Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RoyalChick]

Hold it. How does that diagnosis, compared to the other possibilities, make this so especially horrible? I think you are experiencing the second-guessing that grief brings. Please forgive the following rant, but I hope this will ease your mind some:

It is not how much cancer you have but what & where it happens to be impinging on, interfering with, pushing against (or not) that causes pain and discomfort. People can go along with a lot of cancer in them and not know it, and I would guess chickens too. That is why cancer is such a sneaky disease. I'm being flippant but in some ways I would rather have deadly cancer than deadly infections like salpingitis, where infection eats away at you right from the get-go and one has pain right away. One can live pain-free with quite a bit of metastasis. The ascites itself causes discomfort because of volume and you did help her there. Cancer in joints and bones can be painful, yes. Unless it originates there, for most people that is close to the end of their journey. Masses in the belly and elsewhere aren't necessarily painful.

But understand that pain can change as the disease of cancer progresses. It can even go away, and then pop up eventually somewhere else. Know that it's not necessarily a cumulative experience of pain as the cancer spreads. Humans can also have extremely painful non-cancerous cysts or growths, or be filled with cancer and be fairly pain-free, it depends. It's a judgement call between patient and doctors on how to treat, what pain meds to give and when and how to administer palliative care when needed. Everyone's experience is unique.

Often, our perception of cancer patients' trials and tribulations - the severe weight loss, the paleness, the hair loss - often that is due to the treatments, which can cause nausea, taste loss, blood problems, etc, not necessarily the cancer! Humans are able to eat a lot of calories. Maybe chickens cannot make it up the way humans can? Cancer is indeed hungry, it is rapid cell division, and weight loss can be due to the inability to keep up with the demands of both the cancer and the normal cell metabolism. But humans may both lose weight or gain weight with undiagnosed cancer. Ruby was eating and pooping up to her last days as I understand it, so in my opinion she was not likely blocked until the very end.

You observed Ruby very carefully. She had what appeared to be many good days in this journey because of your care. Try to remember that.

Very well said. Any pain is from the pressure of the fluid and the drainage helped her there.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

No I think this is not right.
Euthenize when an animal is unable to live a good life. The cause doesn't matter. Chickens (and cats) are hard to judge because as prey animals they hide weakness, and that is why careful observation of your chickens is so important.
To me that is the lesson here.
@micstrachan watches her ladies very carefully and I have full confidence that she was able to tell when Ruby had good days and when she stopped having good days.
We should all aspire to knowing our friends that well so we can make those difficult judgements at the right time.

I agree. This is why I don't understand what @micstrachan is trying to say. If it were found out somehow to be cancer versus another disease, how is that worse? What do you do with that information other than what she did, which was palliative care up to the end? Ruby had reasonably good days right up to her death, which was relatively quick. It would be hard to figure out when to euthanize, if that's the alternative, seems to me.

 

[rural mouse]

Sylvia & Legertha? I wasn't sure what those babies were...they were just awesome cute! (I thought Polish had a large bump on their head...plus the feathers...they seem to only have a small top-knot) I seem to have hopped onto BYC/this thread after he already had them & was posting pics.

So...ooops, my bad.

I'm only up to the early 600ish page wise..then read the recent posts....It can be quite confusing, actually...it's like I'm in a time warp sometimes -trying to plow through old & still read new...with roughly 5500 pages and LOTS of changes in between, lol.

I need to read the old stuff faster so I'm up to speed. It is soooo daunting, though, the # of pages!

Keep after it. I'm down to around 220 pages behind, having plowed through the rest.... it helped to think in terms of months behind. Early on, those months went by quickly.

Blurry rooster cheer. He even called me out for a feral cat this evening.

 

[rural mouse]

Sylvia & Legertha? I wasn't sure what those babies were...they were just awesome cute! (I thought Polish had a large bump on their head...plus the feathers...they seem to only have a small top-knot) I seem to have hopped onto BYC/this thread after he already had them & was posting pics.

So...ooops, my bad.

I'm only up to the early 600ish page wise..then read the recent posts....It can be quite confusing, actually...it's like I'm in a time warp sometimes -trying to plow through old & still read new...with roughly 5500 pages and LOTS of changes in between, lol.

I need to read the old stuff faster so I'm up to speed. It is soooo daunting, though, the # of pages!

Keep after it. I'm down to around 220 pages behind, having plowed through the rest.... it helped to think in terms of months behind. Early on, those months went by quickly.View attachment 2857877
Blurry rooster cheer. He even called me out for a feral cat this evening.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I fear (secretly hope) that you may be right. I'm here for them if needs be.

They just told you I'm right!

 

[Chicken poppy]

Definitely going to need a video of that!

Ill try and film it tommorow!

 

[micstrachan]

I plan to be up before the sun observing. It will be in Phyllis's control tomorrow morning but I will be ready to separate them if needed.

I'm so nervous.

Hang in there!

 

[micstrachan]

You didn't know.

Do vets take blood samples to check for cancer?

I don’t know. Good question and I will ask.

 

[MaryJanet]

But what does this mean to everyone here? Euthanize if it is thought to be cancer? Suppose it is not? Do vets do biopsies? I haven't heard of that being done. So then it is a best guess situation?

Just reminding that I speak from Australia, where the veterinary industry is perhaps more regulated than it is in the US.

In my experience, the hens' vet is usually quick to recommend imaging. He used imaging in diagnosing Peggy's broken liver. After the image had established the need for exploratory surgery, that's what he recommended and what I agreed to. Surely similar diagnostic procedures would support a diagnosis of most chicken diseases.

From what I've been told on byc, I have learned that very few people have access to similar standards of veterinary care for their chickens.

 

[BY Bob]

They just told you I'm right!

You are very wise.