We, as humans can do this to an animal???

Consider that before he passed he had some days worth the effort to eat and drink. Those were comforts for him at least. He probably felt a glimmer of hope too. You gave that to him. Who knows all the organ damage that could not be reversed. He's at peace.

Sometimes chams in horrible conditions do recover and live quite a while. I rescued a female jax who was completely shut down from dehydration. She hadn't eaten or drunk for a couple of weeks, eyes almost glued shut, paper dry and skeletal. She just lay in a sink while I got a setup ready for her. I misted her every few minutes and while she couldn't raise her head or open her eyes, she started licking the water off the porcelain. That's what kept me going. After several weeks of force feeding, eye cleaning, Pedialyte, soaking, and constant care she was alert, active, hunting, drinking, and almost too fat. I had her for a couple of years after that.

One other aspect to the human vs animal pain discussion I always think about...humans share pain by hearing about it from others, anticipate pain first, dwell on pain because they remember a time without it, and after the pain ends they re-live it over and over. Most animals live in the moment, not the past or future. When something hurts, it means that's life's condition for that moment. I think we humans amplify our misery by all the mental analysis we do. We also demand and expect that something WILL relieve our pain if we broadcast our need to others hard enough.
 
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