Mutha_Clucka
Chirping
Looking for any suggestions from more experienced chicken handlers on how to know when to cull & how to humanely & effectively put them down yourself.
BACKGROUND INFO:
I’m located in Los Angeles & I have a flock of now 7 hens. I hand raised all 7 from chicks. I got 4 that are 2 years old & 3 that are 1 year old. I got them from the Malibu Feed Bin (before it burned down sadly) & was told they have all been vaccinated.
During the recent California fires I rescued a 5 year old black silkie. She was a pet at a preschool that burned down & needed a home. I nursed her back to heath in quarantine until she was heathy enough to be slowly introduced to my flock. She seemed fine with them for a few months.
Last week the silkie wouldn’t come out the coop (I have 2 coops attached to a run) All my girls would squish to sleep in the other coop together rather than split up & sleep in the coop the silkie was in. When I would free range them, I’d had to pull the silkie out the coop to get her to be outside. She normally loved being in the garden & once out she seemed alright. I noticed she wasn’t eating much either, I ensured she had easy access to food and water but she still wouldn’t eat. This lasted for about a week.
Earlier this week I pulled the silkie out to free range & she fell over. She couldn’t stand, kept rolling around, totally unbalanced. She was weak, twitchy & had neon green diarrhea all on her vent, a little in the coop & it smelled. I knew it was bad. This was my first ever experience with a sick chicken like this. I removed her from the flock right away & knew I needed to act fast. I let the original owner know & she offered to pay to have her euthanized at a vet. I took her right away, not even sure if she’d survive the 15 minute drive there. I had told the vet that all I wanted was to simply humanely euthanize her & get a necropsy to see what made her sick & know how to care for my flock moving forward. Being in LA, agricultural & farming based resources are not accessible. The vet industry & animal culture is at times frustrating here when you need straightforward advice, easy treatment & or reasonable pricing. Anyways.. long story short despite my calling before hand, my multiple reiterations of what I needed & the obvious condition of the bird, they still took her, wanted her examed, put her on oxygen & we waited for 4 hours. They tried to still convince us to consider treating her with no idea what was actually wrong with her & zero guarantee. Super annoying. They tried to charge us $800! I was livid but got it down to $400 & was relieved when the whole thing was over. (Also helped I wasn’t paying)
I’m still waiting for the results of the full necropsy report however they say it may take weeks. After doing additional reasearch I would be surprised if it wasn’t Marek's! Everything I have found on her symptoms point to Marek's which scares me. I am treating it as such until told otherwise.
WHERE I NEED HELP:
After euthanizing one bird from suspected Marek's, I have been keeping an eye on my flock & they all seem relitively healthy. Ensuring extra immunity boosting foods, probiotics & electrolytes. I recently noticed though that one of my olive eggers (a little over 1 year old) laying hen isn’t eating much & her comb is small & pale compared to her flock mates. She also hasn’t laid in a few days but I haven’t noticed straining.
I have her quarantined inside the house in a rabbit cage. Besides her little to no interest in food, not laying & pale comb her energy seems fine, her eyes are bright & she is vocal. Some of her feathers are falling out I think from stress of quarantine but not super bad. I tried feeding her scrambled eggs twice & she took maybe one little nibble but otherwise wouldn’t touch it. I’m considering feeding her a little egg yolk with syringe as I read somewhere, she also has access to electrolytes in her water. I’ve only seen her drink recently in the last 2 days.
I know not eating is a pretty serious sign of illness but could she just be stressed, am I seemingly just looking for problems cause I’m worried or is this as serious as it seems?
My flock is small so I’d prefer not to kill her but also don’t wanna jeopardize my flock. I know realistically if it’s safer for my flock & better for her than I will cull her. (Plus wouldn’t mind eating her if I did.) I don’t wanna go to the vet again, just seems silly to me with the cost.
Should I continue to monitor her & try to see if I can help her get back to health or should I just bite the bullet & euthanize her? I’m leaning towards euthanizing but also maybe I’m being paranoid, would appreciate other opinions. What would you do if it was your flock?
SECOND QUESTION:
If I do euthanize her myself, I would like advice on how to do it myself. I have done some research & watched some videos but scared of doing it wrong. I don’t want her to suffer, prefer it to be fast & as humaine as possible. I’ve been considering the broomstick method as it seems like the best option for me, calming her down & cover her eyes if possible while doing it. I don’t have a lot of super sharp tools, unless I sharpen them but also am worried about missing if I went that route.
