Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

We had to make a very hard decision today! You may remember that last autumn a fox attacked Elizabeth, one of our Bourbon Red turkeys (see 20th November). Despite having quite severe injuries she survived and since then she has been leading a fairly normal life! She was left however with a large hole between her neck and shoulder, the feathers never re-grew and from time to time she would peck at it, causing it to bleed again.
In the last few weeks we have noticed that she has been on her own a lot more than usual and often during the day we have been finding her simply sitting down in one of the houses. In the last couple of weeks she has not even been showing any interest in the afternoon feeding of corn: not a good sign as corn is a favourite treat for poultry.
When we examined her, it was also clear that she had lost some weight. Her 'hole' was also smelling and looking a little infected again. And then last night we became aware her breathing was sounding a little noisy and uncomfortable.
We made the decision that we should probably put her to sleep (euthanise her) as she appeared to have too many things wrong with her and her quality of life was not good! The vet had always said that it was amazing she survived the fox attack but that the long term damage from it, both physical and emotional, could mean she would never completely recover. We had never seen her have a good run and a flap of her wings since the attack, she never really became part of the flock of turkeys again and she had never returned to laying eggs either. In addition her plumage has been quite dull and lifeless for a while now.
Elizabeth was just three years old so not even half way through her expected lifespan. We shed a tear or two and now hope we can remember her as she was before the attack. The photos below may help...