I respect all of you in the indigo forum, it's more about the snakes than many of those other's... anyways.



Cooling a snake or any reptile for that matter reduces the metabolism of that animal. We all agree on this of course. What it does NOT reduce is the animal's awareness of what is going on. Just because they look asleep doesn't mean that they are. Cooling is not a method of anesthesia or analgesia.



Have any of you ever experienced frostbite? I know it's not just a Canadian phenomenom since I've been to Colorado when it was -20C. It burns. This is the crystalization of your cells. What happens when you freeze a reptile is that the cells begin to crystalize before death. I would imagine it feels like burning to death.



I believe the only recognized method of euthanitizing reptiles is through barbituate overdose. In snakes this is best done with an intracardiac injection. If the snake is stressed out by the handling necessary for a smooth, minimally painfull puncture, then sedation with any number of appropriate sedatives is indicated.

Dean had mentioned over the counter drug overdose. While I think this would be affective the con's to this method would include:

a)the dose needed would be huge... perhaps more than is feasable to ingest. The barbituates used to euthanatize are VERY concentrated. Euthanyl is 240mg/ml of pentobarbitol while euthanol is 350 I believe (don't have this one in clinic). I would begin with 10-20mls (2400-4800mg)for an indigo sized snake, but it's weight dependent.

b)this hasn't been used "in-clinic" before and there are no studies done on the effectiveness. It is very possible that it won't work simply because the rate of absorption via the GI tract is not fast enough to give a large enough blood concentration to cause death. Other problems would be the huge array of side effects that would be exasperated by the large amounts needed. Would the snake suffer from gastric ulceration prior to death?



Other forms of euthanatizing are used in lab animals mainly because barbituates sometimes get in the way with the studies done. They need to be done in a skilled, controlled manner or it will lead to a painfull death. An example is cervical dislocation. While quick (in small mammals), it is obvious how such a procedure could also be extremely painfull if death was not immediate.



My final recommendation is to have a veterinarian perform all euthanasias. Not only for legal concerns (yes, it is illegal to euthanitize your animals-falls under the practicing vet. med without a liscence), but morally, it's a small final reprieve for your captives.



Ian

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