I have a very nice Mille Fluer D'Uccle pullet I got from a show 4 months ago. A month later she got a big scab on her nose, and guess when I first noticed? At a show!! She had her head between her legs itching it and looked like an ill bird at a large show. Well about 6 weeks ago, she injured her leg. I didn't really do much abut it, as I guessed it would heal or something, well she has been hardly able to move lately. It is like both legs are paralyzed. If you put her on her back, she just stays there, she can't move either leg. So I moved her into a sling in a cage. It is an old fashioned horse saddle girth, the kind with all the little ropes. I put four little ropes behind her legs and the rest in front. It is to support her body weight. If any of you need a bantam sling and don't know what to use, use one of these. They work great. Then I take the metal buckle things and tied them with haystring to the top of the cage, to suspend her just a smidge. But she can't live like this forever, can she? If I need to disbatch her, I will nervously do it myself, which dispite 5 years with chickens, and currently almost 50, I have never done before. I usually have my dad do it, which he puts them on the ground and takes a dull old shovel and crushes their neck. Not very humane IMO. So I was thinking, drench a rag with starter fluid, stick it in a mason jar, then put her head in the mason jar, and wait an hour, just to make sure? I certainly don't want to wait 10 minutes and see her just barely alive. What should I do?
You can break its neck if you have to do it. I think it's better than suffocating her. My mom said they would break their necks, and once she saw an injured cat that someone ran half over that was still alive but no way it would make it and she pulled over and broke its neck to put the poor thing out of its misery....
Go to your local auto parts store and get a can of STARTING FLUID. Make sure it contains ETHER. Put her in a sealable containter (5 gallon bucket works well), spray the starting fluid in the container (make sure you get a good cloud going in there), put the lid on the container (tight) and walk away. This is the least physical way of culling an animal short of an injection.
I don't know about in your state, but here you can take your pets (chickens included) to the local SPCA and have them humanely euthanized. That is a nice option. I couldn't handle any other way.
Quote:This will work, but ether in liquid form will irritate mucus membranes of the eye, nose & throat. It would be less stressful on the animal to put it in a sealed container with a jar & rag soaked in ether. The fumes will make it go to sleep, then let the animal stay in the container for 45 minutes to make sure of an overdose.
Ether makes me puke,,,,, you ever smell it??? If you can't break a neck and make it instant,,,,, use dry ice.
From what I've learned here on BYC, the ether method actually suffocates them, which is why it takes them so long to die. That sort of seems inhumane, at least to me, to make them suffer for that long before dying, and I'm a bit claustrophobic - suffocating would be a horrible way to go, IMO. I've done a lot of research on this topic, and from what I learned it seems the most humane way is to sever their spinal cord (cut their head off). That being said, I'm not sure that I could ever do it. A very good friend recently did so, by tying the legs of the chicken together and tying the rope to a tree limb, and then QUICKLY cutting the head off. INSTANT death, rather than suffocation. JMO. Wish there was an easy and less "involved" way to do it that was also humane. I'm sorry you have to make this decision, but we should feel fortuante that we can make this decision for them and know when it is time. GOOD LUCK.
Quote:I never thought of that! I hate having to deal with humane killing, too. (don't we all)...I was going to suggest the state agriculture animal disease department, they will euthanize too for a lot less than a vet will and depending on what state you're in, do a necropsy very cheaply, then you might have a better idea what was wrong with her.