consideration as to whether or not you had him decrowed; the law is the law.

 

[Pele]

Well put Pele. It is a catch 22. There have been enough animal studies to convince me personally that animals can suffer extreme frustration, so for me there is no question that a rooster would be aware of his disability and find it tremendously frustrating. Then again, he'd probably choose it over death.

That's my point though, he'd end up dead anyway. A frustrated roo is an aggressive one that ambushes hens and holds them against their will to the point of harming them. Owners get upset to see their hens harmed, rooster gets the axe.

He ends up dead either way. I think more research is necessary before modifying an animal willy nilly to cripple it's primary form of communication with it's own kind.

It could very well be that it doesn't matter, but then again, you could end up with a lot of people who are angry because they have a very expensive dead rooster.

 

[janinepeters]

That's my point though, he'd end up dead anyway. A frustrated roo is an aggressive one that ambushes hens and holds them against their will to the point of harming them. Owners get upset to see their hens harmed, rooster gets the axe.

He ends up dead either way. I think more research is necessary before modifying an animal willy nilly to cripple it's primary form of communication with it's own kind.

Yes I know that was your point and I was agreeing (mostly), not arguing. However, decrowing is legal, and I'll wager that people will do it, and find out for themselves the impact on the roo's behavior, before anyone does an actual study comparing decrowed and normally crowing roos. However, I doubt it would make them aggressive and would tend to predict the opposite. I think the procedure could well serve people who want to keep a rooster; as I see it, the catch 22 is from the roo's perspective: disabled vs. dead.

 

[Ohylime]

I think price at $250 should be fine. Training as a vet tech, most doctors I know refuse to see any exotics because they are not experienced. Even then, it is usually x-rays,fluids, etc and never surgery unless you go to a specialty clinic. Many tech arent comfortable restraining and administering medications to birds too.

Also if the fee were lower, the surgery may be abused. It would be cruel to de-crow a rooster just for convenience. Like how some people may choose to debark their dog or declaw their cat. In my opinion, these surgeries should be a last resort when you have to decide surgery vs giving up the animal.

 

[Pele]

Yes I know that was your point and I was agreeing (mostly), not arguing. However, decrowing is legal, and I'll wager that people will do it, and find out for themselves the impact on the roo's behavior, before anyone does an actual study comparing decrowed and normally crowing roos. However, I doubt it would make them aggressive and would tend to predict the opposite. I think the procedure could well serve people who want to keep a rooster; as I see it, the catch 22 is from the roo's perspective: disabled vs. dead.

Hrm... I think we are miscommunicating.

I didn't think you were arguing, I was trying to point out that I didn't think I got my point across. I still don't. My point is: dead vs dead + 250 dollar bill. The surgery could lead to behaviors that would get the rooster killed anyway. So, dead. Not disabled vs dead. Just dead. Via a longer and expensive route, but still dead. The rooster (if it had a capacity for reason) would probably choose not to be frustrated into psychosis on his way to the chopping block. That's what I was trying to say.

 

[FireTigeris]

Hrm... I think we are miscommunicating.

I didn't think you were arguing, I was trying to point out that I didn't think I got my point across. I still don't. My point is: dead vs dead + 250 dollar bill. The surgery could lead to behaviors that would get the rooster killed anyway. So, dead. Not disabled vs dead. Just dead. Via a longer and expensive route, but still dead. The rooster (if it had a capacity for reason) would probably choose not to be frustrated into psychosis on his way to the chopping block. That's what I was trying to say.

Well he has done a test batch, an ethical vet like him would not offer this if he finds it does nasty tings to the rooster's mind- I know most vets here no longer surgically declaw, some won't do it at all (cats), and the theme now is not docking animals unless it is necessary for the animal's heath (veshila to be guide dogs as an example, a long whip like tail gets stepped on by the handler often, a detriment to the dog).

 

[janinepeters]

the theme now is not docking animals unless it is necessary for the animal's heath

I would love to believe this, but vets in my area vary substantially in terms of whether they perform convenience/cosmetic surgeries and convenience euthanasias. If one vet refuses to put down your cat because you're moving away or just plain tired of orange cats and want a gray one, you need only drive down the road where another will do it.