I love my chook chooks. I look at them every day and think about how lucky they are, and how lucky I am to have them. It works out quite well - they love their free range life, and I love being able to provide it for them.

It’s just lately I’ve been really preoccupied with two of them. Yoko’s internal laying has gathered pace in the last couple of weeks and she’s filled up like a drum underneath. She’s slowed down a bit (although she still runs when she knows I’ve brought a treat out for them) and puffs occasionally, sits down sometimes, and her breathing can get a bit laboured, especially when she’s sitting in the nest box. But most of the time she just doesn’t seem bothered about it at all. I just don’t know what to do - she’s not ill as such, she’s living with a condition but still scratching about, dustbathing, eating properly, running, jumping etc. There’s no way I’d have her put to sleep as she is now, she still has a good quality of life and doesn’t act like a sick hen. It’s more like she’s a slower old auntie.

But I’m sort of at a crossroads where I have to make a decision. Do I get her taken to the vet and have some of the fluid drained, with a small risk of infection? She may have to have a general aesthetic and of course there are associated risks. She’ll probably fill up again quickly, but I don’t know how much more she can lay internally. I don’t know if she’s absorbing any of it at all like she was over winter.

Then there’s the option of trying to stop her lay - an operation is pretty much out of the question because she struggled so much on the ventilator last time she was put under a general when her sterile EYP was diagnosed, and I don’t think she could cope with being out for the amount of time it would take..I don’t want to have to reduce her daylight hours to just 4 hours a day, somehow it just doesn’t seem right, and besides, with only one relatively compact Ark for the girls, of who 2 need access to the nestbox, it’s not an option to keep her in the dark like that.

We’re going to take them all off layers mash, and replace their feed with just mixed corn and some grit to help with Maureen and Pattie laying their eggs. The hope is that the yolk sizes will reduce, so less will be laid internally. Beyond that, I just don’t know. We’ve poured over the Internet looking for ideas and solutions. Last year our vet said she didn’t know how long she had - it could be weeks, months, possible years. But I’ve read of people who’s hens have had sterile EYP for over 2 or 3 years, and still had a good quality of life. I want to know how?! What do they do, how do they cope when they’re as full as Yoko? Yoko’s eggs were huge (probably why she ended up with sterile EYP) and i just don’t know how many more yolks she can accomodate without being drained. And we can’t keep just draining her. But she’s not ill with it…as you can see, I keep going round in circles. I don’t really know what to do, but I’ve got to make a decision soon.

And the thing is, I think Cyn has the same condition. So I’ll have to go through it with her, all the worrying, the decision making, trying to keep her quality of life as good as it is now. She hasn’t laid an egg in months and is quite big underneath too, but nowhere near the size of Yoko. It could be cancer, abscesses, sterile EYP…a multitude of things. Then there’s the question of her going through an exploratory op, the risks, the diagnosis, the cost of it all (although, I have paid a lot for my hens to get the treatment they deserve). It’s really hard being responsible for animals sometimes, especially when the right thing to do (eventually) is possibly one of the hardest decisions I’ll have to make. I hate to think of any animal suffering, I just can’t bear it, but it’s the weight of having the power to have them euthanised too. If Yoko and Cyn were really ill, I guess it wouldn’t be a hard decision, but it would be hard being responsible for the timing, knowing I have the say, that it’s down to me, and ultimately saying goodbye.

I just wish I had more idea, more access to experts who had the answers, instead of just trying to piece together bits of guess work. It gets me down, especially in the last few days, I find it really taxing and stressful. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so attached and emotional.

But then I look out at them all pottering around together, and I know that I can’t have given them a better life than they’ve had here. And I know, ultimately, it’s all been worth it.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 8:31 pm and is filed under hens. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.