- Apr 22, 2014
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Last Friday was as very emotional day here. I got to come home from a little over a month at the hospital (Some health issues - I should be fine now.) and join my wife Yvonne at home again. Great joy!!! And we found Casey had prolapsed again, this time much worse than the first time:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...prolapse-first-time-treatment-for-me.1144845/
The first time around was very hard on her and she had to spend almost 3 months in the house (most of it in near complete darkness). This made her so unhappy that she stopped eating and had to be tube fed. We put her through it though because she was a new layer and we hoped that we might "fix" her. It seemed we did for about 5 months, but then she prolapsed again. Every time a bird prolapses, it increases the chances that it will happen again and now she was a mature layer and should be able to lay without problems. From all the info that we could get the possible solutions are:
1. Fix it again and hope for the best. -- After having prolapsed twice, it is likely that this would be a chronic issue and as I said the first time was very hard on Casey. Doing it repeatedly throughout her life when she was "healthy" for such a short period in between did not seem like a good answer.
2. Hormone shots forever. I have read there are shots that can be given to stop the laying but they have mixed results and are not a reliable long term solution - better for short term healing so this wasn't really an answer either.
3. Surgery. There is a very risky surgery to remove the egg - laying portion of the duck. It is very invasive and expensive and I have also read that sometimes a duck will regrow enough capability to still have problems. The vets we have here aren't very highly experienced at this level with waterfowl, and so that probably jacks up the risk another notch. If it was just money and a simple procedure, we might consider it, but to dump a bunch of money into a risky endeavor which would leave her with even more healing than the initial problem, wasn't an answer we could live with either.
So with very heavy hearts, we made the decision to have Casey put down. We brought her to the vet Saturday to be euthanized. We have lost a couple of ducks before, but this was the first duck we ever had to put down. Our only solace is knowing that by taking her to the vet she drifted off into the next world without any additional pain.
She stood out in so many ways from hogging the camera lens as a duckling and eating Yvonne's earring, to kicking Kaine's butt. From always standing on Yvonne's knee to listening while I sang to her. She was one of our favorites, and we will miss her horribly.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...prolapse-first-time-treatment-for-me.1144845/
The first time around was very hard on her and she had to spend almost 3 months in the house (most of it in near complete darkness). This made her so unhappy that she stopped eating and had to be tube fed. We put her through it though because she was a new layer and we hoped that we might "fix" her. It seemed we did for about 5 months, but then she prolapsed again. Every time a bird prolapses, it increases the chances that it will happen again and now she was a mature layer and should be able to lay without problems. From all the info that we could get the possible solutions are:
1. Fix it again and hope for the best. -- After having prolapsed twice, it is likely that this would be a chronic issue and as I said the first time was very hard on Casey. Doing it repeatedly throughout her life when she was "healthy" for such a short period in between did not seem like a good answer.
2. Hormone shots forever. I have read there are shots that can be given to stop the laying but they have mixed results and are not a reliable long term solution - better for short term healing so this wasn't really an answer either.
3. Surgery. There is a very risky surgery to remove the egg - laying portion of the duck. It is very invasive and expensive and I have also read that sometimes a duck will regrow enough capability to still have problems. The vets we have here aren't very highly experienced at this level with waterfowl, and so that probably jacks up the risk another notch. If it was just money and a simple procedure, we might consider it, but to dump a bunch of money into a risky endeavor which would leave her with even more healing than the initial problem, wasn't an answer we could live with either.
So with very heavy hearts, we made the decision to have Casey put down. We brought her to the vet Saturday to be euthanized. We have lost a couple of ducks before, but this was the first duck we ever had to put down. Our only solace is knowing that by taking her to the vet she drifted off into the next world without any additional pain.
She stood out in so many ways from hogging the camera lens as a duckling and eating Yvonne's earring, to kicking Kaine's butt. From always standing on Yvonne's knee to listening while I sang to her. She was one of our favorites, and we will miss her horribly.
Sincere condolences.
