Cull now or later?

[elizabethbinary]

One of my Muscovy ducklings, who's about 4 weeks from slaughter, broke it's leg sometime last night. Not sure how, but it's entirely unfixable. Popped it back into place and the duck didn't even notice. It feels completely busted. Anyway, the duckling has some mobility and can kinda run in weird semi circles to get where it wants. I thought about amputating but my husband says it's a meat duck anyway, why? It's just too small to be a small roast duck, as well. Do we let it hobble around and get fat? Is that cruel? It doesn't seem to be in pain. Do we cull it today and just use what we can? Watch and see?

 

[elizabethbinary]

Nevermind - we came back from the feedlot and everyone was trying to eat the duckling. It's skin was so far off we could see some of the intestines through it's back. We've culled it.

 

[CDennis]

Wow, that's awful. You made the right decision!

 

[elizabethbinary]

Thank you.

Does anyone know if we can still make dogfood out of him or something? Would the open wounds (less than an hour old) invite bacteria? Should I toss it?

 

[silkiechicken]

Open wounds invite bacteria, but bacteria do take time to grow up. I'd still cook it up for the dogs.

 

[elizabethbinary]

Quote:
Cool, thought so. Thank you. I'm a bit sad - my first one raised from an egg. First children of my baby boy I hand raised. But, food was food - a little sad it wasn't MY food too, haha.

 

[elizabethbinary]

Bonus: bird has gorgeous downy feathers. Not enough to make a pillow but quite a bit. With a wash and next month's cull I should have 2 pillows, lovely stuff. In the pot for the dogs now. Thank you.