Today's Rant-Lack of vet care

[ER12]

Ok, I am going to go on a bit of a rant here about something I have been seeing and hearing far too often that has been irritating me, and that has to do with responsibilities and proper care and veterinary treatment for reptiles. This should actually go for any animal really. The short of it is, when you have an animal, ANY ANIMAL, and it gets sick, injured, or you otherwise notice something wrong with it, it is YOUR responsibility to not only care for it properly in the first place, but to remedy it in a reasonably timely fashion!!! As many may remember, MAHS took in a snake earlier this year back in January that was extremely emaciated, under sized, had infections in BOTH eyes, and was more than likely septic. That snake was in bad condition. After about a YEAR of attempting the best possible care and rehabilitation, that animal still never ate on its own and continued to decline to the point where we finally consulted with our vet and decided to humanely euthanize that animal. Sad. It was noted that that animal had these issues AT LEAST a year (if not more) before we picked it up. THAT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE and now I know and have heard of at least several other very similar, if not identical instances. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE If you have an animal that is sick and you can't afford veterinary care for it, TRY to still take it to a vet and maybe a payment plan can be worked out. Or surrender it to a rescue organization or someone willing and able to provide it the vet care it needs. DOING SOMETHING LIKE THAT IS BETTER THAN DOING NOTHING AND ALLOWING THE ANIMAL TO CONTINUE TO SUFFER TO THE POINT OF BEYOND RECOVERY. THAT SHOULD BE ABOUT AS BASIC AS IT GETS!!!

Anyway, that's the end of my rant for today.