RIP Halle

[Jungle Jen]

Sadly, we had to help our female panther chameleon pass on today. We rescued her from a horrible pet store along with a male only a few weeks ago. They were both emaciated, and horribly malnourished. We set them up in the proper enclosure and were giving them lots of good food and supplements. Our male seems to be getting better and slowly gaining weight. Suprisingly our female seemed to be doing great and had gained double the weight of our male, until a couple of days ago. She lost her appetite and was not using her hind legs. We had set up a hospital cage and were treating her but today we lost the battle. She was biting at her hind end, seemed to be in pain, and just lay on her side. After a breif conversation with a friend it was decided the kindest thing was to let her go.
Being a veterinary technician myself, I decided to perform an autopsy to hopefully get some answers. Our hunches on what was wrong were definately right, among other health matters, the first being hypocalcemia and hind end paralysis. She had severe calcium deficiency, and there were 2-3 eggs just above the cloacal opening, but they were so squishy she couldnt push them out. We had tried an enema as I could feel something there along with gentle manipulation but neither of those worked. Above the blocked eggs were a few bunches of fecal matter which could not work their way out either. Her intestines had become hemorrhagic and necrotic and *IF* there was a chance of survival they would have to have been removed. She had a total of approximately 20 or more eggs semi-formed inside of her body, and many more eggs waiting to form. She also had something affecting her liver causing her to become jaundice. Our poor little girl fought hard and at least had a happy place to live for her last two weeks. I just wish these pet stores would learn how to properly care for the animals they sell. Pat of me is furious with the pet store, and the other part of me is mourning the loss of our little pink panther Halle.

RIP baby girl, we tried our best and you fought a good fight.

[gfisher2002]

Jen, I know the feeling. I'm sooooo sorry for your loss. You did everything and more for her. I'm so sick of dumba$$ petstores torturing animals like that. It can be even harder losing an animal when you just think it's starting to pull through. I'm very sorry to here she didn't make it. If only there were more people like you willing to edure the pain and suffering of watching it die just for the chance of saving it.

'me clears a spot in my heart for sad Jen, the herp angel'

Your humanity and persistance reminds me of a quote:
"A true hero is one who takes his own life while possesing the knowlegde that, those he saves will never know."

Garrett

[meow_mix450]

hey, cant blame it all on pet stores, blame those who sell it to them, to stop pet stores is to stop selling animals to them. But i think pet stores, should have proper care before they even buy the anmial, thats why i never buy any animals there besides fish. Most of them are unhealthy. But back to the topic, im sorry to hear your loss, but i bet you gave it the best life you could, couldnt you tell if she was gonna have babys??? like gavrid???(spelling)

Meow

[Wuntu Menny]

Really sorry to that, these kind of things send me into a rage:

The best part is, thanks to the painfully ineffective animal welfare laws in our country, that petstore already has the replacements for those chams on order from a wholesaler. Six more pardalis have been harvested from Madgascar (it takes six from the field to put two in the cage) and sent on "the path". With a little luck, another compassionate individual with $600 to burn will come along and "rescue" the next pair before they die on display.

This scenario will continue to repeat itself until we find some solidarity and a common voice to affect changes to the archaic legislation and selective interpretation that presently exists. I've wandered through a single retailer's display and found examples of at least two different mite infestations, bloody feces on cage floors, multiple infected injuries inflicted both by overcrowded cagemates and rough handling, and obvious malnutrion and dehydration. Upon bringing this to the attention of the store operators, I'm informed that "We had a vet come through yesterday and they said everything is fine". Interesting...

Well either I must be a freakin' diagnostic genious or their vet was visually impaired because without the benefit of an expert to consult with, I could tell from 10 feet away that everything most certainly was not fine. Do these dealers deliberately put sick and dying animals on display to suck the money from the sympathetic, caring individuals? I'm beginning to think so. Its a heck of a marketing ploy when you think about it. Its sort of like a "scratch and dent sale" only you don't have to lower your asking price.

You did the right thing, JJ. I've done the same myself. It's the only option in these situations to put an end to the obvious suffering these animals endure in the hands of greedy fools. We need to find a way to stop these habitual offenders from obtaining any more animals. Our hobby is still losing public opinion points on a daily basis and a camera crew only has to travel as far as the nearest petstore to illustrate how bad the situation is.

