Poor leo :'(

[Alicewave]

Live rodents can harbor parasites. I've only fed a pinkie once to a Leo and it was a frozen/thawed. Freezing kills all the parasites after a period of time so you don't have to worry about it so much but it's hard to get leos to take them if they aren't moving.

[Pixie]

WYZ,

No one is saying you didn't care for your leo and weren't trying to help it. But even you had to see that there wasn't any progress being made. SnowSnake mentionned you had this leo for 3 months and that it was in bad shape from the start.

I can understand wanting to try things yourself before bringing it to the vet but after a couple of weeks with no significant improvement, that should have been your sign to go.

It can be costly to bring an animal in to be checked and treated, I very well understand that. I have brought all my animals for checkups, am doing fecals on all and 3 leos are being treated for parasites. I know how high the bills can get. Sometimes, there's just no other way...

Maybe the leo couldn't be helped, even by a vet, no one will know. All I know is that I know what a healthy leo looks like and if any of mine show a sign of something not being right, I bring them in for a check up. For example 2 of my leos looked fine but their appetite had suddenly decreased. Internal parasites were found to be the cause and they are being treated. They still aren't eating properly and have lost weight since. If I had waited till I saw a weight loss before bringing them in, they would get much worse than they are now by the time they are fully treated.

I feel vet care is an essential with out pets. It's a bit of a pet peeve for me to hear stories of sick pets and to know they were never brought in once to be seen by a vet. Just like we need to provide a good safe home with all necessities met for an animal we chose to keep, we need to provide adequate medical attention. No need for an exam when nothing is wrong, but when something is not right, it's our responsability to look into it.

As for the cost, the 3 vets I've ever had to deal with for my animals furry and not have helped me out in times of need. When my animal is sick and in need of medical attention, all 3 performed the exams and prescribed treatment without immediate payment. I had been a there previously so they knew me (2 out of 3 I had seen 1 or 2 times prior) and let me pay later while still treating my animals. It never hurts to ask and I have found in my personal experience that the vets do care and put the animals before the $$$.

I really don't want to preach here, I am stating how I feel about medical attention for herps.

I'm hoping that it will be food for thought.

Pixie

[drewlowe]

Martin, I cannot fully answer that question cause i don't know where they got them from, but i can give you more information about what happend with them and the information given to me. I have talked to numerous people (vets and serious herp keepers, i have also brought this up at a herp society meeting i went to). And i have never got a completely solid answer. I was told it could be from the crix. or from the pinkies. I would think it would be more from the pinkies though. And i have battled this problem for almost 1 1/2 years. the first time they fully recovered. and about 4 months ago a they got it again. all of them have fulled recovered except 1 and she is on the road to recovery. When you get worms in a colony like i had. You have to seperate everyone, completely steralize EVERY thing several times. After all of this i will either get frozen or i will freeze the pinkies or mice (for my snakes) my self. i have also switched places where i got my Crix. from just incase it was from them. After you have worms in your colony once you do not ever want it back.

Also i noticed when they were being treated for the worms they either showed no intrest in (only) pinkes and if they did eat them they regurgated them within 12 hours. i have no clue why.

If anyone else knows more about this please let me know cause i am curious and have not found any information on worms in reptiles. I can only go on what i have dealt with and what the vet and other people have told me. They had round worms.

I do not know how common this is. I have heard other people having it but they did not know exaclty were it came from either.