My blue tongued skink, Wheezy, died.

[Nancy]

Hi,

My name is Nancy. I purchased a blue-tongued skink, and she was very healthy. This past Sunday I found mites on her. I didn't know how to treat this as I am new to reptiles. No vets were open, but one petstore, Pets Plus Supplies in Bedford, Nova Scotia was open. I told the guy who worked there, Brandon about the mites and he told me he had 24 years experience and knew exactly how to cure her, and welcomed me to bring her in as he said the mites would travel around my house to my snakes and geckos. He told me I would need to bleach her aquarium out, and to buy rubbing alcohol and toothpicks and I needed a white cloth. When I arrived with her, right away he showed me where the mites were and took the alcohol and began pouring it on the cloth. He rubbed her down with it, and she began to struggle. She messed all over him several times as well as peed. I was concerned over this but he assured me the alcohol would evaporate in a short time. The mites came off as well as the skin which he said was because she was shedding. She had her mouth open several times as well. Then he took her in the back of his store and washed her down with Palmolive dish detergent. He also advised me to use aquarium gravel instead of the shavings I had used and I bought several bags of them. Then he took a toothpick and went underneath her eyelid to (check for mites in there). He advised me to do rub her down with the alcohol twice a day, and to my snakes and leopard geckos as well. Thankfully, I didn't. I then took her home. She never moved the whole time, and when I put her back in the tank she began doing laps. I then figured something was wrong, and decided to wash her with just warm water. I went to bed, and the next morning she was stiff and barely breathing. There was blood coming out of her nose and ears and her eyes couldn't open and close. I washed her again in warm water hoping to revive her, but within a half an hour she died. I was so heartbroken. I loved this animal as did my small son, and because of this store owner's ignorance, I lost my beloved pet. I feel that this man should repay me the cost of the animal as I feel he killed her. Any comments?

[XxRachxX]

im sorry to hear that :(theyre one of my favourites:( have you contacted the store owner? what did he say? i dont know much, but one thing i know is that you should stick to proven, safe mite treatments to zap the lil buggers. ive never heard of rubbing alcohol for mites? if he uses this for mite then god knows how many reptiles hes killed!
lets hope shes gone to the big vivarium in the sky!o> :w

[Dino]

gggggrrrrr that don't sound right to me!

:medangry:

I would definatley approach management or the owner of the store! Like Rach said "stick to proven" and because he is not a vet he might not be liable!

I have never had to deal with mites. But that does not sound cool! I would be steeeeeeeeeaaaaaming.

Sorry to hear of your loss. My deepest sympathy.
Dino

[eyespy]

My comments cannot be made in a public forum meant for family viewing, I'm too upset and angry for appropriate editing. I am deeply sorry for your loss. I also suggest you contact animal control to see if an abuse investigation is warranted.

[Nancy]

I contacted the owner of the store yesterday, but I was very emotional and crying so much I could barely talk. He told me I should contact the guy I bought the skink from to see what his warranty was. He also said that she probably died from respiratory problems as I had mentioned she had a slight wheeze from time to time when I brought her in that day (hence the name Wheezy) which he never heard while I had her in the store. I disagree. My skink wheezed from time to time, but it was not all the time, and seemed to happen mostly when she was nervous. She was eating very well, and had no other problems than a few nicks from other skinks that was in with her in the store I bought her from. All of those would have eventually cleared up. Today I called and he is conveniently not in the store, and the girl working there got in an argument with me saying my animal was sick and full of mites. She stated he had 25 years experience, and I told her that according to the guy I bought the skink from (who wasn't home that day), another pet store I deal with and two vets, that you never put rubbing alcohol directly on the animal. She took my message, and I still haven't heard from him.

[Rebecca]

I'm very sorry for your loss. It sucks to loose a pet/friend.

I keep trying to talk to him. Go there and see him if he won't talk to you on the phone. Also contact the local animal control and report him for animal abuse. If he has 25 years behind him then he should know not to do what he did.

[Pythonian]

okay .. maybe it's becase i'm 100% Irish, and have like 80% of my family in the IRA... but... can we say .. Pipe bomb?


Mike

[HeatherRose]

Pipe bomb indeed. I'm very sorry to hear about this. It's unfortunate that sometimes these people just don't know what they're doing. It's sad that sometimes we just can't trust their information.

But a question..are mites as to snakes/herps as fleas are to dogs/cats? Or are they dangerous?

Heather

[Nancy]

Hi

Good news to an unfortunate situation. Although I can't bring back my beloved pet, Wheezy, I did get the store owner to cough up 85% of the cost of a new skink. I purchased a blue tongued skink just an hour ago, at the same place I purchased my geckos. My new wee one was born on January 1, 2003, she is captive bred. I have held her momma before. She is extremely healthy. I could barely contain myself from telling the idiot that soaked my precious pet in rubbing alcohol exactly what I thought of him when I went to pick up the cheque to pay for my new one. Hope I was of a help to any new reptile owners that would take the word of a petstore as the total truth. I for one will be contacting a vet in the future.

[tHeGiNo]

Well they are much more dangerous, and spread like bacteria. Plus they spread around collections very fast

[tHeGiNo]

And nancy, I am very sorry to hear about your poor little guy. I can't imagine the suffering he must have gone through. However, this proves a valid lesson, if you are trusting someone with your animal ask them if they will be responsible if they injure your animal, GET IT IN WRITING. Cannot stress how important that is, however I know the first thing you were worrying about was the safety of your pet, and again I am really sorry.