Again, sorry for your loss, I hope the male fares better.
Bloody shame that profanity isn't permitted here. It makes it so much easier to express one's level of contempt and disdain with this situation.

WM

[sleddergirl]

Jen, I am so sorry to hear of your loss. You are an angel that tried to help a poor soul.................at least she was loved for the last little while of her life.:(

Sue

[gfisher2002]

Well put Wunto Menny. You read my mind.

[meow_mix450]

your right WM it gets my angry all the time, at least every month someone sees something bad at the pet store, all they want is MONEY MONEY MONEY thats all i can say, poor little guys, if i had enough money id try to put them down but i dont lol

Meow

[gfisher2002]

If I had enough money I'd put the store owners down. And take the animals. Every one of them.

[eyespy]

I am so deeply sorry for your loss, Jungle Jen. But giving a sick animal a good death is every bit as important as giving an animal a good life and you should be proud of what you did.

Can you get one of the vets you work with to spearhead a letter-writing campaign with pictures of this poor girl enclosed? Those pictures alone might be worth a thousand letters to the powers that be. Especially if they open them right before lunchtime.

[eyespy]

meow_mix450, when an animal is that far gone with metabolic bone disease it can be impossible to tell she has eggs because they are too soft to show bulges. My heart just bleeds for this poor girl and all the suffering in a too short life.

[joer]

Sorry for your loss. Fn pet store owners like that should be thrown in jail or die a terrible death.

[Yness]

Is there not some sort of cruelty to animals laws that would cover these situations? Irresponsible pet stores really get my goat. When I found out that the female brb that Petland sold me was really a male a lot of people were suggesting I take him back for a refund. HECK NO!!!! I will not subject my snake to that and I only wish i could put them out of business by buying all of their animals...unfotunately that just propagates their business:(

[Wuntu Menny]

The enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act is virtually exclusive to little furry things. After consultation with several branches of government, I was told that the reason its not applied to herps and exotics in the same fashion is because they are not specifically identified in the wording of the act. Silly me! I read the copy sent to me and found that in every instance the word "animal" was used. What was I thinking?

WM

[eyespy]

It sometimes boils down to the definition officially listed for "animal". Since I live in the US I have more experience with the laws there than in Canada, but sometimes my little rescue is called to help with a cruelty case up north of the border.

I've had good luck within the Toronto city limits because the municipal code specifically defines an animal as "any fauna, excluding humans, fish, and aquatic vertebrates." So if a Toronto Animal Services employee tries to tell me reptiles are not covered I can refer him to that definition. Other places in Canada (and the US) I've not had such good luck because there were no statutes I could find with such nice clear definitions.

You really need to do your homework and find out the exact language in laws for each city, county, province, state, township, country, what have you. It can be a real uphill battle.

[Collide]

soo sad there are too many stories like this out there its too bad im sure you gave her a great home..

[meow_mix450]

oo thanks eye spy you know a lot lol

Meow

[gfisher2002]

As always.

[choriona]

Maybe potential reptile owners should all agree that before purchasing a reptile from a pet store, we would like a clean bill of health signed by a veterinarian. If these health checks keep coming back negative due to inproper care in the store, maybe the employees will have to re-think their husbandry if they want to make a sale.

Perhaps we could reinforce this by suggesting this at the many reptile shows. Lots of people go the the reptile shows and become interested in buying a reptile. But more often, they end up at the pet stores the following week looking for what they saw at the show. If they were told at the reptile shows to ask for a "bill of health".....then we'd have more people fighting our battle.

just a thought.

[choriona]

by the way, thanks JJ for the descriptive note on the before and after status of halle. It may halp to diagnose other cases that we hear about here. Did halle have any of the other physical signs of MBD? Like the deformed limbs and such? Or the maleable bones? Was there any sign of jaundice on her exterior? Like yellow tounge or toes? (I'm not really sure in which fleshy parts it would show up in.)
Just wondering.

[eyespy]

Jaundice does not show up on reptle skin, just inside the mouth.

[snakegal12345]

srry to hear about ure loss wish people nevr bought herps from pet stores just private breeders and it should be illegal for pet stores to sell reptiles

[gfisher2002]

Agree!!