When to put down an animal...

Status
Not open for further replies.

Rhyno47

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2009
Messages
478
Location (City and/or State)
Hagerstown, MD
Ok so Ive seen some pretty gruesome things happen to turtles. Some from this forum and some online elsewhere. I have also seen almost all of them pull through. Reptiles can recover from horrific wounds.

I was on another forum and a user posted this pic (link below.) A mouse bit it and tore of skin and some muscle tissue. I felt bad obviously but I then read responses coming in from users. They all said to euthanize it! The user was leaning towards taking it to a vet but the other users convinced the owner to kill it! He ended up crushing its head with a rock!

I wast mean but I made sure they knew how surprised and shocked I was. I said that since it is a reptile it could have recovered. I also said that it could go months without eating while it recovers in its hide since its a snake. The consensus on the forum is that I dont know what Im talking about.

What do you think?

http://i822.photobucket.com/albums/zz150/Amberlizardlady/100_4402.jpg
 

ReptileBuddies

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2010
Messages
78
This is horrible. A good reason not to feed live :( I feel bad for the poor snake - and what a terrible way to die, having your head crushed by a rock. Clearly this person does not respect his reptiles.
I don't know whether or not if would have recovered. I just can't believe someone would be that disrespectful. At least have the snake put down by a vet....
 

Meg90

Active Member
10 Year Member!
5 Year Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2008
Messages
1,961
Location (City and/or State)
WI
I would put that animal out of its misery humanely. You can see his SPINE. How many nerves do you think were gnawed through? The muscle tissue chewed away while it was living and writhing.

How is it supposed to heal without eating? What source is it supposed to get its energy from to recover from that?

You are new yet to ball pythons. Learn your lesson from this, that you never leave a live prey item in with a snake. But would you keep a tortoise alive with limbs gnawed like that? No, you wouldn't--not without amputation.

I don't think that animal should live and be in constant pain only because he doesn't have the capacity to show that he's hurting.

But the fact that he couldn't even pay 40$ to have him humanely euthed makes me sick. That person should not be allowed to own animals.
 

Rhyno47

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2009
Messages
478
Location (City and/or State)
Hagerstown, MD
Force feeding snakes is a well established operation for vets. And there is no need to "learn a lesson" frozen prey does just fine.
 

ReptileBuddies

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2010
Messages
78
I agree with you Meg...this person should not be allowed to own any animals. All we feed in frozen/thawed and it works great!! There's no need to feed live prey - its too dangerous.
 

Rhyno47

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2009
Messages
478
Location (City and/or State)
Hagerstown, MD
Im not saying euthanizing it was wrong but he should have gone to a vet. Im mad about him just agreeing with people online and then choosing that way to kill the snake. Granted its horrible and painful for the snake but I would have been an optimist until a vet told me otherwise.
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,264
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
There are unusual cases where live prey is necessary, at least temporarily. I doubt this was one of them and even if it was the prey should not have been left unattended or for any longer than a minute or two.

As far as euthanasia, vets are fine, but they are expensive and there can be painful complications. My wife was a vet tech for 13 years. It doesn't always go smoothly. I prefer freezing for just about any ectothermic animal. They just slow down and go to sleep. No pain, no struggle. This was taught to me by several veterinarians who specialized in exotic animals.
 

dmmj

The member formerly known as captain awesome
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
19,695
Location (City and/or State)
CA
Personally I wopuld have gone to a vet for a diagnosis and the decided what to do from there, I woud not have taken a forum's advice to kill it myself without a vet's diagnosis.
 

Kristina

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Dec 18, 2008
Messages
5,383
Location (City and/or State)
Cadillac, Michigan
I have used freezing for euthanasia, and I also have a CO2 chamber. I use the CO2 to prekill the prey that my snake eats.

Live prey NEVER should be left alone with a snake!!! I have ended up with several non feeders that got that way because they were bitten by prey, and were too scared of the prey to eat! I have seen injuries worse than that.

I do agree that the snake needed to be put down. I also agree that anyone that would smash a snake's head with a rock does not deserve to own it.

The snake probably could have survived, but that area would have needed to be debrided and kept moist, and the snake's environment would have to be spotless for the duration of the healing... I doubt Rock Boy would have exhibited that amount of intelligence and dedication, in light of his actual actions.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

New Posts

Top