Do I have to cull this chick?

[jag24659]

OK, thanks for more details! I'll see if I can manage to pull this chick through. I also suffer serious chronic illness and pain, so I'm maybe more sensitive to most about refusing to leave any creature suffering if the best course of action is culling. That said, it's not something I want to do. Hopefully she'll turn around.

 

[happyhens1972]

I can understand your viewpoint....you obviously have a personal insight into the subject of suffering BUT equally if someone had said that it would take just a couple of weeks to be sorted, you'd have a different outlook on the interim pain.

I'm so sorry that you don't have such a simple answer to your own issues and hope your little chick will be right as ninepence soon xx

 

[JD123]

OK, thanks for more details! I'll see if I can manage to pull this chick through. I also suffer serious chronic illness and pain, so I'm maybe more sensitive to most about refusing to leave any creature suffering if the best course of action is culling. That said, it's not something I want to do. Hopefully she'll turn around.

How is your little chick doing?

 

[jag24659]

She died yesterday evening. I'd been trying to get her to drink by dipping her beak in water, which worked in the beginning. I got the nutridrench, and used that with the mashy mix that was suggested. She didn't seem to be able to ingest anything properly, but I kept trying. She kept her energy up for days, was chirping and rolling around. She wasn't ever able to straighten at all, though. It almost seemed like it was uncomfortable for her when I'd hold her with her spine straight.

Yesterday, though, she was totally different. By the afternoon she seemed to have lost her muscle tone and I knew she was going to leave. When I tried to give her fluids, it came out her nares quickly. It had been seeming to come out now and then before, but not to that extent. She wasn't interested in anything but being held, so that's what I did. She seemed content with that, to lay as twisted as she could in my hand. I should have culled her in the beginning. Waiting made it impossible to do, and she probably suffered during the six days she did live. I'm going to have to get right with it and just do it when there's another chick that hatches that has deformities that are incompatible with life. A sobering experience, to be sure. I don't know which of two possible hens was the mother. I know one was not, as her eggs are larger than the other two. I had four EE hatch, and only one was twisted. The odds that the 3 remaining eggs didn't come from the same hen as the twisted chick are slim, but possible. I'm just eliminating my white and wheaten from making EE, I guess.

 

[JD123]

I am sorry she passed but don't feel bad about your decision. You would have felt bad and questioned your decision either way, there is really no right or wrong in cases like this.

I would assume her deformities were a fluke, not a genetic trait, so I would not count your two parent birds out just yet. When you consider all that can go wrong with reproduction it really is a miracle that it goes right as often as it does.

Best of luck with your other chicks! It sounds like they have a great chicken mama!!!

 

[Quickster]

I am agreeing with JD. I don't know much about chickens, but I am a nurse who has seen hundreds? of families make life or death decisions for their loved ones. And not that it is in the same light, but I've had to make those decisions for several pets. Sometimes these decisions are black and white and sometimes they just aren't. But what I have learned is that sometimes, like the above poster said, there is no right and wrong. You do what you think is best and and you do it with love and that is the best you can do. I think sometimes guilt is unavoidable but you shouldn't have to beat yourself up for it. you did what you thought was best for the chick. You didn't want it to suffer needlessly and you tried your best. That is all that you can do.

 

[jag24659]

Thanks for the encouraging responses. I was an ICU nurse for over ten years....I've seen lots of suffering and death. I'm more familiar with humans. With a chick it's hard to know if it's something that can get better or not. It's sometimes hard to judge suffering, too. She was in the shell too long. I should have taken her out. I was afraid that it would kill her, though....but waiting actually did. She was a semi-large chick in a smallish egg. The EE who is lovingly called "The General" out of this hatch was just as big but came out of a much larger egg. The twisted girl was the first to pip. Then I waited 18 agonizing hours doing little to help. I did help eventually, but it was too late. Another also pipped with her but was not progressing. I was able to 'see' more with that chick, and did do more to remove parts of the shell. That chick came out OK. Being very new to this (this was my second batch in the incubator...the first only 2 hatched), it's hard to know *what* to do in terms of helping when they don't progress or not. The first batch in the incubator, 3 of the 4 eggs that didn't hatch had babies in them. 2 of those looked like they were ready to come out. So I wanted to get more aggressive with the chicks that pipped then seemed to tucker out, but everything I read said not to. This is HARD. My retirement dream was to farm. Well, it came early because I'm now disabled. I'm thankful I have so much help from my spouse and son in caring for them so that I can still have part of my dream. Watching the beginning of life with these chicks... hearing them chirping IN the shell...rocking their egg... it's SO very cool!! I swear, The General came out of the shell running the show. Barely able to stand, she/he still supervised and helped with the hatching of every other chick in this hatch. She's STILL this way. I know who her mother is, so it's not surprising. The twisted girl was sweet, wanted to be held. Both the white and wheaten are this way. The Rooster for all is a very nice Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, so other than calm and collected...he only brings beauty to the chicks. I have Blue Laced Red Wyandotte chicks from this hatch that I'm keeping... because I only have one roo and one hen right now. The roo is show quality, and they both are beautiful. The Barred Rocks I'm going to phase out because they seem to be everywhere...and the cockerels can be an issue to sell because of their nature as roosters. Matthew (my BR Rooster) is very large, very protective of his girls, and is just STUNNING. When I took him to the vet, all the girls in the office were just going nuts over him. He was still very docile (was younger and away from his hens). Now he's older, and just changing water and food can be a dangerous mission, lol! He reminds me of the old Kellogg's Corn Flakes box. The rooster that was on there? It was different 30 plus years ago, and every time I see Matt crow.... I'm transported back to my grandparent's farm in the early night. The barn lights on, the crickets chirping so loud... and me eating Corn Flakes in my pajamas before I went to bed. (I had stomach issues since birth and had to eat small amounts many times each day.) That farm was a personal oasis for me growing up. The home I bought (although I have much less land) reminds me so much of their farm that I have deja vue frequently. Not the disturbing kind, but the kind that puts you at peace. I also have 2 Nigerian Dwarf goats. One I got at 3 days old. What an experience! My grandfather was a farmer, although he didn't do livestock. One of my aunts had a farm with her husband, and he did do livestock. My mind has slowed since having some small strokes. I'm finding that the slower life is perfect for what I want to do now. Just trying to cope with the death and hard choices in the midst of so much miracle of new life is hard. It's a little hard (especially when ribbed by other poultry farmers) when I cry and feel so much guilt when I lose a chick. It does ring true, though, that it's surprising that so much goes right. Sorry for rambling! Thank you, though, for asking and understanding. I feel responsible for each and every life started on this farm. When I make the choice to hatch instead of put in the fridge to sell as part of a dozen; the responsibility for that potential life begins. Maybe someday it will just be a 'business', but for now it's a small farm business run like they're all my pets. I can't wait to incubate my Blue Copper Marans, but so far I've sold every egg they've laid as a hatching egg. Good for building business, but I suck at patience, lol! This is a difficult adventure, but one I'm very grateful to have had the chance to experience! I've learned a LOT from here... even if I don't post much...I'm reading! Thank you again.

PS...also true, I would have felt guilty no matter what. Only difference is I wouldn't wonder about the prolonged suffering. Instead, I'd wonder if she would have been saved.

I am so sad that she died. She had that "fighter" look in her eye. I would have kept her for myself. Now, I can only keep her in my heart.