Another Road Victim....

[imported_Varanus]

If people had any idea what it takes for a Lacey to achive this size they might think twice about driving fast and avoiding wildlife!

I remember stopping to remove a lond necked turtle from the road once only to see the ******** behind me speed up and deliberately target the turt as it reached the edge of the road, then drive past me giving me the finger !!

Here's one who won't be crying when the fuel runs out . Give some relief to the estimated 5,000,000 herps that fall victim to vehicles each year.

Sorry for the rant, I feel better now; hope the Lacey recovers O.K, please keep us posted.

Cheers,

Varanus.

[waruikazi]

Good luck mate, it is a real shame when this sort of bizzo happens. Onya mate doing a great thing.

[ssssnakeman]

I might be wrong but I think the matella is part of the skull. Adjacent the eye socket. I fractured mine once. If I'm wrong it's becauze I'm still at work and tired. late planes again coming in from Brisbane.

hey thanks shamus,i was thinking it might have been a typo and huggy meant to say maxilla,upper jaw? ,i think ?that looks like where the damage is from the pics.
road victims and dog attacks make up the bulk of my callouts for injured herps and it dosnt matter how many you see them, its always a bit heartbreaking.i got an eastern bluetongue last week that is recovering ,thanfully, from a dog bite .she will be released on the weekend.
baz

[waruikazi]

Are dogs bigger problems than cats are they sssnakeman? I thought cats did the biggest damage.

[shamous1]

Don't quote me ssssnakeman on the bone thingy. I was at work much later than normal last night and can't remember exactly. I know I fractured my Zygoma, skull, jaw, feet and pretty much squashed my nose around 18 years ago. That's where I get my good looks from . I'll try and find out and get back to you.

[ssssnakeman]

Are dogs bigger problems than cats are they sssnakeman? I thought cats did the biggest damage.

cats keep the bird and possum carers busy here on the peninsula where as dogs seem to have a special dislike for the herps,i.e turts and blueys.
although cats do take there fair share of smaller snakes and smaller skinks such as our swamp skinks , egernia coventryi, of which there dont seem to be to many left

[hugsta]

Thanks for all the well wishes, I hope he makes a speedy recovery. I will be taking him to David Vellas Wednesday morning to have him rechecked. His prognosis is not good, but we can only hope. I found him upside down last night when I was going to bed and he couldn't right himself, he did seem to have a small drink of water after I put his mouth in the bowl, so maybe there is some hope.

Baz, I believe it is part of the skull, however, this is only a second hand report, so I will know more after the vets tomorrow and will let everyone know his updated prognosis.

Cheers
Daz

[hornet]

dad caught me a 1.2m eastern brown male yesterday, sadly it was dead by the time he got home, it had been hit by a car, its get had been squashed so i dont think there was any chance even if it was aline when he got it to me...poor thing

[wier040]

Hugsta ...Best wishes mate .....
I live in rural NSW , travel 5 to 6 hundred k's a week and have yet to hit something large ......But yet I seem to see roadkill every day ! Accidental ? Think not sometimes . Teach my kids not to kill unless you can eat it ; stop the vehicle and remove any reptile , snake ,animal from the road but yet there just seems to be too many idiots that " accidentally " kill and drive off with out a care ....Bit of a worry !!!!

[shamous1]

I guess these idiots that deliberately aim at wildlife in an attempt to score a notch on their inferior little belt makes them feel good. Who are we to have a go at them? What else would they do with their spare time? Run into something much bigger and there for be more likely to damage their car (I THINK NOT).

Gutless FW's.


Hugsta how old that animals have to be. I've seen some juvy laceys but nothing that size before. Have you had chance to measure and weight it? Hope all goes well.

[hugsta]

He is just over 1.5 metres long, around 5ft long TL. I will weigh him tomorrow at the vets.

There is a lot of peolpe deliberately running over animals, but there is also a lot of accidents, I would imagine it would be a bit hard to stop or swerve a semi from an animal that has decided to walk out in front of it, or as the truck comes around the corner there is a snake, goanna slowly crossing the road.

I have almost run over countless reptiles, but have managed to avoid them. Almost ran of a lacie on my motorbike once, even had fox just miss my back wheel while riding up towards Lithgow. So it can happen by mistake.

[shamous1]

But unfortunately I guess we need to educate the accidents (drivers) on what to do afterwards. I guess it would be hard for most people to know what to do with an animals that size and that's why it probably gets left on the side of the road.

[Magpie]

Good luck with him, if you haven't already, consider treating for ticks.
I've had a few wild lacies in similar condition and they tend to have a tick or two on them and if the ticks lay eggs you end up with a massive infestation.
I've found lacies do take a long long time to recover, but it's amazing what they can recover from.

[hugsta]

Will check him out mags. There is no visible sign of any, but I have not had a real good look. I just got him straight into a quarantine cage and on heat. I will have a good look over him tomorrow at the vets. The enclosure will be F10'd before he goes back in anyway.

They are very hardy animals, it is just not knowing if he will make a full recovery. Maybe someone will end up with him as a long term captive. I certainly don't have the space for an animal that size, that is back to health, at this stage.

[Mysnakeau]

Originally Posted by Varanus

If people had any idea what it takes for a Lacey to achive this size they might think twice about driving fast and avoiding wildlife!

I remember stopping to remove a lond necked turtle from the road once only to see the [CENSORED] behind me speed up and deliberately target the turt as it reached the edge of the road, then drive past me giving me the finger !!

Here's one who won't be crying when the fuel runs out . Give some relief to the estimated 5,000,000 herps that fall victim to vehicles each year.

Sorry for the rant, I feel better now; hope the Lacey recovers O.K, please keep us posted.

Cheers,

Varanus.

So how long does it take for a monitor to reach that size?

When my shop was further out of town, last year I rescued dozens of turtles off the highway. I think the vets got sick of seeing me come in with "another turtle". I bet they didn't even try to help it. Too easy just to put it down and get rid of it.