Rescue!

[stonyloam]

After reading the thread where hag saved the baby snakes when their mother was injured, I thought that it would be fun to start a “rescue” thread. I am sure that almost everyone has a little story about a rescue of some kind.
One of my best involves a “sweet” little mouse that I rescued a few years back. This story also helps explain why my wife thinks I am nuts. It was fall and I had just finished harvesting honey from my bees, and I had the empty supers (hive bodies) stacked in the garage for a few days. I was moving them outside to let the bees clean the remaining honey out of them, and when I lifted the bottom one there was a puddle of honey on the floor, and stuck in the middle (flat on his side) was a white footed mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus). The floor was cold, about 50f (10C) and the mouse was as cold as the floor and appeared dead. I picked it up by the tail and took it outside and was about to toss it into the weeds, when it gave out the tiniest little squeak. I thought well if this guy is still alive (it was a guy), I should try to save him. Now, you have to understand that at this time of the year I usually fill the garage with rat poison packets specifically to eliminate these little invaders, but now that had become completely irrelevant, so the rescue proceeded. The first thing I had to do was get the honey off of him, so I took him up to my bathroom and cleaned him by running warm water over him. The warm water began to revive him, but he still looked like a drowned rat (more or less), so I was using the hair dryer to dry him off , when my wife walked in and asked what I was doing, so I patiently explained to her why I was blow-drying a mouse. She never said a word, just shook her head and walked out. He was getting pretty frisky by then, so I put him into a five gallon pail with some paper towels for the night. By morning he was zooming around like nothing had ever happened, so I took him out and let him go, where I assume he lived a long and happy mouse life. Pretty amazing that he could recover from being that cold, after being stuck to the floor for what could have been days.

[adamanteus]

Excellent story Terry, it made me laugh! I'll have a think and try to remember a tale of my own. This could prove to be another popular thread by Stonyloam!

[CrazyHedgehog]

I have two cats, Spanner and Spoon..

Spanner will bring you the leg of a rabbit, or the tail of a mouse just as proof of his tropheys! his sister Spoon on the other hand catches lots of mice, and brings them in for me completely unharmed...

I saw a mouse once right by my foot, (this is at 2am in the morning in my computer room!) happily sat washing itself! On my lap sat Spoon the cat......so I gently lowered the cat...the mouse froze...the cat touched it with her nose...the mouse stayed frozen...the cat sniffed...looked at me as if to say "I know...I gave it to you!" then walked away....the mouse stayed for a split second...caught my eye and whoosh was gone under my computer desk!

After half an hour of pulling my office apart, the mouse was caught and taken to the next field before Spanner saw it!..I figured it had had enough shocks for one night...

Terry, I have visions of the moment your wife caught you blow drying a mouse and yes I keep giggling!

[adamanteus]

Hedgehog...Do you know it's estimated that domestic cats kill 50 million songbirds per year in the UK, in addition to all the other small mammals they destroy? Have you considered fitting bells to their collars?

[jimijaw]

My rescues are nothing dramatic but all in all It made me feel good. 1st one a Western Hognose snake that I noticed in the local mom and pop pet store. When they first got it they were showing me how docile it was and very healthy, well almost a year later I spotted it in a 10 gallon aquarium way up on the top shelf in the back of the store and I asked the owner if I could hold it again and he said there was no way anyone was going to hold it because it went wild and would strike at anyone that even get close to the tank. I could see that the tank hadnt been cleaned in ages as the substrate was molded and feces was every where plus old sheds all over. I felt sorry for it as I remember how sweet it was to hold it a very gentle docile snake and now its striking at anything that moved near the tank so I felt sorry for it and paid the outrageous price and took it home. After just 2 weeks of being home he is back to the loveable very handleable snake he was. All you have to do is take the top off his tank which is now a 30 gallon and he will crawl right into your hands. He loves to be held and will even let you touch him anywhere around the head and nose. I say he but I dont know what sex it is and dont really care as he is a pet a super pet at that.
Number 2 Same pet shop different snake. Up where I found the first snake was a Jungle Carpet Python 4 ft long cramed into a 10 gallon aquarium and it looked so bad no heat source and no humidity and it looked like it had several attempted sheds stuck to it with pieces sticking up all over and it definately had a nasty disposition. Well I again felt sorry for it and overpaid to get it. I immediately got it home and put it in a 40 gallon long and put in a hygrometer and went to keeping the humidity between 60 and 70% and keeping the temps where they should be and feed on a regular basis. Its been a month now and it has had a 90% shed all except on top of its head. When I first got it home I had to wear leather gloves and a heavy coat with thick sleeves cause he would bite like crazy. Well now I can get it out of the tank with the snake hook and then hold it bare handed and no bites at least not yet. He will settle down being held after just a few minutes and is then curious. so far so good but the best part Is the pet shop is closing down due to poor business sales. I feel good and I have some great pets out of it all. Sorry about the long post:cool:

