- Mar 4, 2008
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I posted this at dom_bird, too, but wanted to post a picture of the prolapsed oviduct, too, for future reference for others trying to diagnose a prolapsed vent. She was a year old Rhode Island White hen. I had to chop her head off yesterday. She had a prolapsed oviduct, which I tried to fix a couple of times. But shes had this prolapse for at least two months now. Today there was an egg bound in it, too, and hanging outside her body. Today was also the first time she looked to be in pain. Up until now, she acted perfectly well, so I kept letting her be. Yesterday she stood still and fluffed up and not moving around the yard as much as the other chickens. Today I had to psyche myself up euthanize her. I dont take chickens to the vet (hundreds of dollars) and I dont let them suffer and just die a slow death if they are terminal. The only way I know how to dispatch with a chicken is to chop its head off. I have never tried wringing their necks or the like; not confident enough to get that right. Dropping a hatchet, however, is a more detached feeling, because you dont really have to feel the body at all. You just whack the hatchet and it feels like going through wood. But the process I take in order to chop a chickens head off is somewhat involved. I dont just grab it and chop. First I put an old sock over the chickens head. This makes the chicken nearly fall asleep, as they are simplistic creatures. Also, with the sock, I dont have to see its little face. Then I lash the chicken to a board in a certain way (if you really want to know I can tell you, but its all rather macabre.) Finally, after all these preparations (that I wont go into) I drop the hatchet. The chicken cant go anywhere because its legs are lashed to the board. Yesterday, however, the wire around its legs broke off of the board after I decapitated it. (Note to self: next time use stronger wire.) It started to flap around quite a lot, and sort of hop away, because its legs were still tied together but not tied to the board anymore. I had to get in there and grab the body by the wings and pin them back like Ive seen people do. Then what do I do with it? I hadnt planned for this possibility. I looked around frantically and saw a plastic bin and so I threw the body under that, and grabbed a nearby heavy flower pot and set that on top of the bin so that there was no way the bird was going to be able to flop out of there. I was doing this all sort of hidden behind my deck, so no neighbors would have to see my deed. But then the body flopped around so now who knows who had to be a witness. Then I left everything right there and came into the house, but first I checked to see how much blood got on me after the flopping accident. I was wearing my apron and I didnt see any blood on it. Just a little on my boots. I was surprised I got out of there with not much blood spatters. I bagged up the carcass in a bunch of plastic bags and throw it in the trash. No big deal; I threw away a bigger bird carcass last week into the trash; the remains of the Thanksgiving turkey. All in all, the euthanizing didnt go too bad. My hand were only shaking a little when I was done, and Im glad the hen is not suffering anymore.
