Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Sally PB]

Tax:

The littles discovered the outdoors today.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

I like to sit with the dead.
I like to be there when they die.
It's not a morbid thing. I find it helps with the feelings of loss. There is no horror in it. We may die in a horrible manner but death puts an end to suffering and like birth, should be seen as a positive thing.
We have all sorts of problems with death in modern western society. We are constantly trying to prevent it and when it does happen the whole process is hidden away and the ceremonies after death has come and gone are for the living and most I find hypocritical.

With chickens it's extreme at both ends of live for the majority now. Hatched in incubators, killed by machines, many never even experiencing the wonders of nature. Disgusting really.
Ella had a good death. I would be happy to die just where she did with the same company.

I love this picture, both in fact. Just behind these two lies Ella. Maybe the chickens can see death walking up the allotments.
View attachment 3555053

@Shadrach My condolenceses for you.

I'm sure Ella is in a much better place.

She has not left you as she will always be with you.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good evening one and all!

Temperature is in the 80s.

Have a great day!

 

[TropicalChickies]

It depends on what the problem is. I'm less inclined to kill them than I was.
I came to a point where I was questioning exactly whose suffering I was trying to avoid, mine or theirs. I couldn't find a satisfactory answer.

Whenever I hear someone say, "Well, it's more humane to put the animal down" when a problem the animal could probably live with becomes more than that person wants to deal with, I think "Sure, more humane for the human."

A chicken with a severely injured leg, for example. I would try to amputate if that were the last option. I would rather live with one leg than die. I taught yoga to war vets with prosthetic arms and legs. They were glad to be alive. But I've heard people say, "Oh but if the animal can't live a 'normal' life, it's more humane to put them down." What is normal anyway?

I spend at least thirty minutes a day tending to Butchie, my hen with some sort of reproductive disorder. Any maybe gout -- her feet are a little puffy and the legs stiff. Mainly I clean her butt, massage her crop and belly, pluck any truly disgusting feathers, and exfoliate and dust her skin between her feathers. She's not "normal" and sometimes taking care of her every single day for the past 8-9 months is a right royal pain in the ass. But she enjoys a great deal in life still, waddling around outside, keeping company with the dogs, chasing moths, pecking the little chicks, and eating. So I keep her clean and let her talk to me in her sweet way. I mean, seriously, who can resist this little fluff ball?

 

[fuzzi]

Tax:
View attachment 3555744
The littles discovered the outdoors today.

My Littles:

Tax?

 

[no fly zone]

Whenever I hear someone say, "Well, it's more humane to put the animal down" when a problem the animal could probably live with becomes more than that person wants to deal with, I think "Sure, more humane for the human."

A chicken with a severely injured leg, for example. I would try to amputate. I would rather live with one leg than die. I taught yoga to war vets with prosthetic arms and legs. They were glad to be alive. But I've heard people say, "Oh but if the animal can't live a 'normal' life, it's more humane to put them down." What is normal anyway?

I spend at least thirty minutes a day tending to Butchie, my hen with some sort of reproductive disorder. Mainly I clean her butt, pluck any truly disgusting feathers, and exfoliate and dust her skin between her feathers. She's not "normal" and sometimes taking care of her every single day for the past 8-9 months is a right royal pain in the ass. But she enjoys a great deal in life still, waddling around outside, keeping company with the dogs, chasing moths, pecking the little chicks, and eating. So I keep her clean and let her talk to me in her sweet way. I mean, seriously, who can resist this little fluff ball?

View attachment 3555817

I would gladly spend 30 min every day cleaning up Skeksis if she were still alive.

 

[MrsNorthie]

Warning: graphic description of a death for anyone who may want to skip this

It's not easy. I've done it twice in the past year. To our sweet puppy Suki who contracted a pneumonia fatal to young dogs and suffered a grand mal seizure, that had she survived, would have left her blind, deaf, and paralyzed until she had another one. We were able to find a vet to give the injection (IV injections are difficult) but I also convinced him to show me exactly how to do it and bought tranquilizer and a vial of the stuff so I would be equipped to do it myself on another dog if I had to. It's in a very safe place. That might sound crazy to Americans or Europeans, but here vets realize that if your animal gets poisoned or snake bite and is convulsing, you can't always get into a town to avail of their service. A tree could be down on the road. There could be a monsoon. Lots of things.