[stonyloam]

That reminds me of how I got my dog Chole. Our dog Kirby had just died and my wife and I had decided to wait 3 or 4 months before getting another dog. So 5 days later I was scouring the paper for a Springer spaniel pup. I phoned a breeder, who said he had 3 males (we were looking for a girl), but he had an “accidental” Springer/German shorthair pup that was 5 weeks old. We went down just to take a look, and on the way made a hard and fast rule that the pup would have to be exactly what we were looking for, a small healthy Springer, totally objective, no feeling sorry. When we got there we could see that the breeder was a lot like the pet store owner, not very good. Well we took a look. She was exactly what we were NOT looking for! Pitiful little brown thing living outside eating crappy adult dog food. Trying to think of some way to get out of it I asked “how old is she”? “Seven weeks, ready to go” (hmmm aged two weeks in 45 minutes). Rules, what rules? Of course we took her home. Took her to the vet, umbilical hernia (easily fixed). She weighed 3 pounds, (two pounds of dog and 1 pound of worms). It all turned out well and she is a great dog (63 pounds). My wife says that when she dies she is going to bury me with her, whether I am dead or not. She is joking…. I think. Rescue? She probably would not have lived very long there. So Jimijaw there are lots of crappy pet store owners out here luckily there are lots of folks like you too. Yeh my posts are getting kinda long too.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/Ist_day_home.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/Chloe_on_point.jpg

[adamanteus]

Terry, I love that story. The world is a better place because it is peopled by the likes of you and Jimijaw. Hats off to both of you.

PS Long posts area good thing, in my view, something to get your teeth into!

[jimijaw]

Beautiful Dog and such a great point!!!! Congrats on a job well done:D Jimi

[jimijaw]

Terry, I love that story. The world is a better place because it is peopled by the likes of you and Jimijaw. Hats off to both of you.
Thanks again James it is appreciated! Jimi

[Josh]

that was pretty funny

[drache]

what a beautiful dog
is a springer spaniel some kind of pointer?

[drache]

I guess Zakir, our cat is a rescue of sorts
we certainly hadn't planned on getting another cat at the time
we just met and Emily (his) and Mu-shin (mine) did not get along as well as we did
screeching, spitting, hissing, growling at the like became frequent
I actually thought at first that the cat was our neighbor's
that he was away and his cat-sitter had flaked and the cat had gotten into some brambles
so i gave the cat some food
the cat was a little shy, but obviously hungry
he turned out not to be Matt's cat
he turned out to be the sweetest cat and got along with both our cats
he also turned out to have an anxiety disorder that caused him to pee on anything on the floor
he peed into shoes and on rugs, socks - anythlng soft
we tried to find him a home with a nice protected yard and couldn't
we called every possible rescue organization and they all told me they'd have to euthanize him
so of course we kept him
after hormones didn't work, our vet put him on buspirone
that definitely worked and it also made him less scared
over the years we have downdosed him gradually
now he hasn't had it in years
when there's a thunderstorm, he pees next to the litter box
we can live with that

[stonyloam]

OK I’ll try to not be too long winded here: There are basically two types of bird hunting dogs: Pointers and flushers. Both find the birds by smell.
Pointers locate a bird and then “freeze” in place and the instinct of the bird is to also freeze, this gives the hunter time to approach and flush the bird. German shorthair, English and Irish setters, Brittney spaniels English pointers are a few.
Flushers locate a bird and rush in and basically try to grab it, which makes the bird panic and fly (flush). Springer spaniels cocker spaniels and most Labrador retrievers are a few.
Chloe’s mother was a flusher and her father was a pointer, but she was trained to be a pointer. Below is a photo of Lucy, our Springer. As you can see the German genes were dominant in Chloe.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/lucy.jpg

[Cazador]

OK I’ll try to not be too long winded here:


I, on the other hand, make no such promises :D. About 15-16 years ago, I had a very similar experience as Terry's, but mine involved a ground squirrel (Spermophilus sp.). One spring afternoon I was getting out of work. The temp was in the upper 40s or lower 50s (~8.5-12C), and it had been raining hard for at least a week. As I was walking toward my truck, I noticed an absolutely drenched ground squirrel just quivering in the wet grass beside the parking lot. When I picked it up, it was trembling and unable to even crawl. I decided that I would do what I could for it, so I put it in the glove box of my truck for the drive home. I thought what a neat pet it might make if I could revive it, and it was certainly going to die in its hypothermic state. The drive home took about 20-25 minutes, during which time I turned the heat on pretty high to start warming it up.

