Hard Decisions

I am a softy, I will admit...I try and save any of my poultry who have been injured, born with a deformity, or get sick.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and sometimes it is just an impossible task to keep going for long.

I have had a few chickens with minor foot injuries, a case of Bumblefoot and a torn comb and waddle.  There was no option but to remove the rest of the comb, I couldn't do it...my husband did while I held the injured rooster named Napoleon.  I was able to perform the Bumblefoot surgery on my own on my hen Brown Racer, but I found out it was not that easy to get all of the infection out with the tools I had to use...I ordered a few items so maybe the next time it will be easier.

I even tried to save eggs that had embryos growing in them...some were born nice and healthy, others were not...one of my ducks that hatched under a broody hen had leg issues and did not grow, it's legs twisted in such a way that it scooted around the brooder, it stayed small and the others picked on it.  We kept it in a separate brooder for weeks, it just got worse.  My husband would take it out and hold it, watched TV with it and carried it around in his pocket.  It started developing sores on it's hocks, it could not swim...yet we tried to help it anyway.  I gave it extra vitamins, mixed up a special mixture of food for it, cooked it boiled eggs and oats for days.

We had some extremely hot weather and I lost a Salmon Favorelle young hen and my Rhode Island Red hen, Red Racer...I found her laying on the floor of the coop and she was stiff, yet she opened her eyes when I picked her up.  I took her and tried to cool her down by laying her in cool water in the shade, I tried to get her to drink but she couldn't stand up.  She died during the night.  I also found a chick that succumbed to what I thought was heat, but it ended up have a severe case of wry/limber neck.  I worked on the chick and hand fed it, for days...every two hours or so, I gave it droppers full of a Nutridrench, vitamins and a product called DYNE.  The chick did not get better, it's neck twisted so badly that it could barely swallow, it's crop filled and did not empty the mixture I had given the chick ran out of its mouth when it was picked up...you could see the poor things bones through its skin.

This is where the hard decisions come in, if one of my special poultry does not get better fairly quickly, I have to decide if I want to keep up treatment or not.  When my husband suggested culling the duck and the chick with wry neck, I was heart broken...but agreed that neither of them would live without extraordinary measures for the rest of their life.  I was spending far to much time, feeding and caring for the special needs poultry and not paying enough attention to the healthy ones...I think that is why I lost the two to heat.  

I agreed to his suggestion, it pains me greatly to have to put one down...even if my husband is actually the one who does it.