RAUK - Archived Forum - Do Toads Go Dark Green When Dying?

Hi Bruce.

I hate vets. Vets suck. They didnÆt help Bunny and they didnÆt help Henry and they ainÆt helped my rodents and theyÆve charged me hundreds. I donÆt trust anything vets say cos they all contradict one another and suggest medicines that ainÆt gonna cure whatÆs wrong, I ainÆt met a vet that IÆve thought is any good and IÆve met lots. So youÆre a vet then right Bruce? If you are, what percentage of squidjed toads live on and what percentage donÆt? How many have you treated? & how do vets euthanise toads? Is it like in movies when they stick smelly cotton wool in a jar and close the lid? IÆve thought about taking toads to the vet but IÆd have to wait to the next day and by then they could be dead and have suffered needlessly in pain. ItÆs surely gotta be more humane to just get them killed quick rather than fanny around with them? If one had a minor injury then I might think different, like there was one that I found with itÆs back legs above itÆs head just lying there doing the splits. I scratched my head thinking why it was in that stupid position cos it was at the side of a driveway and was unlikely to have been run over and it didnÆt have no puncture wounds from a cat and everything worked ok when I was inspecting it, I shoved it in my bucket and it picked up and began sh*gging, then I realised later it had tried committing suicide by jumping from a wall and must have landed on itÆs head and itÆs back legs flew over itÆs head on impact with the ground. I figured the prognosis to be good. IÆve seen toads get hit by cars and some just play dead. I walked past one for 15 minutes which got squidged whilst on top of a female and it was on itÆs back looking dead with itÆs legs out, then later it was on itÆs feet crawling away. Sometimes they look worse than they are, sometimes theyÆre worse than they look though. But with that suicidal toad there werenÆt no point in taking it to the vet, whatÆs a vet gonna do with it? Give it a brain scan? I want stats about how many live when actually run over by cars. Or going into detailà. if the back legs are injured and the body is fine can they survive OK? If the bodyÆs taken the full impact do all cases result in death? I mean do any with their tongues sticking out survive long term? & do head injured toads live? Do they live if one eye looks to have sight? If two eyes are b*ggered are they defo screwed like I thought? Do squidged heads stop them from eating? Which people here have rehabilitated frogs and toads? Which injuries were a success and made a recovery? What sort of injuries have people found always result in death? In hindsight when me and Uncle Derek chopped off that toads legs a couple of years back I donÆt think we should have. I know it had survived the night and wasnÆt dead and it could crawl and get about but it surely must have got gangrene within itÆs broken off bones in itÆs back legs? How would stumps like that heal nicely when theyÆre being dragged around in the dirt? It must have been in serious pain. What was I thinking in keeping with keeping it alive? I should have just stamped it to death and put it out of itÆs misery. How long did it take to die? It might have been days or weeks. It was so wrong. I should have been braver and killed it instead of being girlie and delusional and hoping it would live happily ever after. So what injuries can they survive from? How do people contain them to find out they survive? Have people here kept them in a bucket for weeks on end? What do they eat? If I find one that I think is in with a chance and experiment and keep it in a bucket is adding vegetation and leaf matter enough or should I add worms and snails? How often do they eat? Are they like snakes which can last for weeks without food? It would be dumb to keep a toad contained and then starve it to death accidentally. I mean I could take it to the vets for someone there to tell me what I already know or give me naff advice but presumably theyÆd want me to take it away with me if they think it might survive, so is a bucket ok? I mean there ainÆt no point in letting it free cos they disappear and then IÆd never know if it lived or not. How long have people here kept injured toads in captivity for? How many have you kept? Am I wrong in thinking most donÆt make it longterm after theyÆve been hit by cars?