10/01/2025
Animal husbandry is not for the faint of heart. It takes a strong person, to care for these animals day in and day out. You have to make tough calls and know when it’s time to end an animals suffering because they can’t tell you. It’s the hardest part of caring for animals.
When me and my daughter went out to feed and clean cages, she noticed Saguaro didn’t eat his food from the day before. I then noticed he was laying off kilter and breathing hard. I’d seen he barely drank water and that’s when I got worried.
I opened his cage to see if touching him would make him move. Nothing. I picked him up, which he normally hates, and pulled him out of the cage. Nothing. We placed him on the posing table and he just sat there breathing hard. He had some feeling when I pinched his tail, but it wasn’t very much. So we FaceTimed our friends at Full Throttle and observed him together.
At that point he was starting to sort of move, but he couldn’t keep his balance or hardly use his front legs and would fall over a lot. I could tell it hurt him if I tried to raise his head, and it also appeared he had gone blind. We made the call it was time to end his suffering.
When my husband got home, he double checked its what I wanted to do. I said yes because I can’t have his suffer. He also did some physical tests on him and confirmed something neurological happened to Saguaro, causing him to go blind and lose most control/sensation in his body. We also noticed a messy belly from him soiling himself.
Rest easy Saguaro. You’re up with your dad Mojave now. I’ll miss you so much buddy 😭😭💔🐇
