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Honey Soy chicken has been having health issues for a number of months now, including swelling of the abdomen and apparent discomfort when moving and when roosting.
We got an appointment for her and took her to the vet; the swelling isn't just fluid (which can be removed) but some solids, and the 'survival option' was pretty much operation which was both costly and had no guarantee of her quality of life after.
I opted to have her put down.
The decision has been coming for some time, and in that time I've been contemplating the question of how to deal with the end of life for our laying chooks.
I feel like it's a holistic thing to contemplate the end-of-life options for our chickens, even if we're not going to eat them. Do I owe them a swift death? A death where I'm involved as someone who looked after them and cared for them, even if that was for a purpose of my own?
She was at the vet when the decision had to be made to put her down - B2 took her, because B1 and I had work, and she called us through the phone - and it cost only a little to have her sedated and put to sleep so the question of a personal death didn't come up.
It may very well be a citified, gentrified 'chook farmer' perspective to take - that one 'owes' an animal a good death - most people don't think of it in those terms in their culture, whether that's a farmer raising chooks for commercial eggs, or a rural owner who's more reasonable about these things, or a suburban backyard chook owner who thinks that having chickens means eggs and hasn't thought any more about the matter - certainly not about what happens once they stop laying.
I see the chooks as more than just egg-producers. That's one of their functions, but in my garden it's not primary. It's just one of their functions.
The burial will be...sometime. Probably tomorrow morning, if I can get the tree out of its position (it's a fig and the roots are pretty awful) and the hole dug deep enough that we don't have to worry about rats or dogs trying to dig her up.
I do wish that B1 or I had been able to take Honey to the vet; I'm pragmatic and B1 is realistic and we'd discussed what were the options for Honey (or any of the chooks) before, so we knew what the possibilities were. However B2 only sees the chooks on weekends, so she had to make her peace with putting Honey down in the vet's office.
Goodbye, Honey, spirited and ever-hungry, egg-layer extraordinaire, eater of bugs, dropper of ginormous manures, tiller of the soil. You were a good chicken by any definition. We shall miss your 'pecks of affection' when we didn't feed you the treats you wanted as fast as you wanted them, and you will be remembered in our garden.
We got an appointment for her and took her to the vet; the swelling isn't just fluid (which can be removed) but some solids, and the 'survival option' was pretty much operation which was both costly and had no guarantee of her quality of life after.
I opted to have her put down.
The decision has been coming for some time, and in that time I've been contemplating the question of how to deal with the end of life for our laying chooks.
I feel like it's a holistic thing to contemplate the end-of-life options for our chickens, even if we're not going to eat them. Do I owe them a swift death? A death where I'm involved as someone who looked after them and cared for them, even if that was for a purpose of my own?
She was at the vet when the decision had to be made to put her down - B2 took her, because B1 and I had work, and she called us through the phone - and it cost only a little to have her sedated and put to sleep so the question of a personal death didn't come up.
It may very well be a citified, gentrified 'chook farmer' perspective to take - that one 'owes' an animal a good death - most people don't think of it in those terms in their culture, whether that's a farmer raising chooks for commercial eggs, or a rural owner who's more reasonable about these things, or a suburban backyard chook owner who thinks that having chickens means eggs and hasn't thought any more about the matter - certainly not about what happens once they stop laying.
I see the chooks as more than just egg-producers. That's one of their functions, but in my garden it's not primary. It's just one of their functions.
The burial will be...sometime. Probably tomorrow morning, if I can get the tree out of its position (it's a fig and the roots are pretty awful) and the hole dug deep enough that we don't have to worry about rats or dogs trying to dig her up.
I do wish that B1 or I had been able to take Honey to the vet; I'm pragmatic and B1 is realistic and we'd discussed what were the options for Honey (or any of the chooks) before, so we knew what the possibilities were. However B2 only sees the chooks on weekends, so she had to make her peace with putting Honey down in the vet's office.
Goodbye, Honey, spirited and ever-hungry, egg-layer extraordinaire, eater of bugs, dropper of ginormous manures, tiller of the soil. You were a good chicken by any definition. We shall miss your 'pecks of affection' when we didn't feed you the treats you wanted as fast as you wanted them, and you will be remembered in our garden.
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