Well it turned out that the vent to the heater was essentially blow-drying that ground squirrel inside my glove box. Much to my surprise when I opened the glove box to retrieve the little rodent, it was fully revived and alert. It came springing out of there like it had been launched from a catapult and ran right up my arm. It happened so fast that I only got a glimpse of it, but it looked as if it had an afro after the blow drying!

Now the problem was that I had a fully alert and fairly large rodent hiding underneath my seat, and I couldn't get it out. If truth be told, I was also a bit scared to reach in after it, so I opened the window and left a trail of cheese (yah, I know) leading out of the window. As you might guess, it didn't touch my cheese offering, but left several smelly, little, brown presents of its own before finally making its way out of my truck. From then on, wet rodents had to fend for themselves :o.

Rick

[adamanteus]

That's so funny...Cazador, who wrestles grizzly bears, scared of a big mouse! Cheese? Cheese!!!?

[drache]

Rick
that is so funny
and I had to send you another funny squirrel story
it's too long for here and not a rescue story

[Marcel_h]

When i was a kid i used to rescue bugs and stuff from the side walk in front of my house. I got real angry when somebody stepped on one of mine beloved bugs peolpe thought is was an bit insane.

[stonyloam]

There is nothing wrong with rescuing bugs, I do it all the time. I am constantly rescuing bugs and stuff from our pool. I have however changed my method of rescuing wolf spiders from the pool filter, ever since I fished out a “dead” spider and it unfolded instantly and shot across my hand and scattering baby spiders everywhere. I like spiders, but that was TOO much! I now have a special “spider stick” for the job.

I think your English is just fine.;)

Family Lycosidae? James:confused:
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/wolf_spider.jpg

[suzoo]

Rick, that squirrel story is so funny!!! I could see it happening!!!
Everyone out here thinks I'm nuts, my kids and I have been rescuing snakes and turtles off our roads for over 15 years now. My bumper sticker on my car say's "I brake for snakes".
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//519/medium/critters_curls_021.JPG
So you can imagine what the locals think of me :)

[Thamnophis]

So you can imagine what the locals think of me :)

They probably think you are crazy...
Doesn't matter! Let them think what they want.
Keep on braking!!! :D

[adamanteus]

Family Lycosidae? James:confused:
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/wolf_spider.jpg

Yes Terry:) That looks like family Lycosidae to me (although the stance reminds me of the Gnaphosidae. I can't really be more specific, my sphere of spider knowledge is pretty much limited to British and European species. Sorry:o .

[zooplan]

I would like to recyle this old thread to start no new one with the same title and stonyloam wrote a good introduction, I couldn´t do better.
http://www.zooplan.net/poshetrescue.JPG

This is the pos. het for amelanistic three days after her last feeding:
quiet skinny again.
I hope she´ll take a big portion again today.

[ConcinusMan]

Awww, poor girl. I hope she does pound down some pinkies for you today.

[guidofatherof5]

I would like to recyle this old thread to start no new one with the same title and stonyloam wrote a good introduction, I couldn´t do better.
http://www.zooplan.net/poshetrescue.JPG

This is the pos. het for amelanistic three days after her last feeding:
quiet skinny again.
I hope she´ll take a big portion again today.

Keep us posted on the progress, Udo.;)

[zooplan]

Zora had a really big meal, but this one swallowed two or three small freshwater smelts (Osmerus eperlanus) only. I´ll buy some night crawlers today. She´s so skinny, I´m worrying that she might have flagellates or amoebas. I need her to feed and produce feces for an examination.

[Floof]

My beardies were all rescues.

The girls were abandoned in an apartment when their owners got evicted (or something), and the guy that found them put them up on Craigslist as "free to good home." Pretty simple and straight-forward story. I'm still shocked how healthy they are after their ordeal... Other than all the injuries from years of being housed together, of course.

