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Blind Hatchling

lostkauze

lostkauze

Let go my Gecko!
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A few threads down, I posted about a new hatchling who I thought to be deformed in the eyes. Well, giving it a pretty long look over, and swabbing it with q-tips, I am 95% sure that it is blind, eyes are closed together and/or doesn't even have eyes.

How common is that?


It was shedding last night, and I tried to feed it, but no luck. I'll try again tonight. I can't let it starve to death, I find that more inhumane then euthanising it. Any advice, comments? Thanks

Michael
 
While not a common occurance, unfortunately these types of things happen sometimes. It is part of breeding leopard geckos.

As to whether you put the poor thing down or not is up to you. If it can not eat on its own I would have to euthanize it.

Sorry about that. Hatching baby geckos isn't always wine and roses like I am sure may think it is. I am sure whatever decision you make about your little hatchling will be the best one for the animal. Good luck.
 
I had a hatchling last year that hatched out with no eyes, at all. Her legs were mangled backwards, and her tail was twisted.
All of that said, she was the cutest thing ive ever seen! She had a face that looked like she was always smiling and at peace, but I wondered if she was in pain internally.
She lived for about 3-4 days. She was still too young to eat on her own anyway, but I doubt that had anything to do with why she died. I think she didnt reabsorb her yolk sack completely, and had other internal problems that I could not see.

But the whole time I was wondering while I was trying to keep her alive, was she in pain? That is the worst thing to have to deal with, and I would never want to see another one of my geckos in pain. If she hadnt died so quickly, I probably would have had her euthanized. If you think your gecko is suffering, or not having a good quality of life or going to have a good quality life because of its disability, I would consider euthanasia...its the most humane thing you can do for it.

~Crystal
 
euthanizing geckos

i know this is not everyones favorite topic but i, being as i've never had to euthenize a gecko, would like to know if thier is a preferred and humane method for euthinization for geckos.

how about freezing?
 
freezing is VERY painful for ANY animal. i would not recommend this. Can you imagine if you were stuck in a freezer the sheer pain of your blood and organs freezing solid? *shivers* (no pun intended)

No way, euthanasia by lethal injection is the best way, by a qualified vet.

~Crystal
 
im not debating what your saying about using the freezer but i would think that being a cold blooded animal that thier body would begin to shut down at low temps and they would slip into a 'cold coma' (you like that? i just learned what that is, what, yesterday, and im already using it...lol) and it would be mostly painless.... allowing the poor lil guy to die in his sleep...no?

as far as lethal injection... i would imagine this to be fairly unpleasant. dying from poisons is rarely fun in the respect that the body goes through many unpleasantries as it begins to die from toxicity. understand that this is all speculation...im no vet. im sure that, being as they put dogs and cats "to sleep" often they probably have quick and pain(less?) injections for euthinization.

seems to me that noone really puts this much thought into the pinkies they feed thier reptiles. and they're warm blooded. they are often sold at pet shops frozen and ive actually had a couple recover from being frozen. maybe it was nerves...i dunno...
 
Just to clear it up here, I put mine in the freezer as well. It is sad, but Chad made a good point about the rodents, although my husbands kills them before freezing. I have put live pinks in the freezer before though. Let me put it this way, when you produce 700-1000 leopard geckos every year, you do have more than a couple hatchlings that do not make it for whatever reason, they hatch out and whether they are deformed, hatch with no eyes, whatever, they need to be put down. Immediately. I know some people think it is inhumane to freeze them but that's what I do, and most other breeders I know do as well. A friend once suggested breaking their necks as an alternative to freezing but somehow I don't think that woould be very pleasant either.:(
 
do you think its true about the body shutting down? I honestly have no idea.

Kelli, just a suggestion, but what about a CO2 bottle? Seems more humane to me. Ive never used this method, ive never had a leo that had to be put down.

Just a thought. I put a rat in the freezer one time, b/c it wouldnt die when I whacked it, and I think I was the most stunned, lol.
I hated the thought of it in there freezing to death, and wanted to take it out, but my fiance made me just let it freeze :(

Kelli...I do understand what you are saying, with that many animals, it would get kind of expensive to take a trip to the vet for every euthanasia, I know I couldnt afford it. But there has to be a better way than a freezer, right? How much do those C02 bottles go for? I know I saw them somewhere for sale..hmmm....

~Crystal
 
I'm pretty sure I have read that Co2 is not a good method for euthanizing reptiles because they can go without oxygen for longer periods of time than warm blooded animals.

It's a tender subject and I know many of us have different opinions about this. I personally do not enjoy freezing them but frankly, that is what I have learned from other breeders, it is extremely common practice.
 
