Thankyou...I only have 5 chickens and I did have one pass last year but have never had to do it myself so hoping we can do it. Even thought about seeing if a vet could possibly do it.
Took my girl to the vet and she has some fluid in her abdomen. He’s doing an X-ray but we are probably gonna put her down and vet offered to do a necropsy for free. I wanted to make sure we had done everything we could before giving up.
I applaud your good sense. I know how difficult this is for you. Post the necropsy results. We will be very interested.
Will do...I feel at peace with my decision. The vet is such a nice guy and wants to learn more about chickens since so many of his clients have them and he has his own too. He told us that no matter how good our care was, Biscuit was not going to make it.
I'd like to hug both you and your vet for being willing to go the extra mile for your sweet 'Biscuit'. So many vets around us will not touch poultry. Our nearest is in Columbia at the school of Veterinary Medicine which is quite a drive for us if we are hauling a sick bird. After reading this thread fully I have to ask if you had your birds vaccinated for Marek's Disease? You said you lost a bird to a short illness before Biscuit fell ill from what now suspiciously sounds like a reproductive infection or cancer both of which are seen in Marek's disease. I hope it isn't that. But it might be something you may want to ask your vet to be on the lookout for. I'm so sorry for your loss. Your girls are so lucky to have you as their chicken mom and no, do not apologize for shedding tears over your flock. I've cried a river over mine during the almost 5 years that I've been keeping chickens..
Yes, kudos to you and your vet both. You have definitely gone the extra mile for Biscuit, and we're glad a vet was available for her.
THANKYOU! As far as I know, they were vaccinated. We got them from a small family owned poultry farm that raises them for the first five weeks. Its nice because they are coop ready but still babies. We were told they had vaccinations. I think my girl last year had impacted crop. I Tried to massage it, she vomited and then aspirated on it. I really beat myself up over that one. They are all about 3 1/2 years old. I’m lucky that I’ve only lost 2 so far. I know as they age, it will get more common.
Thank goodness! And don't beat yourself up. We all learn by trial and error when we keep chickens. Science and medicine is geared towards the meat and egg production farms and not towards the hobbyist backyard flock owner. Your first loss made you better able to recognise the second incidence of crop problems. I lost a speckled sussex hen to crop problems. Turned out she had a tumor either in her crop or beside it. I could feel it even when her crop was empty and it felt smooth instead of lumpy like a crop impaction or feed filled crop feels. So I know how frustrated it makes you. I treated my girl for a year before I could feel the tumor and made the decision to put her down. Hopefully your losses will be over for a good long while.
The vet called just a few minutes ago and said that Biscuit's lower abdomen was full of cancerous tumors. Those caused a blockage in the intestines which slowed everything up...causing the sour crop. He said that it looked like it had been going on for quite awhile because she was way too thin. He said we probably just didn't notice her decline which is true. He let us know that we did the right thing which made me feel a lot better. I had a dream, last night, that he told us that "we put a healthy bird down" and after that I never could go back to sleep. I feel so much better now and at peace with my decision. Luckily, I now know where to take my chickens if we need a vet. He loves chickens and wants to learn everything he can about them.