We knew the muskrat was old, and had some issue with his mouth that was going to be looked at today, but on Friday his mouth was looking bigger and so by Saturday morning we decided to sedate him and check things out. The growth on his face grew very quickly and was not removable. We were (are) suspicious of cancer, and as we were deciding whether or not we should wake him up from the procedure he started toRead more
Posts tagged: #euthanasia
Another Sad Day in the Animal Department
It is with a heavy heart that I report the loss of our opossum Galileo. Recently he started to show signs of heavy labored breathing and his appetite had decreased greatly. We took him to the vet for x-rays on Tuesday October 15, 2013 and found that he had fluid in his chest cavity that was preventing him from breathing properly. It was determined that he needed to be euthanized. The final results of the necropsy are still pending, butRead more
Another Difficult Goodbye: You’ll be missed Chummix
We started the blog over 5 years ago. Our goal was to bring you into the life of a Keeper at the Museum. Death is a part of life. Some animals die on their own, others are euthanized. In fact our very first blog post was about saying goodbye to Moo. As we’ve written previously, some days are tough and some days suck. Today has been one of those days. I’ve written in the past year about Chummix and his “old goat disease“. We’ve been monitoring him and the keepers have been workingRead more
Some Days Suck
There is really no better description. It’s one of those sucky, sad days in the animal department. We have a few animals on “hospice” care and today was the day to euthanize Nimbus. A difficult day for sure, but not a surprising one. However, on Wednesday, Wendy Woodchuck was not looking so well. She did not improve. I checked on her several times throughout the night last night and today she went to the vet (Dr. Thea Carter). Wendy was euthanizedRead more