CindyinSD
All will be well, and that will be well is well.
No anesthesia. It's my understanding that anesthesia (even if I were trained and qualified to purchase it) is dangerous to poultry, so (based on my experience) I most likely wouldn't use it even if I could. The chickens don't react like you or I would. As soon as I take them to their recovery cage, they start eating and drinking. (They have to fast 36 hrs from food and 24 hrs from water also, so they're pretty hungry/thirsty.) After watching them for a couple of hours I take them back home. They're pretty happy about that. This morning they were eager to be let out and spread out over the area looking for yummy chicken things to eat. They have special bracelets. Otherwise I couldn't tell them apart from the ones I didn't work on.I am curious now, are you using any kind of anesthetic for the procedure? If they are getting eaten later, why not. I would try one.
They don't get stitches. The skin cut and the muscle incision don't land on top of one another--that's their wound care. Stitches cause them to puff up--called wind puff. I haven't had that happen to mine.