Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[Happy Chooks]

jajean - I'm sorry this one didn't go well for you. I know how awful it feels when it doesn't go as planned.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

Sorry you had a rough time of it. Glad you still have some time with your cat though! I really do think that doing one bird is much harder than doing several at once.



I am completely done processing for the year!

I did my last batch of 10 yesterday. I actually sold the birds (just didn't need them) and the freind that bought them wanted to be taught how to process. So I was the teacher. It went pretty smooth fo rthe most part. I did have a couple that didnt' bleed out very quickly, the birds were unconcious but still breathing and heart beating. On those I just went ahead and broke the spinal cord. It took a bit longer than expected about 2 1/2 hours for 10 birds, but with a newbie and just the two of us no too bad!

 

[LindaB220]

Sorry you had a rough time of it. Glad you still have some time with your cat though! I really do think that doing one bird is much harder than doing several at once.



I am completely done processing for the year!

I did my last batch of 10 yesterday. I actually sold the birds (just didn't need them) and the freind that bought them wanted to be taught how to process. So I was the teacher. It went pretty smooth fo rthe most part. I did have a couple that didnt' bleed out very quickly, the birds were unconcious but still breathing and heart beating. On those I just went ahead and broke the spinal cord. It took a bit longer than expected about 2 1/2 hours for 10 birds, but with a newbie and just the two of us no too bad!

Good job!!!!! Kudos. Two and a half hours is not bad at all.

 

[jajeanpierre]

jajean - I'm sorry this one didn't go well for you. I know how awful it feels when it doesn't go as planned.

I don't think anything went "wrong" really, but nothing was easy that's for sure. The soft vocalizations really broke my heart. These birds vocalize softly when they are a little frightened or worried when I've caught them up, so I just think he was feeling a bit worried--nothing more than if I were carrying him, but it still just broke my heart because he was just such a big dopey bird. I worked so hard to save him to save him when he had that sudden liver issue and couldn't even hold his body upright while laying down for a day, tubing fluids into his crop four times a day, and then having him recover instead of dying as I expected and growing into such a big goofy bird--somehow it just made is difficult. Plus, he was so healthy, vibrant and big. He's the first black cockerel I've processed and his feathers were just stunning. To have that magnificent body, so healthy, so shiny lying dead on the counter from my hand did a real number on me. The blue and splash cockerels just don't have the shine and vitality of a healthy black cockerel's plummage. It just really bothered me. I couldn't sleep all night.

I hope that the three young cockerels from a June hatch settle in with the flock. They are now free ranging with the flock but sleeping in their own little dog house as I integrate them into the flock. At the moment there are five male birds--a nasty rooster (it will be a pleasure to dispatch that one, believe me!) that I've wanted to cull for a long time but I need a replacement rooster who will be good with the hens and good with me; a 9-month-old cockerel; and the three young ones hatched in June. I'm hoping the 9-month-old starts being super nice with the hens so I can just cull the nasty one and then I'll have three more to grow up and decide who to keep. I hope my next bird to process will be that nasty rooster--it will be a joy to dispatch him and I can dispel all my angst over the one last night.

 

[hennible]

It's hardest when it's a bird you've nursed back to health... Sounded a bit like what happened with the drake I butchered, nursed him back to health only to butcher him... I nicked his bowl too, nothing was easy. Any way it's done have good day.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

@jajeanpierre I know exactly where you are coming from, and that is another reason I wanted to learn to caponize. It always seems to be the roos that steal your heart and I want to be able to give the boys that we get attached to a chance to stay with my flock! I am sorry it is especially hard to dispatch one you nursed!

 

[jajeanpierre]

@jajeanpierre I know exactly where you are coming from, and that is another reason I wanted to learn to caponize. It always seems to be the roos that steal your heart and I want to be able to give the boys that we get attached to a chance to stay with my flock! I am sorry it is especially hard to dispatch one you nursed!

I'm sorry, but caponizing is something I am very much against. My avian vet tells me that there is a very poor success rate over the long term--enough testicular tissue usually grows back over time to undo the castration. He also is very disturbed by the animal welfare aspect of doing thoracic surgery on an animal that is not anesthetized. Just because an animal doesn't struggle or cry out does not mean it is not suffering. I can assure you from personal experience--after my second c-section, I was hemorrhaging and the nurses did a uterine massages. I have never ever ever experienced as much pain as a uterine massage--after a c-section to boot. I couldn't breath, I couldn't move, I couldn't cry out. I can't believe a cockerel doesn't suffer terribly.

 

[jajeanpierre]

@jajeanpierre I know exactly where you are coming from, and that is another reason I wanted to learn to caponize. It always seems to be the roos that steal your heart and I want to be able to give the boys that we get attached to a chance to stay with my flock! I am sorry it is especially hard to dispatch one you nursed!

I forgot to thank you for your kind thoughts. I do appreciate it.

 

[hennible]

I'm sorry, but caponizing is something I am very much against.  My avian vet tells me that there is a very poor success rate over the long term--enough testicular tissue usually grows back over time to undo the castration.  He also is very disturbed by the animal welfare aspect of doing thoracic surgery on an animal that is not anesthetized.  Just because an animal doesn't struggle or cry out does not mean it is not suffering.  I can assure you from personal experience--after my second c-section, I was hemorrhaging and the nurses did a uterine massages.  I have never ever ever experienced as much pain as a uterine massage--after a c-section to boot.  I couldn't breath, I couldn't move, I couldn't cry out.  I can't believe a cockerel doesn't suffer terribly.

Yes that is painful... The post C section massage is as painful as labour.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

I'm sorry, but caponizing is something I am very much against. My avian vet tells me that there is a very poor success rate over the long term--enough testicular tissue usually grows back over time to undo the castration. He also is very disturbed by the animal welfare aspect of doing thoracic surgery on an animal that is not anesthetized. Just because an animal doesn't struggle or cry out does not mean it is not suffering. I can assure you from personal experience--after my second c-section, I was hemorrhaging and the nurses did a uterine massages. I have never ever ever experienced as much pain as a uterine massage--after a c-section to boot. I couldn't breath, I couldn't move, I couldn't cry out. I can't believe a cockerel doesn't suffer terribly.

If the surgery is preformed properly at a young age then risk of regrowth is low. If any tissue to left behind it will regrow. Older birds tend to have more fragile testes. From research (I am a very science based person) as well as hand on experience I know that they do not have the same nerve reseption that we do, not to say they do not feel pain but it is not in the same way at all. It is one of those things that will always be up for debate!