I have been concerned about the best way to euthanize unviable chicks.....googled "poultry euthanasia" and kept coming up with argon gas as the best, least painful way to euthanize young chicks. This was in paper after paper on "ethical euthanasia". Cervical dislocation was the second best--and I could do that but am unsure of my technique.
I thought that I would have to order the argon from a welding supply company, but apparently it is used in wine preservation and there are home kits available with mini-argon gas cannister pretty cheap. Here is an example:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009MH5PC/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
Has anyone used argon? And has anyone every bought one of these kits for wine?
I want to be ready to do the right thing.
This message was edited May 6, 2008 12:31 AM
Argon gas and chick euthanasia
Here's to hope that you can use the argon to make wine and that all your chicks will be healthy!
Oh, maineiac, I'm such a wuss. The last malformed chick I had I ended up calling the vet for advice on how to do it and she offered to euthanize it for free. Of course I took her up on it and she is making a fortune off my five dogs and cat, but I don't want to be a pest. If I decide to incubate an egg I think I should be responsible for making things better if anything goes wrong.
I'll let everyone know how the argon works if I ever need to use it.
cat, would you edit your first post so that "example" is on the previous line, and then the link should work and this page will be less wide LOL
speaking of wine.... i left mine in the DR...
tf
Carbon Dioxide is commonly used for euthanasia of small animals in laboratories. Here is an article on preparing it for the same purpose at home in case you need it in the future:
http://www.alysion.org/euthanasia/
That looks promising--unless you have one of those famous "diving chickens" from the carnival. Actually I wonder if that would be problem with ducklings and geese that have a diving reflex. In general, though it seems that birds have such a high rate of gas exchange that it should work. I like that you can generate it at home. It does say that it has only been tested on rodents. Has anyone used it on chicks?
The papers I read were all advocating argon gas because it is supposedly not an irritant, but the paper above says that if you do it right the animal will be under anesthesia before the CO2 becomes irritating. I wish I'd know about this before. I'm going to put a copy in my file.