Goodbye Henrietta

On Friday 11^th May 2007, Henrietta was diagnosed as having a liver tumour, and so we had to have her put down. She had been slowing down for a few weeks, but we thought that it might be due to old age or the warm weather (or both). On Friday morning we found her standing still within the enclosure, twitching her neck in a ‘S’ shape. Her eyes were wide open with a manic stare. Her heart rate was abnormally high and her crop was very full. We brought her indoors.

She refused food, then when we massaged her crop gently, she vomited a brown slimey liquid with small bits of food. She did not fuss at all. All that we could do was to keep her warm and comfortable. Daniel stayed with her most of the time.

In the afternoon, we found a vet’s appointment for her and Channa our helpful neighbour drove Daniel and Henrietta to the vet – in his Mercedes sports car. It was then that we received the diagnosis with shock and huge disappointment. She had been suffering from the tumour for a few months, and her food was not getting through her system properly, yet she had bravely soldiered on. She had stopped laying for as many months, but again, we had put it down to old age. Daniel took her home so that Annette could say goodbye as soon as she could come home from work.

Once home, Henrietta rested again, then at around half-past five, she indicated that she wanted to go out into the garden, so Daniel let her out. She walked around the garden slowly, and met up with the other hens. Then it started to rain, and she stayed outside, going all around the garden as she would when she was healthy. She then took shelter under the caravan and drank drops of rain water that was dripping down from the caravan.

We brought her indoors and she started to preen herself. It was almost as though she had gone around the garden one last time to say goodbye because she knew that it was time to go, and now she was getting her best coat on. It was heartbreaking to see such dignity in the face of death.

We drove her up to the vet and she was as good as gold, remaining calm and co-operative right to the last as she was put down. We saw her again before she was taken away, and she looked very peaceful and serene. Her necklace of a lovely ring of white feathers around her shoulders was still distinctive and she was suffering no more.