Farewell Luna

We have 3 chickens and we have had them for nearly 3 years. They are our beloved pets and they are part of our family.  And yesterday we had to say goodbye to our beautiful black Australorp, Luna.  She was 3 1/2 years old.  It was a sad day.

For the past few days she was acting very unwell and at night she was sleeping in the nesting box. And then 2 days ago she didn't go up the ladder to bed, she just sat in a corner of the chicken coop even though it was dark.  My husband had to carry her up.  It was going to be a cold night and I couldn't bear the thought of her feeling sick and cold outside, so we brought her inside, in a small box with straw.  We put that inside a spare guinea pig cage in the garage.  She didn't protest. We fed her water from a spoon and small amounts of food, but she wasn't improving.

After much googling to find out what could be wrong (there were a number of possibilities) and trying home remedies we decided it was time to seek the help of a vet.  I found a vet service that makes house calls for a reasonable price.  If I could help it I didn't want to take her to the vet as it would be stressful for her and I didn't want her to suffer anymore. This service was wonderful.

I allowed my daughter to stay home from school as she was worried about Luna and I knew she wouldn't be able to focus at school.  She had spent the weekend hand feeding her lots of meal worms, patting her and whispering to her.  She had helped us give her a warm bath to clean her feathers and soothe her.  I explained to her that by now Luna was very sick (at this stage she wasn't eating, barely drinking and sleeping all the time) and that when the vets came, they may say we  have to put her to sleep.

They came out and were very kind and compassionate. They found she had a mass in her abdomen and she was very thin.  Most likely it was an egg which didn't form properly, which could have been there for months and had then become infected.  Luna hadn't laid for about 6 months and we had assumed she had come to the end of her laying days. But, birds can hide their illness for a long time, until they feel very unwell.  Unfortunately she was too sick, so the most humane thing to do was to put her to sleep.

We said our teary goodbyes.  My daughter handled it well, she is 10 years old.  She asked if she could keep some of Luna's feathers.

Luna had the most amazing black feathers, that had a green shine on them in the sun. She had black legs, orange eyes and her comb had tinges of black on it. She had a small chip in her black beak. I know all this detail, because my daughter has spent so much time with her, chatting, feeding, hugging and loving her over the past few years.  Luna also used to make the loudest noise, so loud sometimes we thought the neighbours might complain.  We used to say she sounded like she was having a whinge!

Last night, over dinner we spent the night reminiscing.  We talked about when we first brought the chooks home, how much we have learnt about chickens and the excitement the day they each laid their first egg.  We laughed at how funny they are. We talked about Luna, about the kind vets and why euthanasia is the most humane thing to do, even though we feel so sad.  There were lots of life lessons for my daughter yesterday and there were some tears.

The day we brought them home- LOTS of cuddles!

Farewell Luna, thank you for laying all those delicious eggs, for bringing us love, for teaching us how to care for chickens, for letting us watch you lay an egg one day, for making us laugh, for letting us pick you up (sometimes!) and for being a good sister.  You certainly weren't the top chook, you were always more sensitive, a little nervous and very loud, but you were ours, part of our family.  We love you and we will miss you.