Hi all, I have just hatched two chicks from ebay-bought eggs and unfortunately both of them are very deformed. I don't think they will make it even through the next couple of days, and even if they do, it will probably be a miserable and a very short life. I called my friend who is a vet nurse and she suggested that the most humane way to put them down (apart from paying £70/head for the vet euthanizing them) will be to put them alive in the freezer, they will go to sleep in a couple of seconds and will be gone in a minute. I asked about other options I read on the forum (starter liquid, neck dislocation etc) but she advised strongly against this, as I have no experience and may just cause a lot of damage and suffering. I am just looking for other opinions. It sounded extremely cruel at first, but then I remembered a situation where the brooder cooled down due to the electricity blackout in the area, and even at 15C / 60F ambient temp the day old chicks got very sleepy, limp and lethargic literally after twenty minutes to half an hour. They all happily recovered, but it did not sound like they suffered or were in pain, there was no noise. Any thoughts?
More power to you, after 7yrs, ws still can't cull anything. If that bad, we have to call a cousin. A method I did try ONCE, that worked well, just damaged me psychologically, was using a Tupperware container with a smaller container in it where I'd mix vinegar and baking sofa to make CO2, which is very humane and painless to them. No noise or struggling. Use something smaller than a shoe box and put a small bowl inside of that. Place baby, put baking soda and vinegar together, close bowl and walk away for 10mins. Hope that helps those than can.