How to euthanize - have a newly-hatched Coturnix chick with problems

[cottontail farm]

I missed that part. sigh.
If you want to freeze or gas something because you can't bear with having to kill it yourself, hands on, please get out of raising things that will occasionally need to be killed humanely.
if you're going to care for other creatures you owe them a humane death.

 

[cottontail farm]

sorry, 10 to 15 seconds is too long for any creature to suffer. why on earth would you inflict that? someone please explain to me how a person can justify doing that when other methods are instantanious?

 

[BantyChooks]

sorry, 10 to 15 seconds is too long for any creature to suffer. why on earth would you inflict that? someone please explain to me how a person can justify doing that when other methods are instantanious?

Did you read the article? It's not suffering, it can still breathe, and the way I understand it there's not the same replacement of Oxygen that CO2 uses. Wish I could find that study again that I saw. Ether is an anesthetic and was used on people for quite a while. I'm not so sure that decapitation is instant either.

 

[AmberLittlejohn]

If you couldn't bear doing it with your bare hands you could have dug a hole, placed the poor thing inside with a towel over it and shot it. That's how my husband has euthanized animals in the past. Anything that isn't instantaneous is cruel. I can't imagine why anyone would choose to freeze an animal.

 

[jvls1942]

I wouldn't mess with ether either..
in the first place, where would you find some ??
in the second place, a lay person might not be able to purchase it anyhow.
just cut the head off, and bury the remains under a flower..

 

[BantyChooks]

I wouldn't mess with ether either..
in the first place, where would you find some ??
in the second place, a lay person might not be able to purchase it anyhow.
just cut the head off, and bury the remains under a flower..

Please read the article, it's got more information. Starting fluid contains ether. No, it's not pure, but it seems effective, particularly for young birds.

I use decapitation myself now, but I see nothing wrong in making available another method for those that find it difficult to use hands on methods. Have sympathy for other people... don't attack them. That rarely changes anyone's mind.

 

[cottontail farm]

Did you even read the article? It's not suffering, ether is an anesthetic and was used on people for quite a while. I'm not so sure that decapitation is instant either.

Of course I read the article. I still don't understand how putting an animal in an enclosed box with a substance that makes you lightheaded and then making sure not to open said box is somehow better than instantaneous.

 

[baby-blue]

I have no experience with any of this, but I understand why OP would have frozen the little one. It’s not the best option, certainly, but I know that I would not be able to decapitate an animal, no matter the size. Reading how decapitation isn’t always as instantaneous and ‘clean’ as some put it makes me even less willing to do such a thing. I would hate for a sudden ‘last thought’ to cross my mind and to accidentally ‘misfire,’ causing the poor thing even more harm. Ether certainly seems like the most humane method, though I’ll have to research more to have a better grasp of all of the alternatives. Best of luck with healing and your other chicks, OP. May the good shine through all of this negativity and grief.

 

[BantyChooks]

Of course I read the article. I still don't understand how putting an animal in an enclosed box with a substance that makes you lightheaded and then making sure not to open said box is somehow better than instantaneous.

I don't see how having a chick pass out is cruel, particularly when the human involved is not experienced with more direct methods. For me, when I used that method several years ago, I was unsure as to how sharp my cheap scissors were and did not want to take the chance of them bending around the neck. I could have gotten some at the store, but the bird had its intestines prolapsed and driving all the way to the store and back (I'm in the sticks) would have taken way longer and been even worse for the poor thing. Later I was able to test my tools on already dead birds, adjust my methods, and then cull the bird with the expectation of a clean job. Uncertainty in these situations is not fun.

I feel that any further discussion on this matter would lead to unnecessary vitriol—but hopefully the OP has gotten enough information to make a less hurried choice in the future, if this situation ever comes up again.

 

[Arkady]

My sister's kids had miniature hamsters. When one of them needed to go to college she would go out and dig a hole, wrap the client in Kleenex, gently place it in the hole and give it a jolly good whack with a shovel. I think the long shovel handle helped, you know? Kind of gave some distance emotionally but surely effective.

That’s just awful. It might have given her some ‘distance’ but at the probable expense of the small pet. Being blindly bludgeoned in the hopes of the first blow doing the job is not a humane method of euthanization. And to do it to a healthy animal just because the kid had to go to college? Way to teach the kid to honor a commitment - not. Different people have different values, I guess.