Poopers was the only bird that we had named so far, and the only guinea that will ever get a name since they're so hard to tell apart. Poopers was the baby chick that had a protruding vent when she was a week or two old and we had to clean her rear end several times a day in order to help her poop, which she needs to do in order to survive. That's how she got her name.
Shortly after she recovered from the protruding vent issue, she hurt her leg. Unfortunately, it was broken, and it healed the wrong way. She was already smaller than the other birds because of her previous health issues, and now she wasn't able to keep up with the birds and it was hard for her to walk.
The vet came out today and I asked her what we should do. The other birds had begun to attack Poopers and go after her pecking at her for no reason. The vet also said that because she was walking on her elbow, she would end up getting cuts and infections and they would be very painful and would eventually cause her to die. Basically the most humane thing to do was to put her down.
I asked them if they could do it, because I am not country enough to take care of that myself. I also asked them to do it somewhere that I wouldn't be able to see. They took her back to their truck and gave her a shot to put her to sleep.
I explained to Jeremiah why they needed to put her to sleep and after a moment he said "and then they will bring her back?"... I had to explain that she would never wake up from this sleep. He was quiet and after a minute he walked about 50 feet away and sat down to cry.
This was the first time I've ever had to deal with an animal in my life dying when I've been around. I've had dogs die, but it was after I hadn't seen them for a couple years and they lived with the parent that I didn't live with.
The boys have never known anyone or anything to die besides bugs and snakes, although they know that the animals at the barn are killed for food.
Poopers is in this video - she's the bird on the bottom right corner next to the brown block of grain treats... She's slow to move but when she does you can see how she has to hop everywhere...
We dug a hole tonight, wrapped her in a large piece of pink felt and tied a yellow ribbon around it, and then buried her next to one of our big trees. We'll be making a marker for her tomorrow.
RIP Poopers...
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