I know I'm only a newbie to all this so, please forgive me if I get a bit emotional.
We've had our girls for a few days over three months and last night we lost one.
It's now 4.30am, I guess you could say it's the morning after the night before. I can't sleep and I've automatically gravitated towards here! You've all been so helpful with my questions that it seems this is the only place I can be right now.
She was a Rhode Rock, everyone's favourite because she was so colourful and bright. So friendly and cheeky, always first at the gate to see what treats you had or to see if she could be first to the pellets tub. Always chatty and round your ankles, so it was so obvious when I let them out on Friday morning that something wasn't right with her.
She was the one I posted about most recently, she'd been broody (again) and I suspected she had laid the soft-shells I had found in the coop, but on Thursday she had laid a gorgeous - and quite large - egg and I started to believe she was 'back to normal' but Friday morning she was clearly very miserable, was wobbly almost, kept blinking and was just stood by the water drinker and wouldn't stop drinking. I rang the lady I got them from and she suspected gape worm (sp?) so following her advise, I got some panacure 10% into her, left her loads of water and some natural yoghurt and had to go to work. Hubby came home at lunchtime and she wasn't any better. By tea time when I got home she had made it into the coop and laid an egg (!!!) but was unwilling to move out the coop and I noticed her comb had fallen over. I put her back with the water but she died yesterday evening.
So, getting back to the topic title (sorry!) what do I do now with her? I can't see myself burying her in the garden, mainly because I suspect she would be dug up and I couldn't bear that atall. I can't really afford to send her to the vets for cremation although I honestly don't know how much that would cost. I know she had a good life with us, I know that I did everything I could to make her happy and healthy. I guess I just want this last thing I can do for her to be nice too. But I don't know what to do. I'd like to be able to stop crying about her, as I've still got two gorgeous other girls to look after.
What have you done? How will the other two be? Will they notice that she's gone? Will they behave differently? Should I give them some panacre 10% too just in case?
Sorry this is so long and rambling, it's just so hard to think that when I go down and let them out in a couple of hours, she won't be there.