Teisha Tiger Euthanized

Even with the steroid therapy, recommended after seeing the results of her MRI, Teisha Tiger continued to worsen. On May 24 she nearly choked to death because she wasn’t mobile enough to cough up small chunk of meat.

We began cutting her food into even smaller pieces, and feeding her on a stick to make it easier on her, but on Friday, the 27th she took her last walk. She walked out to her pool, where she could lay in the misting breeze of her fan, and look out over the lake. She continued to eat and took her meds but her body was failing and she could no longer walk.

When I saw that she was unable to get our of her own waste, I asked Dr. Wynn to come ease her to the other side. Her transition was peaceful and her suffering has ended, but I will miss her gentle spirit.

Final Report on Teisha Tiger

My hands were shaking, all the way up my arms and vibrating my torso. It was the emotional tension of what was going to happen next and the physical tension of holding the Y pole in such a way to ensure that the vet wouldn't take a bite to her face and making sure that the touch against Teisha's neck was only feather light.

She had been sedated twenty minutes earlier and appeared to be completely unconscious but you just never know when a big cat will wake with no warning or if some muscle spasm might cause them to chomp at the air. Usually this was Jamie's roll, but she was inbound on a flight from St. Kitts, where she and Dr. Justin Boorstein, her husband and our other volunteer vet, had been lecturing to the 200 vet students there. Gale is much more experienced as a vet tech, and was assisting by holding off a vein to cause it to bulge enough so that Dr. Wynn could inject the pink liquid that would ease Teisha to whatever comes next.

The needle was thin, so I could see Dr. Wynn successfully struggling against the thick fluid. She was trying desperately to make this last moment that Teisha had on this planet one that was filled with peace and a feeling of being surrounded by souls who loved her. As usual, when cats are sedated, I was breathing in rhythm with her and watching every heart beat, in its tiniest movement of her thick fur and whiskers. If you have ever had to euthanize a beloved pet, or sat by the bedside of a loved one who was dying, you know that mere seconds feel like an eternity. A wash of memories flooded over me.

Years ago when Ohio finally outlawed the private possession of lions, tigers and other big cats, in the wake of the Zanesville massacre, there were a couple of loud mouths who vowed they would never comply with the law. The reasons they gave, in the ensuing legal battles, was that there was no where for their cats to go. I always assume these big cat breeders and exploiters are lying, but give them the benefit of the doubt and contact them to let them know that there are accredited sanctuaries who will make sure the cats will find permanent homes. I contacted Stapleton but he didn't return my emails or posts to his social pages.

When the Ohio Department of Agriculture enforced the law in 2015 I let them know that we and other sanctuaries, who are accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, were standing by and willing to help. Having dealt with us before, ODA knew that we were the best equipped to deal with the health issues they were seeing in one of Stapleton's five tigers. At the time of confiscation they noticed that she did not stand, even when darted. When they asked if she was suffering some sort of disability, it's reported that her owner casually said that she couldn't walk because her cage mates beat her up all the time.

Once back at the state holding facility they treated her for deep punctures to her neck and back that appeared to have been from the other tigers biting her. They noticed that she couldn't walk and would lay in her own waste. Because their temporary enclosures were cement floored, ODA asked if we would take her. They knew that we have soft earthen floors, an amazing vet team, an abundance of professional animal care givers and the funding provided by our donors that would give Teisha every chance at recovery. On October 21, 2015 our rescue team set out on the 15 hour drive to bring Teisha Tiger to Florida.

It's been seven months, but it feels like it was yesterday that our team rolled Teisha out of the transport trailer and up to the side of the area that would be her new home. It took Teisha 3 hours to stand up and make it down the ramp we built from her rolling cage, which was only about 20 inches off the ground, to the deep soft sand of her 1200 square foot home. She was exhausted from the ride and 60 pounds overweight, from getting a lousy diet and no exercise, for who knows how long. Our first goal was to bring her weight down and see if that would enable her to walk.

As the pounds came off Teisha was able to go from dragging her back legs to actually standing on them and taking a few steps. As she got stronger she was able to pull herself into and out of her pool and delighted everyone with her antics. She would hold her breath and try to catch the little fish and would blow bubbles out her nose. I remember Teisha getting her first Halloween pumpkin. I loved seeing her enjoy a life, free from the abuse that had surely been inflicted on her by people and cage mates in that tiny, barren cage she lived in her 13 years prior. All was seeming to progress well, albeit slowly for her, but then she began to relapse. She walked less and less and by the end of April had begun to drag her back legs.

We had done X-rays that showed a narrowing of the spine, but couldn't find a veterinarian who could do such delicate work without the benefit of an MRI. On May 2, 2016 we found a vet who said she could do the surgery, and wanted the MRI to be done at her local facility in Gainesville. We had reached the end of our ability to help Teisha. As much as we hated the idea of loading her up for the 2.5 hour trip to the University of Florida's Large Animal Hospital, we knew it was her only chance. I never expected her to return from that trip as the stress of the MRI and surgery, either one, could be the end of her.

What the MRI showed was that there were 15 places along her back that had bulging discs and defects pinching her spinal cord. The vet said they were so bad and had been going on for so long that there was nothing she could do surgically. We thought that would be the end of it, but she encouraged us by suggesting that treating her with steroids could reduce the inflammation enough to give her relief and make it possible for her to walk again.

Teisha seemed game to try so we gave it our best. She was a champ; always taking her meds (no easy feat as cats are notoriously hard to pill) and eating well. Her keepers tried to use feeding time as physical therapy time to get her on her feet and maybe take a step or two so that her muscles wouldn't atrophy. Like before, she had a modest gain, but then relapsed again.

On May 24, 2016 she nearly choked to death because she couldn't keep herself upright while eating. Once she fell on her side, she could barely breathe well enough to cough the little square of meat back up. We had to cut her food into tiny, tiny pieces to keep that from happening again.

On Friday she made her last tumbling, dragging walk from the side of her enclosure where she and the cat next door would chat, to the pool area lakeside. Teisha laid there in the misting breeze of her fan, and looked out over the lake. She continued to eat and took her meds but her body was failing and she could no longer walk.

When we saw that she was unable to get our of her own waste, we called the vet to come assess her condition. Dr. Wynn was torn between knowing that euthanasia was the humane thing to do and the concern that Dr. Boorstein, who had been tending to Teisha during most of this, might feel that he should be here; but he was on a plane somewhere east of Cuba. Teisha couldn't bathe herself and flies were gathering. I didn't want even one more fly to land on this precious tiger. I told her Dr. Justin would be fine with our decision to end the suffering.

So here we were. It's one of those awful decisions that has to be made because an animal just can't go another hour or another day, but it fell on Memorial Day. Like Simba Tiger, all those years ago on Thanksgiving, a holiday just makes the situation worse because you are sure to re live it every year on that day. As hard as it was for everyone involved here, we all loved Teisha too much to make her wait.

Her breathing stopped, and I found myself holding my breath, until I realized that it was her last. Dr. Wynn checked her heart with the stethoscope, but I could see there was no more gentle thumping beneath the fur. Teisha was gone and the only thing that kept me from breaking down and sobbing over her lifeless body was the anger I felt at a society that allowed her abuse. Teisha's passing furthers my resolve to end the private possession of big cats. No tiger should ever be bred to be used as an ego prop and then relegated to a nasty backyard cage to be denied everything that makes tigers the regal, untouchable creatures they were designed to be.

Hi, I’m Carole Baskin and I’ve been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views. If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story. The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/

I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story. My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.

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Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion. Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk