How to mourn?

[sierraforest]

I’m so sorry for your loss. Even though there have been so many helpful replies already, I thought I would chime in because I fairly recently lost a duck for the first time and because of and egg binding problem as well. She was sick and in decline for several weeks before her inevitable death but she continued to try to keep up with the others until her last day. I think they knew something was wrong with her but I don’t think they understood death (who among us does....and they had never experienced it before.). The reason I think that is that she passed away sometime around noon while they were all out foraging in the duck tractor and when I went to check on them mid-afternoon, she had passed but they were carrying on like she was just asleep or something (ie ignoring her) and came barreling out of the tractor for their usual treat of peas without a backward glance. That said, they DEFINITELY felt her absence in the subsequent hours, days and even weeks. She was the flock leader, which I think exacerbated the problem because all their lives she had been the one telling them all what to do. I stopped feeling like they were at a loss after about a month. It was super sad because there wasn’t any way to explain it to them or console them and nothing to do other than showing extra kindness by trying to sit with them more and giving them extra treats. She died last Thanksgiving and they are doing fine now (there are three surviving female ducks) so there’s plenty of hope that your girls will be okay once they’ve had some time to adapt.

I'm so glad you did post, Dux, and I appreciate you sharing your experience, too. I'm so sorry to hear about your little girl. And yes, I agree that the situation is worse since we can't explain anything to them, but my gosh, am I heartened by everyone's messages and the knowledge that so many of us care this much about our animals.

 

[sierraforest]

I have so enjoyed having them. I call them my "feather covered happy pills".
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Beautiful!