My baby boy was kind of an "accident." Back in 2009, we went to buy a couple tanks for a couple snakes (Craigslist again), and, as we went to load the tanks up in the car, the guy mentioned he had a lizard, and that I could have it if I wanted it--he was just going to let it go in the neighboring field if no one wanted it (this being the middle of January in very wet western Washington; even the native Alligator lizards were hibernating). So he opened the very cold garage, where he was keeping this stunted adult (~15-16") bearded dragon in a little 20 gallon (long) tank with 3 big, bright heat lamps left on 24/7, no water, and the only food was some red pellet stuff. No surprise he was very obviously dehydrated, emaciated, hardly moving, and none too friendly (but too worn out to do more than "pancake" and hiss a little) when I went to see if he was even alive. The guy wanted him GONE... Saying we could have him free with all of his stuff... Which is good, because there was no way I was leaving him there, anyway.

Here he is one week after we got him...
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i307/DinkellaBanzai/Reptile%20Pics%20Unedited/20090111_019.jpg
http://i1117.photobucket.com/albums/k596/CrazyReptileLady/ManRay%20Bearded%20Dragon/20090111_003.jpg

I didn't weigh him until his first vet visit, a month after we got him, and he weighed 195 grams. It's hard to imagine how little he might have weighed before a month of good food...

Today, though, he weighs 497 grams, measures 18" snout to tail tip, and looks like this:
http://i1117.photobucket.com/albums/k596/CrazyReptileLady/ManRay%20Bearded%20Dragon/PB270318.jpg
http://i1117.photobucket.com/albums/k596/CrazyReptileLady/ManRay%20Bearded%20Dragon/PB270328.jpg

He also turned into a total sweetheart within days of good food and TLC. So far, he's the only reptile I've met that truly seems to enjoy being handled!! Which is a little amazing after we had to man-handle him every day for more than a month to tube-feed him pure liquid calcium. Lately, he's discovered women, and smelling the girls across the room often has him stressed out--black-bearding and head-bobbing at everything he sees. Horny little snot. Setting him on someone's lap for a few minutes is the one thing guaranteed to calm him down. ... Except live food. He loves him some roaches and hornworms. :)

[ConcinusMan]

Zora had a really big meal, but this one swallowed two or three small freshwater smelts (Osmerus eperlanus) only. I´ll buy some night crawlers today. She´s so skinny, I´m worrying that she might have flagellates or amoebas. I need her to feed and produce feces for an examination.

If she's eating well and staying skinny like that, you are right to suspect she's carrying some sort of buggies. This poor guy (blue/green tinted anery concinnus) had a tapeworm AND hookworms when I found him and was treated for them right away. Vet said the treatment would either kill him or cure him but he would die for sure if not treated. He had skin folds in his lower 1/3 and a protruding backbone/ribs. I mean, he was nearly too far gone and normally I wouldn't have bothered but his color is so amazing I decided to try. A couple months later, he's eating several pinkies about every other day, and he's looking much better. He's been half-heartedly trying to court several females lately :cool: so I know he's feeling better too. He's much stronger than he was before, but still skinny. Gaining body mass slowly but steadily.

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/8595/skinnyanery004large.jpg

@ Floof: Nice save. Gorgeous beardie! How could someone be so mean to a creature so undeserving of such treatment. Where in Western Washington? Your story sounds familiar. I was on a house call as a PC tech in Vancouver, WA long ago, and the guy there told me the same story about his beardies. Some fool was about to release the male in the middle of winter. Hmm....

[Floof]

Concinnusman-- It was actually up in Tumwater, just south of Olympia. It's rather upsetting to hear the situation isn't uncommon. :( In Man Ray's case, the kid dumped it on his parents when he moved out of state, and it was the father that gave him to me.
Gorgeous snake, by the way. Glad he's doing well for you after his ordeal.

Zooplan, I hope your girl bounces back and does well!

[ConcinusMan]

Meanwhile, all 3 big adult 3-stripe concinnus girls I had (I have one, the other two are with other people) just suddenly went downhill and I can't figure out what the problem is. I can save an anery that is half-dead, but I can't seem to save a couple of others that were perfectly healthy a few months ago.:cool:

[ConcinusMan]

Another shot of the anery concinnus rescue. Remember this is a snake that had lateral skin folds and was on the verge of starvation a couple of months ago and nearly too weak to eat. We're talking "hopeless". I think there's hope for your girl for sure Udo.
http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/8005/dscn1666large.jpg

[zooplan]

Thank you for the consolation.
She had no interest in the night crawlers, but ate a single small chicken heart, after offering it five times.

