Have you ever euthanised badly injured prey?

[Archfarchnad]

Yuck, horrible topic. So far Archcat has mostly brought in live, uninjured prey which we've just caught and released, or he's killed it himself. But the mouse two days ago was clearly in a bad way, with a badly injured leg, hardly able to move, probably in shock, and Archcat had lost all interest and wandered out again. I'd already read up the best way to humanely euthanise because I suspected we'd have to do this some time: apparently you put the animal in a sealed small box with a bowl containing a baking powder and vinegar mix, which releases enough carbon dioxide to kill the mouse or bird gently and painlessly. It actually worked, we checked half an hour later and the mouse was clearly properly dead by then. Anyone else done this before? Are there any more humane options?

I had to do it once with a sparrow. I suffocated it. Was pretty horrible and thankfully the wisecat is now too old to catch prey and I haven't had to do it again.

How did you suffocate it, wise, what did you use? God, that question sounds really creepy actually . Archcat is still only about 3, so I think we have many years of this ahead of us.

I have - twice. Sharp whack on the head with a big stone. Cried like a baby for ages afterwards . The rabbit was worse than the mouse . I get the dog to do it nowadays, one bite to the neck and it's done. Mind you, we've not had any offerings for a while thankfully, the cats are getting old now. Didn't know about the baking powder and vinegar thing.

DH bashed an injured bird over the head with a shovel. Didn't know how best to do it, at least it was quick.

I had kept the kids away as they were upset at this injured baby bird but unfortunately through the window they saw DH come round the front of the house with said ex-bird on the spade and put it in the wheely bin.

I used to have to do it fairly regularly, our old car was bad for snapping a mouses spine, tormenting it till she got bored then wandering away. I found the quickest way was a sharp tap to the head, generally (sounds awful) but swing by the tail against the side of the garage, fairly hard. Worked first time every time, and was quick and hopefully painless.

I have twice - both birds. I pulled their necks :( and cried a huge amount.

yeah, crushed heads of some voles under a brick. Too much of a wimp to do it again.

We had a couple when our old cat was alive - LateCat and StillHereCat would play tennis with them along the hallway so the small furries would have broken legs/tails etc. I didn't know about the vinegar/bicarb thing and needed to act fast so double-bagged and dropped a brick

Better than releasing them to be ripped apart later by other wildlife though! and we got straight in touch with the experts

I've not had to do it for anything the cat has caught but the best way to kill a mouse is by cervical dislocation i.e. breaking the neck.

You either hold the mouse behind the head with your fingers or put a pen/pencil behind the head and pull the tail quickly while pushing down and forward behind the neck. This is much quicker and more humane than asphyxiation though possibly harder for you to do. If you can put the mouse on something that it will hold onto it is much easier.

I've had to kill bird which fell out of a tree (babies but not tiny), the other birds were pecking them to death. I chopped their heads off with an axe and then cried.

It is horrible having to do it but much better than ignoring an injured animal.

I've had to cave a few heads in with a shovel in my time, horrid but hopefully quick for the animal.

I pulled a baby birds head off when i over did pulling its neck after it was got by a cat. Poor thing. My mother was with me at the time and she didn't speak to me for a week. Much better to put them out of pain.

"You either hold the mouse behind the head with your fingers or put a pen/pencil behind the head and pull the tail quickly while pushing down and forward behind the neck."

See, I can believe this is more humane if you do it right, but I'd be terrified of getting it wrong and causing even more pain to the poor thing.

You lot are a bit more hard core than I thought with all the shovel bashing and head pulling. I'm clearly a bit of a wuss.

"our old car was bad for snapping a mouses spine" Yup, I think a car would be quite efficient at snapping a spine .

Several times... I use the cervical dislocation method i.e. hold pencil firmly at base of skull and sharp tug at base of tail. They die almost simultaneously whereas carbon dioxide poisoning takes much longer.

Arch people who have never done it are much more likely to do it so efficiently that you actually pull the head off. That means that the mouse is definitely dead!

I took a badly injured juvenile blackbird to the vet's once, and he dropped a cotton pad soaked in what I think he said was chloroform, into bird's box. It was very quick, and seemingly peaceful.

In the past, I've attempted to nurse various wildlife through the night, but when it came to take them to vet's in the morning, they were always dead. So I guess all I did was to prolong their fear/pain.

Luckily for me, MCat either brought in completely dead or alive prey, never in between, until he "grew out" of his killing sprees. MKitten doesn't seem to display murderous tendencies. He brought a frog in the house a while ago, seemingly to invite it for a sleepover. He's a sociable little thing.

I salute all of you who are brave enough to euthanize - hopefully I'll never have to be that brave.

Dh has done several times.

Mouse/vole gets dispatched with a brick. A bird gets it's neck broken.

I just don't think I could do it. Dcat left a baby bird on my sofa once. It was quite large but clearly a fairly young one. It looked completely uninjured though, dh was in work and I didn't know what to do...so I drove it to my vets (with vague desperate hopes that they would hand rear it or something). The vet was kind but said he'd have to euthanise it and I cried all the way home.