Near Tragedy

[exoticsdr]

Being in the winter months, everyone is busy trying to keep their babies warm and safe in a variety of enclosures and with a variety of heating techniques.....here is a real heart-stopper.

Since I take care of so many sick animals and find myself handfeeding babies of different species and sometimes very fragile ages, I make a habit of checking my critters often, sometimes several times a night, getting up and going outside and poking my head in to take a look.

Last evening at 9pm I went out and looked into the tortoise/kangaroo house and immediately smelled smoke. After some very tense investigation, I found that my Kane heater had malfunctioned and was within minutes of starting a fire in which I'm sure my torts would have been lost. Won't be sleeping well for the foresee-able future, but my kids are safe and sound....Thank God!

 

[MaggieL]

Oh no!! Good thing you found the issue before anything awful happened. What a relief!

I do the same thing, wake up to check on my little guy. That would be so incredibly scary.

Glad things are okay.

 

[Torty Mom]

Scary!! Excellent timing on your part!! Glad you were able to catch it in time!

 

[DoctorCosmonaut]

Thank goodness you caught that! Anything safer you can use? Maybe install a loud smoke alarm?

 

[terryo]

You were so lucky. Thank God they were all safe. I always worry about fire's and I'm constantly going around checking all the bulbs and heat emitters. I lived through two bad fires, and it's not a pretty thing to see. Such a worry......

 

[mike1011]

I heard too many stories of this happening with those, the worst being Gatorland Zoo in Fl. burning down. I also had too many problems myself with che, now I only use radiant heat panels. By far the safest and best. Glad everyone is o.k. Way to scary!

 

[DoctorCosmonaut]

What is the performance like with radiant heat panels? It seems like they don't raise ambient temps.

 

[mike1011]

they heat the objects ( in my case the substrate in the shed) which then gives off the heat to taise the ambient temp. I have them on a thermstat set at 84, the temp always maintains 84 with no fluctuations unless I open the shed, and then the torts dont notice the temp drop because the heat panels are heating them not the air. I was a skeptic until I tried them. If you use the correctly sized panel for your set-up, you will never again use anything else! The best part is they wont "burn" the air which dries everything out, they heat without drying. They are also very safe and more energy eff. than reg. heating choices.

 

[CtTortoiseMom]

This is the time of year when that stuff happens. Luckily your diligent care really paid off. I hope the vets I use are passionate like you! I like to think they are but it could just be altruistic on my part.

 

[ChiKat]

Oh wow, how scary! Thank goodness everything is okay.
I always worry about Nelson's heat lamps.

 

[Jacqui]

Do you happen to use any remote sensors which alert you when things like change in temps or even smoke happen?

Just glad this story had a happy ending.

 

[Yvonne G]

Dr. Todd:

When you say "Kane Heater" what exactly do you mean? I though a Kane was like a pig blanket. No?

 

[exoticsdr]

Jacqui....no remotes, yet, but plan on building a new dedicated outdoor enclosure this Spring that will definitely be heated with radiant heat exclusively and be manned with remote alarm capability.

Yvonne...Yep..Kane Pig Blanket...never again. Will take pics this evening and post them and hope the pics keep others safe from this kind of problem.

 

[Yvonne G]

I've been using Osborne Industries Stanfield pig blankets for over 35 years. In all that time, one quit working and two developed cracks (because I raise them up on 2x4's and didn't support the middle well enough). I still have some in use that are over 30 years old.

Looking forward to your pictures so I know what to watch for.

 

[exoticsdr]

here is the pic

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Dr. Todd:

Well, now, that just raises more questions! Was the grass under the mat or on top of it? Do you use a rheostat?

I don't use substrate at all in my sheds, and I have 2x4's screwed into the outer edges of the pig blankets to raise them up off the floor.

What a stroke of luck that you decided to brave the weather and go check on the animals. That could have been a terrible thing!

 

[exoticsdr]

Hi Dr. Todd:

Well, now, that just raises more questions! Was the grass under the mat or on top of it? Do you use a rheostat?

I don't use substrate at all in my sheds, and I have 2x4's screwed into the outer edges of the pig blankets to raise them up off the floor.

What a stroke of luck that you decided to brave the weather and go check on the animals. That could have been a terrible thing!

Since it is a shared living area with the kangaroos, there is loose hay in part of the shed. The mat was not covered in hay and not on a rheostat. There was a wall of hay bales in front of the mat separating the kangaroo's area from the torts and an approx. 1.5' x 1.5' entrance area for the torts to access the mat area. Evidently, some hay/feces was drug in and that's where the problem started. These mats are used in farrowing operations, so was surprised that a small amount of hay and some tortoise turds could cause such a problem. Could have been a hard lesson learned.

 

[Jacqui]

I too am really surprised it took so little hay/manure on top to cause problems.

 

[Tom]

I've been using those mats the same way for nearly 10 years and never had a single problem. Kraig Kane, the owner of the company has recently redesigned his mats. They come with a remote temperature sensor embedded in the mat and the whole thing is attached to a rheostat. I've had mine covered with tons of grass hay and sulcata turds and never seen anything like that. I'm going to forward this thread to Kraig and see what he has to say about it.

Glad your animals are all okay Doc. Nice save.

 

[exoticsdr]

Thanks Tom, I surely appreciate it.