[nouserpif]

Rubbing alchohal work like a charm for invertebrae (cept t's), as long as it stays away from their breathing holes... That blows!
Dan Conner

[HeatherRose]

Congrats on your new addition, sorry it's under tragic circumstances...

Nancy, while what happened to you was awful, it would be very unfortunate if it were to happen again...has the store guy accepted/realized that he was wrong, or was it just to get you to be quiet about the whole thing? It it was me, I'd confront him (loud and stabby-like)...

Thanks for the answer GiNo.....I've got a crested, so I'm not supposed to worry about that as much...but I wanted some info anyway...: )

Heather

[Lisa]

Nancy, I'm sad that you had to find out first hand the wrong way to treat for mites.

Hope his replacement fares better then weezy

[Pythonian]

Nancy .. yea i'd talk to the knob that did that to ur skink , otherwise he'd be "helping" a lot of customers. ... if u could wait about a week i could cook up a nice pipe bomb for ya and have it shipped for next day air ;)

Mike

[eyespy]

I spoke to some vet friends of mine who say keep rubbing alcohol VERY far away from herps!!!

It's called rubbing alcohol because in the days before aspirin, Tylenol or ibuprofen were used against fevers, they would rub down a patient with alcohol to lower a dangerously high body temperature. It lowers the body temperature far more quickly than a cool bath and was used to try and stiop seizures from high fevers.

So rubbing a cold-blooded animal with a substance that instantly lowers the temperature of the skin is a very bad idea indeed. Not to mention that most herps do not have much of a mucous membrane in their respiratory tracts and are therefore extremely sensitive to vapors, fumes, and airborne chemicals.

Rubbing alcohol packs a double whammy right there, even before you consider that many herps absorb fluids through their skin at a much higher rate than mammals, and so the blood alcohol content of that poor skink might have reached fatal levels, and of an alcohol type not meant for internal use.

Lord only knows how the dish soap might have contributed to the problem. Please, please, please, feel free to print out my reply and give it to the store owner, animal control and anyone else who will listen to try and stop this "experienced" person from ever using alcohol near a herp again. Here in PA that would be considered animal abuse and be subject to a criminal investigation.

[XxRachxX]

dont forget to DE-mite everything!!!!!! gawd it'd be awful to get the lil critters again!

[damzookeeper]

I'm so sorry to hear what happened to you Nancy. That is terrible. I hope this guy doesn't *help* anyone else. I'm glad to see you got another skink though, although she/her wont replace Wheezy, you will have a new place in your heart to fill. :) Take care and give that little one a big hug for me. :)

(Danmzookeeper looks over her bt Dinkie and gives her a big hug and lizzard kisses!) :D

[Nancy]

Hi All!

I am enjoying my new pet to the fullest! Had her up tonight and she just sleeps right in the crook of my arm! Eating excellent. The guy who sold me Wheezy did report this guy to the Society of Protection against cruelty to animals (SPCA) on his treatment of my pet, and it wasn't the first report on him, but they can't do much about it as no one has actually brought in their animals to the SPCA after dying, and this guy doesn't charge for his service so they can't nab him. I am going to report it tommorrow to the SPCA myself, but my pet is buried somewhere in the woods so I can't take her in to them. Thanks so much for all your posts! This guy who put the alcohol on my skink actually had the nerve to tell me that he had a book on lizards and that it said to use alcohol. I told him frankly I didn't care for his opinions, and he killed my animal no matter what he said. What a sick individual!

[tightsqueeze]

i would still contact animal control ...he should be reported!

[paul_le_snake]

ah man thats so f*****g wrong. kill that idiot, or if u want i'll glady torture him for a week or 2
chhers
paul

[HeatherRose]

I'll gladly help you, Paul!

Report him! Don't give up....get him good.

Heather

[Soleil]

I am very sorry for the loss that you suffered at the hands of this idiot!
Congrats on your new pet.
xo
Soleil

[Pythonian]

yea i've actually thought about this situation since my last post.. althought a pipe bomb would work beautifully. If i were you i'd get online and find every single animal protection organization (except PETA cause they really would use pipe bombs ;) ) and i'd take a day and just keep calling them and writing them. I'd report him to every society, and especially to the vets in the area, because they will get patients who will say "some guy at blah blah did this now my animal is doing this and that" and they will realize this guy is "helping" people by the dozens killing innocent animals!!
That is just my opinion. I always feel creatures die for a reason. Maybe wheezy died to protect other creatures lives from this idiot. So don't let him die in vain, do everything you can to stick it to this guy.

Mike

<3 Wheezy

[Nancy]

I plan on reporting this incident to as many people as I can. I do not intend on letting this guy get off scot free. Everyone I know in this area now knows exactly what this guy is like, and word of mouth travels fast. Nothing will bring Wheezy back, but maybe this guy will stop handing out his free "so called help". I still think about how my poor pet suffered, and it was so terrible to feel the life drain out of her in my hands. I wish I could have eased her suffering some. I do want to give thanks to everyone for all the notes of encouragement.

On a more positive note, does anyone have any suggestions for names for my new addition?