I've only ever put one chicken down myself and that was a 2.5 year old hen named Lita. Joanie's death via suffocation from her lungs failing was drawn out because I just didn't know what to do and I swore I wouldn't let that happen again if I could help it. Joanie commanded a lot of respect from the flock and Cleo and Butchie sat with her for the entire day that she was gasping for breath But she didn't die until late at night when they had gone to roost and I was the only one there. I always felt like I should have ended her suffering at dusk that day.

So I had one of our farm helpers show me exactly how to do it in what I thought would be the most painless way I could handle without error -- cutting the throat with a scalpel and bleeding the animal out. (I don't trust myself to do the neck breaking thing -- I could hesitate in the moment and cause the chicken more pain). I went to their farm to see it. And yes, it is somewhat brutal, but if you suspend the bird properly in a cone, the chicken passes out within barely a second of the incision and bleeds out. There's none of the infamous running around without a head spouting blood spectacle.

Poor Lita's problem would have been seen as a boon to a more production minded keeper. She laid enormous eggs, almost every day, at least two double yolkers per week. And she was not a big hen, her pelvic bones were quite narrow. So she prolapsed repeatedly, every few weeks I would have to clean the prolapsed mass and put in back in. I cut her rations to try and reduce her laying cycle. This went on for a year and a half. At some point, the mass simply wouldn't stay inside her body and naturally became infected. I gave her oxytetracycline, but it was irreparable at that point, she was suffering horribly -- convulsing and literally shitting all over herself and I don't think anyone wants to linger in such a undignified and painful manner-- so I did what I had learned to do in that situation. She had no idea who or where she was at the moment, and she passed out immediately upon the incision.

Cherie and Cleo also were in that first group of sick chickens, and I'm actually happy they lived to be four years old and their deaths were quick, probably heart attack from what I've read.

If the chicken is simply fading away, and is in the company of friends, I would let them pass on their own. But I think (I hope) I did the right thing by Lita.

I guess one way to find peace with it is to ask, how would I want to die? If one's answer is, I would hope someone would take me out of this awful suffering, then I think one is obliged to offer that service to an animal.

I completely agree. Our Angus had metastatic bone cancer, one of the bones in his leg was barely connected. Our vet euthanized him, but I sat, holding him and talking to him through the process and for hours after he was gone. I could not let him suffer and almost 4 years, 3 dogs and 40 chickens later, I still mourn him. He was cremated and for now, his ashes are by my bedside table. I couldn't bear the thought of burying his ashes here, because, at the time, it looked like we would be moving to England (hubby was homesick.) Doing what is right, is seldom easy.

I don't think my heart will every actually heal, and I love all of the feathered and furry babies that we now care for and I know that eventually, it will lead to more pain, but that is the price we pay for loving.

 

[GregnLety]

Whenever I hear someone say, "Well, it's more humane to put the animal down" when a problem the animal could probably live with becomes more than that person wants to deal with, I think "Sure, more humane for the human."

A chicken with a severely injured leg, for example. I would try to amputate. I would rather live with one leg than die. I taught yoga to war vets with prosthetic arms and legs. They were glad to be alive. But I've heard people say, "Oh but if the animal can't live a 'normal' life, it's more humane to put them down." What is normal anyway?

I spend at least thirty minutes a day tending to Butchie, my hen with some sort of reproductive disorder. Mainly I clean her butt, pluck any truly disgusting feathers, and exfoliate and dust her skin between her feathers. She's not "normal" and sometimes taking care of her every single day for the past 8-9 months is a right royal pain in the ass. But she enjoys a great deal in life still, waddling around outside, keeping company with the dogs, chasing moths, pecking the little chicks, and eating. So I keep her clean and let her talk to me in her sweet way. I mean, seriously, who can resist this little fluff ball?

View attachment 3555817

Goldie, my naked neck hen injured her leg. It healed but not perfectly. She can walk but with a distinct limp. I have her in a chicken tractor with a young rooster that took up with her after his mom went back to her tribe. Goldie eats, drinks, lays eggs, chases bugs and my young pups. She has more heart than most people I know. There's no way I could put her down. Even before her injury she was a great hen with an easy going personality. She will range most of the fenced acre and a half when she free ranges. Here she is learning to walk again.

 

[Perris]

I came to a point where I was questioning exactly whose suffering I was trying to avoid, mine or theirs

That the keeper may be suffering badly is obvious from so many posts about dead and dying chickens on BYC. We here all know it, and I think we shouldn't ignore it when making these decisions.

 

[Perris]

And then there's the social issue - it's not just about physical suffering. When I let Maria in this morning Chirk immediately started chatting away, and I realized he must be lonely in the utility room; my occasional presence is a poor substitute for flock members'.