Bibliovore, you absolutely, positively did the right thing! In your position, I would have put the poor thing out of its obvious misery too.
Fortunately I haven’t had an encounter like yours with the baby bird, but I’ve had (and I bet anyone else who’s had pets has had) to make the decision about if a pet was suffering sufficiently that euthanasia would relieve its pain. However, in my case, the pets were mice and rats, and the vet method of “putting them to sleep” sounded to me just as bad as letting my poor little fuzzies suffer until they died naturally on their own: Injection through the heart WITH NO PRIOR ANESTHETIC OF ANY KIND.
Luckily for me, though it didn’t make things any easier (believe me!) I was working in a lab and had access to chloroform. I took some discreetly when it was needed (for two mice and one rat, but not at the same times; this was over a period of 2-3 years) and used it. It went smoothly with the mice (empty a shoebox, line it with something moderately soft such as TP, lay mouse down on one side, put two fully chloroform-soaked cotton balls on other side, cover box with weight on it, go away for five minutes, open box to find peacefully dead mouse).
With the rat it didn’t go so smoothly because my ex-husband was a problem and Darmok was “his” rat. Even if this is a potentially TMI thread, the memory of the night Darmok was euthanized makes me cry too much, so I’ll skip the details except to say that I should’ve just euthanized him before my ex got home from work, when I could have done it (a) gently, quietly, and (b) while Darmok was “ready” for it --periods of severe lethargy along with labored breathing were a part of his illness. As it happened, I’d come home from work, checked on him, his breathing was seriously labored and I thought he was going to die. I took him out and held him, petting him, crying my eyeballs out, thinking at least I’d be with him when he went. He alternated between labored breathing and almost “going to sleep” on his own from the lethargy, but he hung on and I kept thinking, "now would be the best time, give him a whiff of the chloroform enough induce unconsciousness, then the fatal dose, all while he’s calm and half asleep anyway, but I couldn’t do it because I didn’t think it’d be “right” to do it without my then-husband’s knowledge. Mistake, I should have done it, then when he came home, just said, “I found him dead when I got home” or “he died just before you got in.” Given poor Darmok’s condition, if he had been dead on my arrival, neither of us would have been surprised.
This is a really sad thread :::::sigh:::::
