Probable egg-binding, cost of care

[Sheather]

The above comment is awful and I hope this person is never in charge of me when I am terminally suffering.

Death is kindness in this situation. Leaving a bird to die in agony from an infected prolapse due to a stuck egg is not ethical. Please euthanize the bird, it is suffering enormously. In the future my preferred method of euthanasia is to drop the bird in a sock and as quickly as you can thwack it against a hard surface. It's as instant a death as can possibly occur to such a small animal and while there may be brief nerve reactions (a flutter or a twitch) the bird will be unconscious instantaneously. It's very cruel to let the bird suffer in this state for so long and if vet care is not available it is not optional for a bird owner to be competent at at-home euthanasia. Gas chambers are difficult to do in a way that doesn't produce suffering and fear for at least a few minutes, stunning is really the quickest way. Some people drown, but I think that's very inhumane because they panic.

[Fraza]

Why kill the bird where has this cake from and what gives us the power to do so


I belive let the birds life act as it would naturally if it’s body can’t copy it’s automatic mechanism is to slowly shut down and die therefore why should we decide to kill them before letting there body decide

[Icearstorm]

wildbird and Fraza

While she may have been fighting to live very recently, yesterday she appeared to have given up. Before, while she was still fluffed up and seemed uncomfortable, but she was still acting somewhat alive. She was still flying, eating, drinking, and bathing, and would sit next to her mate and fluff he head to request preening. She still had some quality to life. Not much, but some. It looked like if she could get the egg out, she might recover fairly easily (turns out it wasn't an egg after all, but I didn't know that then).

Yesterday she was huddled up near the floor and wasn't moving. I checked on her, and it was clear that she had stopped eating. Before when I got her out to administer calcium, I would give her some spray millet before putting her back, and she would go crazy over it. Yesterday I tried a similar thing. First she refused to drink. Then she rejected the spray millet. She just sat there, not doing a thing.

Yesterday that bird I saw before was gone.

[Icearstorm]

Sheather

Thank you. I will keep that in mind if there ever is a next time (I really hope not, but you know).

[Icearstorm]

Fraza, limechiffon, wildbird, Babs _Owner, and Sheather

She died in her nest box shortly after I posted yesterday, natural causes. It wasn't egg-binding after all. I don't know what it was, and probably never will. Perhaps it was cancer. The lump on her butt was solid and was separated from the organs, and did not appear to be a hernia or a feather cyst. If anyone thinks necropsy photos would be useful, I could provide them (preformed after finding her in rigor mortis, watching and seeing no breathing for several minutes). I took her out in the dark and did the necropsy in another room so I wouldn't disturb the other birds.

[limechiffon]

I'm so sorry to hear that. I was hoping for the best but at least if it wasn't egg-binding you know there was nothing you could really do.

[Fraza]

Sorry for ur loss she was such a nice finch and Atkeast nature took its course, I’m really guttted to I was hoping for the best too

All the best icestorm

[wildbird]

Sheather: And I hope I would never have anyone like you "caring" for me. I feel sorry for any birds in your "care". It is one thing to take one's own life and quite another to take the life of those who have no say in the matter.

[FinchLady]

Icearstorm So sorry about your little hen. I can imagine how difficult it was seeing her suffer. I know how much you care for your birds. You did the best you could for her under the circumstances. Be at peace with that.... these things just happen.

[Icearstorm]

Time to reopen this can of worms :/


First and foremost, thank you wildbird, Fraza, Babs, and Sheather for offering advice, and limechiffon and FinchLady for sending your best wishes. We may have differing views on practices in aviculture, but at the end of the day, we all want both our and other people’s birds to have good lives. I imagine that's why we participate on this forum, after all.


I seem to have gotten a bit sloppy with my words previously. I did not take my decisions lightly, but in hindsight I can see how it might have looked like I didn't care much. I don't want anyone to read this thread and think that making major decisions on a whim is acceptable. It's not. So I return here to clarify, and hopefully help others learn from my failures.

If I could see into the future back then and known that Macbeth would not have recovered, I should have euthanized her when she started having more bad days than good. Even with the limited amount of information I had at that moment, I still should have put her down when she stopped eating and drinking. I saw this as her way of giving up on life, and since she was not showing any sign of recovering; attempting to tube feed or otherwise keep her alive without targeting whatever was killing her in the first place would have been cruel and ineffective. I'm glad I didn't draw out anything any more than I did, but I still screwed up.

I should have ended her life as soon as she stopped eating and drinking to spare the last few hours of pain; however, I hesitated and failed to do that. So she died naturally. Death by starvation/dehydration is not a good way to go. The death of a pet is never going to be good, but I'd say natural death is still the worst of the two negatives in this case (active euthanasia versus a drawn-out death).

I suppose we could look at the big picture and say that the animal’s general quality of life is more important than quality (or lack thereof) of its death, and I would agree. I don't know what Macbeth's life was like before I had her, but she seemed content the majority of the time I had her. She had a nice-sized flight, a healthy diet, and a society family to spend her life with. I've continued making improvements to my husbandry over the years; although “perfect” is not an obtainable goal, I have been able to achieve “better.”

However, the point of this post is not about life, but death. There's more I could have done, and I didn't. I take responsibility for that, and must learn to follow through on my choices before it's too late.

[wildbird]

I had a Java finch that stopped eating. Took him to an avian vet where he was tube fed with a high energy food mixed with an antibiotic. She said to be here at 9 tomorrow if he doesn't eat tonight. He started eating within 2 hours, and returned to his normal self. Where there's life, there's hope.

[Fraza]

Icearstorm u never know when they are gonna die it happen so just as it would in the wild

Not ur fault nor is it anyone else