More humane to cull? More humane to live?

[KingD]

You'll always get equal amounts of people saying 'dont cull!' to 'Cull!'
It's up to you really.
If it were me then I'd certainly have offed it by now. Not fair on the hen is my thinking.

 

[lancasterflock]

I agree that culling would be the humane thing to do. She would otherwise slowly starve to death which sounds worse to me.

I agree with you.... thank you

 

[lancasterflock]

Here’s a good article on how to peacefully euthanize chicks using ether.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...-sick-babies.72140/?page=2#ams-comment-509359

Thank you for this

 

[Snooky doodle]

If it were me, I would cull. Its a sad quality of life and she can't live like a free and happy chicken. Like @JacinLarkwell said, it may even die a worse and slower death. I think it would be a good idea to cull.

Agreed,there's a saying-you can't farm with your heart.Raising animals requires the strength to make very tough choices at times that can break your heart,but believe me it will get easier! A healthy chicken is estactic all the time-if it isn't there's something wrong.

 

[Painted Calls]

I'm so sorry that you're faced with this decision. Big hugs.

This is an extremely severe case. What is scary is that it's hard to tell how much worse it may get. The only right answer here is the one you can live with, and one that doesn't cause any suffering for her. Now or in the future.

If it is simply a matter of getting proper nutrition, that's easy enough to see to with supplemental tube feeding. It's easy and doesn't take long once you master it. However, this is a commitment that would need to be held for the bird's entire life. Some people just wouldn't be able to take on that responsibility, or extra expense. Which is understandable and okay. If that's not something you can commit to, I would cull her. It's hard to make this decision, but especially so when they are still perfectly healthy in every other way. As someone else mentioned, you could always try tube feeding for a week to see if that's something you want to do. If not, at least she won't be starving until you make your decision.

I personally would have culled when she was younger. That is neither here, nor there though. More hugs.

 

[Snooky doodle]

Chickens need to Groom themselves to remove ticks,lice and fleas! Without a normal beak she will suffer from flea infestation.

 

[micstrachan]

Heart warming video!

 

[micstrachan]

I’m very sorry you are facing this tough situation.

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

It's actually a decent video.

This video is really good. But this person had a lot of time to devote to this one chicken. Not everybody can really do this.
This would be a lifelong commitment (the life of the chicken).

 

[PollyGirl21]

My chick, Fern, had a cross beak like that. She could barely get any food down as it got worse. We decided to help her live as long as her quality of life I felt was okay. But when she got weak and boney and frail and obviously had a bad quality of life, we put her down.