[ConcinusMan]

I've been thinking about trying chicken heart or gizzards, or even beef heart. Is this something that would be OK for them if they like it?

[zooplan]

Feeding hearts as an addition to the diet is ok!
You´ll have to add calcium as a supplement (like milled egg shell).
I had given the advice to feed chicken hearts if not enough fish is avaliable to a younger keeper, but he fed only those for months.
It was a disaster. The snakes became like boneless sausages.
They were not able to crawl straight ahead anymore, sometimes their tails were upside down and their bodies felt like jelly.
There was a happy ending after changing to normal diet with extra calcium. Some small hunches remained at thier backbones, but they were acting fit again.

[guidofatherof5]

I've been thinking about trying chicken heart or gizzards, or even beef heart. Is this something that would be OK for them if they like it?

I'd try to find "hormone free, steroid free" meats. My radixes love turkey/chicken liver also. In my area it's hard to find chicken hearts.
They sell gizzards and hearts together but you only get 1 heart in the container. Gizzards are hard to work with and you end up with a very limited amount of usable meat.

[ConcinusMan]

My radixes love turkey/chicken liver also.

I did not know that. Only problem is, they'd have to fight me for it. I too love liver. Beef, turkey, chicken, any kind! I ate the liver and all the other organs from the turkey this year.:o I can't stand the rest of it.

[guidofatherof5]

That was rather selfish. Poor starving snakes and your eating like a king. Shame on you.:D

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, starving snakes indeed. Some of them haven't eaten since yesterday.:eek:

[ConcinusMan]

Breakthrough! I've invested much time, money and effort into saving that anery concinnus boy by cost of fecal exams and meds, followed by lots of pinkies nearly every day since he was treated, but up until now he has refused anything but pinkies. (I know, I know, how unfortunate:rolleyes:) I think it's important to not get stuck on one food not only for his sake, but my wallets sake too.

I never gave up trying and today, out of the blue, he took two mouthfuls of silversides sections, including bones, skin, guts, and even some roe in there. Enough to produce a noticeable bulge. yippie!

I guess my point is, just because you may have a trouble feeder that refuses certain foods, doesn't mean you should stop trying! You never know when they could come around.:)

Coincidentally, one baby concinnus born from the small and last litter this year, has never shown interest in anything but pinkies since he was born. He also took some fish yesterday, and again today.:D

[zooplan]

Zora is feeding like two pigs, cleaned her dish twice yesterday.
I found the chickenheart regurigated in the enclosure of the pos. het. female but today she ate two night crawlers and refused fish.

I´m wondering about a short brumation for Zora around Chrismas now.

[ConcinusMan]

Feeding hearts as an addition to the diet is ok!
You´ll have to add calcium as a supplement (like milled egg shell).
I had given the advice to feed chicken hearts if not enough fish is avaliable to a younger keeper, but he fed only those for months.
It was a disaster. The snakes became like boneless sausages.
They were not able to crawl straight ahead anymore, sometimes their tails were upside down and their bodies felt like jelly.
There was a happy ending after changing to normal diet with extra calcium. Some small hunches remained at thier backbones, but they were acting fit again.

That sounds like a condition that would happen over the course of at least a year of severe calcium deficiency, as in, they weren't getting any at all for a very long time. I of course, meant as a part of a varied diet that has plenty of calcium from whole fish and rodents. Personally, I've raised concinnus from babies to death by old age without using any supplements at all and IMHO it's not necessary unless you're feeding them exclusively on food that is calcium deficient. My snakes apparently got all the calcium they needed from night crawlers and whole fish mainly. The babies I have, have never had a supplement. They're more than twice as big as they were at birth, and in excellent health eating fish (just the flesh and guts) pinky parts and chopped night crawlers.:confused:

What do you mean by "short" brumation? less than 100 days is... well, you might as well not do it at all.

[zooplan]

"Short" means at least one month in the fridge for me.
Without brumation it´s hard to tell when birth could be expected from my experience, if you´re not able to observe the copulation.

[ConcinusMan]

I don't know, but a month seems rather pointless. Concinnus' especially, don't "reset" with just a month. They need longer. And yes, of course it's hard to tell when birth may take place without observing copulation but then again, I've never had garter snakes copulate at all until about a week after bringing them out of a full brumation, or in the case of ordinoides, during a simulated fall season. This is just my experience with concinnus and ordinoides of course. All bets are off with CB snakes generations removed from the wild or snakes that have been kept for years without brumating.