When to Euthanize a Tiger

At Big Cat Rescue we have a general  decision tree that we and our vets use to determine when it is time to euthanize a big cat, but every situation is different. The vast majority of the time we just aren’t sure that it is the right decision until we do the necropsy, which is the animal version of an autopsy.  The reason it is so hard to know, if we are doing the right thing, is because cats are hard wired to live the mantra of the wild; “Survival of the fittest.”

 

They just will not reveal their illness or their suffering until they cannot hide it any longer. We just had two situations, back to back, where we had to make the gut wrenching decision to euthanize an exotic cat.  One was an ocelot (known in Central and South America as the Tree Tiger) and the other was an actual tiger.  Both were 20-22 years old, but their histories were so different, that the decision in each case came after painful deliberation of our veterinary care team.

 

Amazing Grace the ocelot was 22 years old and had been with us since 1996.  She had always been robust in health and purr-sonality and had been a favorite of Keepers and Guests alike.  We knew Gracie’s moods, what she liked and didn’t like to eat, how to get her to relax when her hyperactivity was getting the best of her and what her favorite enrichment treats were.

 

When Amazing Grace came up on the Observation Chart for NOT being excited about dinner, and yet looking bloated, we knew something was wrong and scheduled a visit with our vet, Dr. Liz Wynn. Sedating a 22 year old cat is not something we would do without considerable cause, but Amazing Grace was in excellent condition and there wasn’t anything we could determine about her failing to eat from just looking at her.  When she was sedated it was discovered, via blood work and being able to get our hands on her, that her kidneys were done and she had several tumors.  The bloating was from fluid filling her abdomen, which is usually a sign of a failing heart.  At 22 we did not believe that she had any chance for improvement and had to say, “Good-bye” to our precious, long time friend.

 

Her necropsy gave us the peace of mind that we had done the right thing for her.  It revealed that she did, in fact, have liver cancer, advanced heart disease, many other masses throughout her organs and a tiny, blister – like surface over her entire omentum (the tissue that envelopes your organs).  The second situation was even harder to make because Kimba the tiger had just been rescued 17 days before we had to make a life or death decision.  We knew almost nothing about Kimba, except that she was literally starving to death in NY and that we weren’t even sure she would make it through the day that we loaded her into a transport and gave her food and water for the first time in who knows how long.

 

She and her two family members were all starving and dehydrated and drank 8 gallons of water between them in the first 24 hours. As soon as they arrived at Big Cat Rescue we began offering food and Zeus ate like there was no tomorrow, but Keisha and Kimba were shy about it, so we couldn’t be sure if they were coming into the feeding area at night.  Within a few days, Keisha overcame her shyness and would eat while Keepers were present, but Kimba was still not packing away the chow like the other two.  We weren’t sure if she was just more shy, or if she had been starved for so long that she just couldn’t eat as much at any given time, so we started feeding her several times a day.  She would eat a couple bites, off a long stick, but then no more.  She was seen drinking regularly, so we just did all we could to increase her food intake, in the hopes that we could build up her strength enough to sedate her and look for anything else that may be going on.

 

Maybe she had bad teeth and eating was painful?  Maybe she had tumors or an obstruction that was keeping her from eating?  Maybe she had some disease?  Some things