Thermal starts to get spendy. Lower resolution will have a harder time with positive target identification.... are you shooting a coyote or neighbors dog? Higher res will help, but then you're looking at more money.
Barnyard thermal! A few years ago, I worked for Third Coast Thermal and we got in a bunch of the new Pulsar RQX30V 384 resolution thermals. These were the first sub $2K thermals on the market and they sold like hotcakes and they sucked. They absolutely sucked and we had several unhappy customers, except one guy was thrilled with his.
Like the OP, something was getting this guy's chickens. All he had to know was that what he was shooting wasn't human, cow, or chicken and he would be safe. When I spoke with him, he had killed a couple coyotes, a bunch of raccoons and a couple opossums....but here was the deal. He was shooting nothing over 75 yards (limit of his barnyard) and most of his shots were inside 25 yards (back door to chicken coup distance). So this crappy thermal that most people hated worked out really well as the cheapest thermal this guy could buy to complete his job.
Where I am going with this is that if the OP does not have concern with pets and whatnot and is going to keep the distances short, say inside 75 yards, then he could cheap out and go with something like the Rix S2 suggested above. I fielded the S2 for hogs and recognize hogs at a couple hundred yards with it, but it took some work lol. For thermal, I would really not want to see folks using anything under 384 resolution or keep the shot distances very short.
Somebody suggested digital night vision. This is a very good alternative of you don't have a lot of stuff to reflect back the IR light. For example, hunting with IR light and digital night vision in the woods absolutely is the pits because you can't see much beyond the nearest over-illuminated trees. Also, the IR light will reflect off the smoke and debris from your rifle, so if you shoot on a really calm night, especially if it is calm and humid, the smoke will hang in the are for up to several seconds and blind you because all you will be able to see through your scope is the IR light reflected off the smoke hanging in the air. If it is breezy, you may not even notice the smoke.
