We have two bird feeders. Originally, both were enormous things, which I could fill up and leave for ages if necessary. A little while ago, one of them came apart when I filled it up, the plastic had shattered. We could see that the other feeder also had a crack around the base, so that was likely to need replacing at some point.
I bought one replacement. I couldn't justify the cost of buying two of the large ones, not at once and not right now. I decided to try a newer style of the same feeder, which was smaller and correspondingly cheaper. I was thinking that I could then decide whether to buy a replacement large one, or another of the newer ones, when the inevitable happened to the other feeder.
Birds tend to be neophobes, so they've ignored the new feeder. The feed in the older one has been going down and down, and the newbie has remained untouched. This morning, I noticed thsat he large fefeder was more or less empty, and the newbie had been used.
I went out to fill up the old large bird feeder. I cleaned the portholes, gingerly. I was very gentle, filling it, and only filled it half full (in case it broke and we lost a lot of valuable sunflower heart).
The Girls were lined up against the netting, watching me carefully. They haven't had sunflower hearts for ages, they had started to turn their beaks up at them so I've been giving them corn. They aren't too keen on that, either.
I threw some sunflower seeds on to the grass, and did a headcount. 7. I dida comb count and realised that Phyllis wasn't there. I took a deep breath, and went to see if I could find her. She was still in the coop. This wasn't good.
She was standing in the corner, a little hunched up. I offered her some sunflower seeds, she rejected them. I went to the house and got the tub of live mealworms. I opened the back of the coop again, in time to see her flopping down the ladder. I went into the Run, shut the autodoor so the others couldn't get in, and offered her some mealworms while I looked her over. She ate a few, and seemed momentarily brighter.
Phyllis is not a spring chicken. She's an old lady, and she's been in decline for a while. She was originally a big fat hen, and she's lost weight over the last few months. For about a month, I've been singling her out to give her some extra tasty food each day, away from the others. She mingles happily enough with the others, she sunbathes, she ambles about, she comes for treats. There has been no consideration about hastening her hend, as she's been henjoying life,
As I watched her eat some of the mealworms, and ignore others, I wondered about awhether we are reaching the point of making the decision to cull. I mulled over the rights and wrongs of intervening. It's so much easier (for us) if the Girls just pop off by themselves. Making the decision to cull when you can see a bird is in pain or distress is a no-brainer. Making the decision to cull when a bird is obvious declining, is (for me) not easy.
If she has a few happy days (or weeks) left, she has the right to see them. On the other hand, I don't want to not cull and then find the poor girl suffering. I can't stand it when people keep an obviously suffering pet because they can't bear to let them go.
Sometimes I focus on the end. If I believe that we'll be making the decuision to cull in a few das anyway, and the bird is on the slippery slope towards suffering, I find it easier to make the call. "Better a week too soon than a minute too late" is a mantra I've used a lot when thinking about these things, and I find it helpful. It eases the pain the decision gives me.
But how long ahead should I be looking?
It's a warm and sunny afternoon, and Phyllis has made her way down the garden and is standing in the sunshine.
Today isn't the day,
I need to keep a close eye on her, and look at how she seems. I'll continue offering her tasty morsels by hand each day so I can monitor her more closely. I need to watch how the others are around her, and how she is around them.
The Grls
