We have lost Rusty

I have been writing this post as I go along so the title has now sadly changed from “Rusty prolapsed again” to it’s current title.

The afternoon before yesterday Rusty was in the nest box for a long time. I was worried about her prolapsing again but I knew that she had to get her egg laid. I felt helpless because I couldn’t help her lay her egg or stop her laying her egg.

Not long before bedtime she was out of the nest box. She had laid her egg and sure enough she had prolapsed again. She has been laying for two weeks now and this was her fifth egg. It was normal in size.

Rusty has a mucky bottom and a prolapse

Rusty looking unworried by her prolapse

I picked her up and gently wiped the poop from her bottom. I decided as it was almost bedtime that the best thing to do was to let her rest overnight which I hoped would mean she wouldn’t be pushing at it and bath her in the morning.

I hoped that I could soak her, clean her and push it back in with honey like last time.

Rusty giving me the evil eye as I bath her

I managed to get her clean and I tried to gently push the prolapse back in but very quickly realised this wasn’t going to work. The prolapse was beginning to swell and I decided that I needed to get Rusty to the vet.

I got her clean but the prolapse looked worse

My local vet had no appointments but once again their sister vet, twenty minutes from me, could see her. This time I was prepared for her to have to spend the day there and I took a water dish and a dish with sunflower hearts and a little chopped melon. I had read that light food is better than pellets as it discourages laying. I also took the honey with me.

The vet was really lovely. He said that he would give her an anti inflammatory injection to reduce the swelling. He would soak her and after a couple of hours when the swelling had reduced he would push the prolapse back in.  He said he agreed with the good properties of honey and to leave it with him. He said he would call me later.

The vet called later and said that the prolapse was back in but he wanted to keep her to make sure that it stayed in and that I should call back at four o’clock to see how she was doing.

When I called back another vet said that the first vet had pushed the prolapse in twice and she, herself, had pushed it in a third time but now Rusty had pushed it out yet again. She said that she thought Rusty needed a stitch to help keep it in place. This would mean an anesthetic so that it wasn’t painful for her. She said she thought it was worth a try if I wanted them them to go ahead. I agreed for them to go ahead.

She said that they were open until seven o’clock and they would call me later. I knew I had to start preparing myself for there not being a happy outcome for Rusty but I wasn’t prepared to give up without trying.

The vet that morning had said it was worth trying to put it back again but if it kept on happening I may have to consider having her put to sleep. There may be something internal that isn’t quite right about her egg laying and she may now have a weakness there. I said that I had already realised that was a possibility but wanted to give her another chance. We agreed between the vet, myself and my husband that if she prolapsed a third time we would have to have her put to sleep.

The vet felt there was a good chance that this procedure could work and that is was worth a try. I called the vet at quarter past six as I hadn’t heard from them and she said that she had just finished as she had an emergency in between. She said Rusty was rallying well and I could come and get her.

The vet said to keep Rusty indoors for a couple of hours to keep an eye on her. She said to bring her back in on Monday for her to check her. Rusty looked like she was okay.

Rusty back from the vets

After a couple of hours I took her out to the chicken shed and placed her on the perch next to Freckles. I checked on her ten minutes later and she was still perched as she normally would so I felt it was okay to leave her. I felt it would be better to leave her perched than keeping her indoors so that she wouldn’t be sitting in poop.

I went out first thing this morning and felt my first twinge of alarm to find that Rusty wasn’t out in the run. I looked in the chicken shed and Rusty was sitting with her wings spread out. I knew this wasn’t a good sign at all.

This was how I found Rusty this morning

I tried to drip some sugar water into her beak from a syringe but she refused to open her beak. I put her in the cat box and bought her indoors. I was trying to decide if I should take her to the vet to be put to sleep or leave her to go at home. As the vet wasn’t yet open I left the cat box in the bathroom and stayed close to keep an eye on her.

Her eyes closed and although her breathing was shallow she seemed to be sleeping peacefully. She looked comfortable so I just stayed beside her. I felt that she didn’t have long.

Rusty sleeping in the cat box

At half past nine I heard her flap and I instinctively knew that this was the end. I wanted to pick her up and hold her but it was so quick. She stretched out her wings then flopped on to her side. She was gone. I picked her up and cried over her.

At least it was quick and it was one last decision that I didn’t have to make.

I have been beating myself up ever since about whether I made the right decisions. What if I had just bought her home and tried to put her prolapse back myself like last time but I know that even if it had worked again it would most likely have happened again in the future. Should I have had her put to sleep instead of having anesthetic but the outcome would have been the same.

I said these things to the vet when I rang to let them know and to cancel Rusty’s appointment on Monday. The vet was lovely to me and said that she was so sorry and that I had done my best for Rusty and made the best decisions I could for her.

We wrapped Rusty in our tray paper and buried her in the chicken’s strip next to Amber. In six years of chicken keeping she is my second girl to die at home. I lifted the dandelions and my husband dug a very deep hole. We laid her to rest and I planted the dandelions over the top of her.

Rusty is buried next to Amber marked by the cross on the right

It felt as if Freckles was paying her respects to her best friend

I wonder how Freckles is going to be without her best friend. I don’t like to think of her sleeping alone on their perch so I will move her tonight to Dandelion and Apricot’s perch and see if I can get her used to sleeping on their perch.

We will miss Rusty so much. She was such a big character. My husband remarked that she always made us laugh. She was determined and feisty. I had never seen such a small girl show such anger in her eyes when things didn’t go her way. My husband affectionately called her the thug and we both called her top banana.

I will look out some photos and do a tribute post to her soon but for now I am going to leave this here because it has been so hard to write the second half of this post. I am trying to type with tears streaming and keep having to stop to blow my nose.

Goodbye little Rusty. We only had her a year but she filled that year with her character.