Is it her time?

[dawg53]

@Chookchicken called it right.
@Ascholten It sounds like she's going to be okay, thanks to you.

 

[Ascholten]

She hides under the nesting box most the day. Its very close to the coop, right there by the food and water and a quick wobble back into the coop. It's out of the sun, but she gets a little, and a quick flopple over to the plants to nibble and hide in.

she eats very little now, but since she's not running around all day, Id assume her metabolism has slowed way way down. But she DOES actively eat, and nips at the other girls when they get too rambunctious around her, when eating, so she still says, I am Alpha, you WILL behave around my table !! to them.

Is she happy though? The others spend their days foraging the yard, she seems content to just watch them now. is it a comfortable, grandma in her rocking chair watching the kids, smiling to herself how wonderful life has been, or is it a feeling of emptiness, a feeling of, I should be doing that, but im worthless now and stuck in this shell of a body until I die.

Quality of life means a lot. A mindless entity that you are drizzling feed down it's face is NOT living. She DOES come up to me in the morning and lets me pet her. She WILL make an exception to come for treats, when I bring them out and not just sit comfy, and she DOES pick at the others and set some sort of order about her. So she is still cognizant, but is she happy?

should I just trust that when she no longer wants to live she'll just stop eating, and be happy with that, or should I realize that I am being selfish and possibly keeping her alive when nature would have done otherwise,. Medicine and knowledge let us do wonderful things to prolong life, but it can also let us do things but for the wrong reasons, wrong intents, and wrong outcome. I guess as long as SHE is the one doing the eating and im not having to force her, then she's... happy.

I guess my biggest problem here is. Am I prolonging her Life, or am I prolonging her death? Only she knows that, and while I have learned pretty well how to speak with cockatoo's, I haven't learned my Chickenese very well yet.

Aaron

 

[Tookie]

If she's eating, drinking, walking some, and pecking the others then she is probably happy. You'll know if she's suffering if she stops eating and drinking. I would let her live until you think she's going more downhill.

 

[Chookchicken]

I don’t think your prolonging anything, if she didn’t die when she had the stroke she wasn’t going to die. Your helping her quality of life for the remainder of her life. What will most likely end up killing her is another stroke. She likely won’t starve to death or die of dehydration. The longest one of my hens had lived after having a stroke is 3 weeks, of course it changes a lot depending on the chicken and can be shorter or longer.

You are doing your very best and taking extremely good care of her. I imagine she is very thankful to have you.

 

[Ascholten]

This morning it appears she had another stroke.
She was very bad off.
I had to put her down.
Thank you everyone for caring.

Aaron

 

[Chookchicken]

This morning it appears she had another stroke.
She was very bad off.
I had to put her down.
Thank you everyone for caring.

Aaron

I’m very sorry. You did your very best and I salute you for it. It is a tough decision to make but in the end it was for the best. May she Rest In Peace

 

[RoyalChick]

This morning it appears she had another stroke.
She was very bad off.
I had to put her down.
Thank you everyone for caring.

Aaron

So sorry. I did not post before but was following along. I really admire how thoughtful you have been thoughout this about quality of life and prolonging life or death.
In parallel I was dealing with a very sick chicken who was much younger - but your thoughts helped me as I was deciding what to do.
My lady died after I think a mainly happy life earlier this week.
So sorry for your loss. I for one think you did the right thing at every turn. I know you will miss her.

 

[Ascholten]

For those wondering and lets not let her death be in vain, let us learn from it.
The topic has been broached a few times before about humane euthanization with people all over the place on every method.
I used CO2 to put her down. I put her in a large bag, poofed the air out of it and filled it with CO2 from a bottle and a regulator that you would use for a beer kegger.

She sneezed once and then slowly went limp over a period of about 15 to 20 seconds. I could see her breathing when she was in the bag, and it took about maybe a minute for her to stop breathing totally after introduction of the CO2.

No kicking, no fussing, no screaming, agony or signs of horrible distress. She fussed a little bit when I put her into the bag initially so it was not like she was stroked so bad she would not have been able to if she wanted to. If she was stressed she would have been able to show it. From my POV it was painless for her, from her POV, she went to sleep for lack of a chicken verb to describe it.

This is the 3rd bird now I have had to put down using CO2, and every one has been peaceful quick and quiet.

Just some food for thought if anyone else finds themselves in the place of having to take care of a loved pet and wondering how.

Aaron

 

[Tookie]

This morning it appears she had another stroke.
She was very bad off.
I had to put her down.
Thank you everyone for caring.

Aaron

I'm so sorry she passed.

 

[Tookie]

For those wondering and lets not let her death be in vain, let us learn from it.
The topic has been broached a few times before about humane euthanization with people all over the place on every method.
I used CO2 to put her down. I put her in a large bag, poofed the air out of it and filled it with CO2 from a bottle and a regulator that you would use for a beer kegger.

She sneezed once and then slowly went limp over a period of about 15 to 20 seconds. I could see her breathing when she was in the bag, and it took about maybe a minute for her to stop breathing totally after introduction of the CO2.

No kicking, no fussing, no screaming, agony or signs of horrible distress. She fussed a little bit when I put her into the bag initially so it was not like she was stroked so bad she would not have been able to if she wanted to. If she was stressed she would have been able to show it. From my POV it was painless for her, from her POV, she went to sleep for lack of a chicken verb to describe it.

This is the 3rd bird now I have had to put down using CO2, and every one has been peaceful quick and quiet.

Just some food for thought if anyone else finds themselves in the place of having to take care of a loved pet and wondering how.

Aaron

I saw somewhere here on BYC that someone put dry ice in a five gallon bucket and put the chicken in the bucket, and then put the lid on. I think they said it took less than a minute for the chicken to die.