Nice!! I don't have the guts to do surgeries so power to ya! I love that!
I just don't like to sit and watch them suffer so I refer to my UC Davis poultry expert vets. Now this is not like your average dog or general vet, it's a very specific and specialty to vet.
Most people do not want to spend the money which is more than understandable but I would not care for any animal with being prepared to care for them fully including paying their bills.
Of course, and that's wonderful if you have the money. No one wants an animal to suffer, but if you have hatchery stock, most of the production hens develop egg yolk peritonitis and/or internal laying and/or cancer (the latter if they live slightly longer). When you have multiple hens suffering from the same thing all at the same time (I have, and I've lost about 15 to the same thing), the only way to help them is to euthanize them because a vet cannot fix internal laying (no prevention, no cure) except by complete expensive hysterectomy, which usually kills the hen on the table (she is usually very far gone by the time it's determined to be internal laying) or she must be put down. It would run into quite a tidy sum. Thankfully, I don't have much hatchery stock left here, one 7 year old Buff Brahma and then, the Buff Orp and NH pullets from Mt. Healthy. Same with my own dogs. I don't have one now because I cannot afford anything unexpected and would have to euthanize the dog rather than spend hundreds of dollars on surgeries, which I have done in the past when money wasn't so sparse. I have much more experience and confidence treating my chickens than I ever would a dog.
If I had the money, I would be thrilled to put the burden of care on an avian vet who knew his/her stuff, but many vets simply
refuse to treat a chicken and many BYC folks have found that they know more about their own birds' anatomy and health issues than the vet that took their money. Shouldn't be that way, but alas, it is.
As far as Buff Orpingtons, I have little Betsy, who is from Mt. Healthy (gave a new hatchery a chance not to screw up), then I have 6 year old Nugget, from good breeder stock and 3 year old Hope, who is from the same breeder, but who has only laid eggs about 3 months in her early life and ever since, has been up and down, bloating up and looking like death warmed over, then rallying and acting almost normal again. I really ought to euthanize that hen, but she fascinates me, with her body taking care of the problem on its own, with no antibiotics administered when she gets down. I will necropsy her when she dies to see what the heck is going on in there. She is all bones and feathers now, no meat on her keel, but her huge frame and fluff make her look normal unless you pick her up and feel under the fluff. She was on death's doorstep in Sept 2012 when Suede died. I know because I dug the hole big enough for both of them to be buried in... but she bounced back again.
Nugget hasn't laid in 2 years, not since she went broody one last time, crushed the only chick she had as it was hatching much to our shock as she was an excellent broody multiple times. She hasn't laid since then, about the time her rooster, my big Blue Orp, Suede, passed away. I believe her heart is failing because her color goes dark purple upon any stress or when she lays down to dustbathe.
