Why culling isn't always a bad thing

JacinLarkwell

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Mar 19, 2020
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South-Eastern Montana
I'm not looking for advice, I'm hoping to maybe explain why it's not always horrible to cull a bird because of attitude or injury (especially a hen that otherwise is a productive member of the flock) by using an example that just ended up happening a few days ago.

I had a quail hen that was named HeadBasher. Why? Because she was notorious for just suddenly jumping up and cracking her head open. Anything she was in that was less than a foot and a half was met with somehow nonlethal force and a loud bang. She turned 1 a little over a month ago, and for most of her life she had been doing this.

It was to the point where every time she did it, I expected her to die during the night. She would bleed from her eye and her eye shape had changed from normal circle to a skinny triangle because she was hitting it so hard. She developed a twitch and started to lay less frequently. After one bad time, she didn't lay for about a week and a half straight.

But she bounced back okay most times and she started laying every day again. We figured she would be fine because frankly, she always was, despite how her twitch became a bit more frequent, her eggs stoped coming almost every day again and her eyes changing shape still with each bash.

Multiple times we considered culling her because this could not possibly be good for her, much less painless. But we didn't because we were a bit attsched, and she still laid sometimes. Plus she kept my jumbo hen company before we merged 2 other hens into that house.

Two nights ago, she started seizing. No longer twitches, these were full blown knocking everything out of the way-cracking eggs when her wing hit them-vibrating and kicking in circles.

We think it was from the heat or a mouse causing them stress, but no one else had any sort of problems, so we're thinking that it was her numerous head injuries that made her fall to it.

Whenever we touched her, she would seize again. When I picked her up to take her to the house and cull to end this, each one was stronger than the normal death throes.

She didn't make it to the house. Halfway there, she let out a weak one and passed. We're waiting for nature to clean her skull so we can see just how bad the damage was.

But I can not imagine how waiting for her to just stop jumping and get better and then having it get her to the end this way was any kinder than a quick snip and then darkness months ago before she started causing so much damage to her skull and most likely her brain as well.


Edit: spelling
 
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why not rehome her to a less stressful home?
As OP stated, she already most likely had traumatic brain injury caused by the bird’s own behavior and inability to learn the simple fact that jumping up causes pain. Most creatures would learn this quickly. Rehoming would have solved nothing, and is a highly stressful event for any critter whatever their health or possibly ‘better’ place they would be going to.
 
why not rehome her to a less stressful home?
Because we don't do that here. No one is going to buy a self destructive quail, and if more than likely have to sell another female with her so she wasn't alone (no one around me raises them and it wouldn't be good for her to be by herself since they're social birds)
 
As OP stated, she already most likely had traumatic brain injury caused by the bird’s own behavior and inability to learn the simple fact that jumping up causes pain. Most creatures would learn this quickly. Rehoming would have solved nothing, and is a highly stressful event for any critter whatever their health or possibly ‘better’ place they would be going to.
OK. I thought she said a mouse was stressing them out. Quail usually jump or flush if they are startled.
 

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