I wouldnt enjoy it either, and im sorry that you have to do that :(
I actually did hear that just yesterday on Animal Planet (my fav. show, lol..im a dork). There was an iguana on there that they were trying to put to sleep (for surgery)..and it was holding its breath, lol....smart animals.

~Crystal
 
I haven't had to deal with this yet,knock on wood, but I don't see how getting a shot at the vet would be painless for a hatchling.
They are soo small, I would think the injection would be awfull and where would they do it, I wonder.
I don't know, of course no one wants to ever deal with it but it happens for whatever reason and I think if I had to do it with a hatchling I would probably have to go with the freezer, however awful that sounds. Acually every way I can think of sucks, but it is a part of life, and something that has to be done sometimes.
I really don't see a better way for such a small little gecko.:(
 
humane?

I have had to put down a few little hatchlings in my day, and it is a difficult thing to do and very sad indeed. Since hatchlings are so small, I put them in the refrigerator first, so they 'shut down' and become unconscious... then put them in the freezer.
 
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since reptiles are cold blooded, I Think that freezing seems to make sense. You know they say when a person goes into hypothermia there systems just shut down and basicly you fall asleep and never wake up. If it were me thats the way I would want to go.
 
My experience with CO2

I have never had to put down a reptile yet, but at my work we have a hamster/rat/gerbil etc breeding business. For the first couple of months the only times we had to put anything down were babies that were obviously not going to make it past one day. I tried to do some research on freezing animals but it is all conflicting about whether it is painful or not. Anyway, after looking at the american veterinary medicine association's euthanasia report www.avma.org/resources/euthanasia.pdf we decided CO2 would be a better option.

So we went to our local sportsmart and bought a small canister of CO2 for about $25 normally intended for paintguns. The refills are about $3 but we have had the canister for months now and it is still running strong, and we use it frequently for feeders. We now CO2 our feeder mice and rats, and any other animals seriously in need of euthanasia. What we do is grab a small plastic bag, the type used to bag up fish for customers, put the animal in it, take out most of the air in the bag, wrap the opening of the baggie around the neck of the CO2 canister, and press the pin down to fill the bag up with CO2. Then the bag is tied shut and the mammals will become unconscious within 30 seconds usually. The animals do a 10 second struggle to get out since they arn't getting oxygen, then become unconscious. Once unconscious they do a gasping action which is a little sad to watch, but they are not conscious anymore so they no longer care, and by the time that I manage to tie the bag shut they are usually dead.

So relating this to reptiles, I still think it would work. The baggie method makes it so that the animal stays immersed in CO2 for as long as it takes. Small amounts of CO2 will make the animal light headed, then they go into an anesthetized state, then become unconscious, then finally dead. So even if it takes a while the reptile will not be in pain unlike, as some speculate, freezing would be.

I know that if I need to put down a leopard gecko at some point, I will use CO2.
 
also

riverjop said:
since reptiles are cold blooded, I Think that freezing seems to make sense. You know they say when a person goes into hypothermia there systems just shut down and basicly you fall asleep and never wake up. If it were me thats the way I would want to go.
Click to expand...

You may be right about this for reptiles, I don't know how useful it is to compare them to human hypothermia though since we arn't cold blooded. Assuming it dioes reltae though, personally freezing would be way down on my list of preferred methods of dying LOL. I don't know how cold it gets in Idaho, but in Minnesota it got to below minus 20 degrees F here and way colder with the windchill. If you stay out in that cold for a few minutes it becomes painful. I would know I had to wait for my bus in it. Or when you hold a snowball with your barehand for an extended period of time, you need to put it down because the cold burns too much. So yes I think you would become unconscious after hypothermia sets in, but the time between being exposed to the cold and becoming unconscious I would think is extremely painful.

Not many people know for sure what it feels like I guess. I also think that many hypothermia victims that manage to be rescued and manage recover from it do not remember the moments right before blacking out so even they may not know.
 
CO 2 sounds pratical for mammals... although suffocation doesnt really sound like it would be pleasant or painless but if the CO2 assists in nullifying the pain than maybe it would be better than freezing.

i dont feel that this is the case with cold blooded animals however. a reptiles system slows down when it is cold... and if this continues to decline than the animal will slow down more and more until it reaches a state of unconciousness. a 'cold coma' if you will.

i certainly wont be suffocating any geckos i have that need to be euthanized.... i think freezing is more humane.
 
I know there have been studies which show the reptiles are not "asleep" before ice crystals start forming. However I do not know if the studies also studied the effects of the cold on pain.
 
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