My blue tongued skink, Wheezy, died.

Nancy · 02-11-03, 12:11 PM

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 · 02-11-03, 12:26 PM

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 · 02-11-03, 12:45 PM

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 · 02-11-03, 01:05 PM

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 · 02-11-03, 01:28 PM

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 · 02-11-03, 02:41 PM

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 · 02-11-03, 03:15 PM

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 · 02-11-03, 06:07 PM

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 · 02-11-03, 06:32 PM

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 · 02-11-03, 06:36 PM

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

tHeGiNo · 02-11-03, 06:37 PM

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 · 02-11-03, 07:38 PM

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 · 02-11-03, 09:03 PM

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 · 02-12-03, 12:41 AM

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 · 02-12-03, 08:26 AM

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