Thanks much for reading, sorry I wrote so much!
(Photo of silkie I euthanized)
BACKGROUND INFO:
I’m located in Los Angeles & I have a flock of now 7 hens. I hand raised all 7 from chicks. I got 4 that are 2 years old & 3 that are 1 year old. I got them from the Malibu Feed Bin (before it burned down sadly) & was told they have all been vaccinated.
During the recent California fires I rescued a 5 year old black silkie. She was a pet at a preschool that burned down & needed a home. I nursed her back to heath in quarantine until she was heathy enough to be slowly introduced to my flock. She seemed fine with them for a few months.
Last week the silkie wouldn’t come out the coop (I have 2 coops attached to a run) All my girls would squish to sleep in the other coop together rather than split up & sleep in the coop the silkie was in. When I would free range them, I’d had to pull the silkie out the coop to get her to be outside. She normally loved being in the garden & once out she seemed alright. I noticed she wasn’t eating much either, I ensured she had easy access to food and water but she still wouldn’t eat. This lasted for about a week.
Earlier this week I pulled the silkie out to free range & she fell over. She couldn’t stand, kept rolling around, totally unbalanced. She was weak, twitchy & had neon green diarrhea all on her vent, a little in the coop & it smelled. I knew it was bad. This was my first ever experience with a sick chicken like this. I removed her from the flock right away & knew I needed to act fast. I let the original owner know & she offered to pay to have her euthanized at a vet. I took her right away, not even sure if she’d survive the 15 minute drive there. I had told the vet that all I wanted was to simply humanely euthanize her & get a necropsy to see what made her sick & know how to care for my flock moving forward. Being in LA, agricultural & farming based resources are not accessible. The vet industry & animal culture is at times frustrating here when you need straightforward advice, easy treatment & or reasonable pricing. Anyways.. long story short despite my calling before hand, my multiple reiterations of what I needed & the obvious condition of the bird, they still took her, wanted her examed, put her on oxygen & we waited for 4 hours. They tried to still convince us to consider treating her with no idea what was actually wrong with her & zero guarantee. Super annoying. They tried to charge us $800! I was livid but got it down to $400 & was relieved when the whole thing was over. (Also helped I wasn’t paying)
I’m still waiting for the results of the full necropsy report however they say it may take weeks. After doing additional reasearch I would be surprised if it wasn’t Marek's! Everything I have found on her symptoms point to Marek's which scares me. I am treating it as such until told otherwise.
WHERE I NEED HELP:
After euthanizing one bird from suspected Marek's, I have been keeping an eye on my flock & they all seem relitively healthy. Ensuring extra immunity boosting foods, probiotics & electrolytes. I recently noticed though that one of my olive eggers (a little over 1 year old) laying hen isn’t eating much & her comb is small & pale compared to her flock mates. She also hasn’t laid in a few days but I haven’t noticed straining.
I have her quarantined inside the house in a rabbit cage. Besides her little to no interest in food, not laying & pale comb her energy seems fine, her eyes are bright & she is vocal. Some of her feathers are falling out I think from stress of quarantine but not super bad. I tried feeding her scrambled eggs twice & she took maybe one little nibble but otherwise wouldn’t touch it. I’m considering feeding her a little egg yolk with syringe as I read somewhere, she also has access to electrolytes in her water. I’ve only seen her drink recently in the last 2 days.
I know not eating is a pretty serious sign of illness but could she just be stressed, am I seemingly just looking for problems cause I’m worried or is this as serious as it seems?
My flock is small so I’d prefer not to kill her but also don’t wanna jeopardize my flock. I know realistically if it’s safer for my flock & better for her than I will cull her. (Plus wouldn’t mind eating her if I did.) I don’t wanna go to the vet again, just seems silly to me with the cost.
Should I continue to monitor her & try to see if I can help her get back to health or should I just bite the bullet & euthanize her? I’m leaning towards euthanizing but also maybe I’m being paranoid, would appreciate other opinions. What would you do if it was your flock?
SECOND QUESTION:
If I do euthanize her myself, I would like advice on how to do it myself. I have done some research & watched some videos but scared of doing it wrong. I don’t want her to suffer, prefer it to be fast & as humaine as possible. I’ve been considering the broomstick method as it seems like the best option for me, calming her down & cover her eyes if possible while doing it. I don’t have a lot of super sharp tools, unless I sharpen them but also am worried about missing if I went that route.
Thanks much for reading, sorry I wrote so much!
(Photo of silkie I euthanized)
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