A loss in the family.

[Little B-Py]

It is a sad super bowl sunday...my fiancee and I just got back home from getting crickets for Abraxas (we spent the night at my parent's last night). I opened up the top of his cage and put the crickets in and noticed that he wasn't moving, he had half of his body in his hot hide and half out, so I touched him...he didn't move...I picked up his tail...he didn't budge or anything...he was/is dead. I'm assuming he was just too far gone and didn't have a chance.

And to top it off my mom-in-law was sincere for a good 5 minutes then blurted "he is to not be replaced" after she told us that we cannot have any more pets until one leaves. How much BS is that?! Little does she know our "feeder rat" is actually the starter of our "feeder rat" colony. Lol. Chock one up for us on the score board.

So to all of you who gave us help, thanks very much, but it just wasn't enough.

RIP Abraxas, 2-1-09.

[Abraxas's mom]

I cried like a big baby!!! I miss my little boy...

[dr del]

Aww,


Sorry you lost him.


dr del

[Abraxas's mom]

It is really hard. Steffen buried him cause i couldn't stop crying and i had to tend to my mammals.

[DutchHerp]

I'm sorry guys, my condolences.

[Abraxas's mom]

Thanks

[allergenic]

Your animal was kept in poor conditions before you got it, in addition to having the parasites you mentioned. What happens in those cases is that the poor conditions weaken the animal's overall system so that the parasite load balloons out of control, and the animal winds up succumbing. Treatment will sometimes help but in most cases it will just cause excess stress to the animal's already compromised system.

From the other threads, you did a great job of providing better conditions than Abraxas had been living in before. Since you had him/her for such a short time, the battle most likely had been over before the animal even arrived on your doorstep.

If you are still willing to give monitors another shot, the best thing I can recommend is to support captive breeders and start with a species that has more reasonable caging requirements. What you will find out is that the situation you just had with Abraxas is constantly being repeated, as wild caught animals are imported and farmed. The only way to make a difference is to not support the cycle of diminished wild populations, and, ultimately, dead/sick animals.

Captive bred Ackies are becoming a lot more popular, they are all the fun of larger monitors in a two foot package. Though the initial price tag is higher, in the long run they are less costly to support. Planning ahead will give you time to hang around message boards and see other people's enclosures, which you can then plan to build.

I'm sorry for your loss, it sounds like you made every attempt to do the right thing.

[Little B-Py]

The parasite theory was disproven after the vet visit (as I posted). But nothing can be done at this point to change anything. We were giving him MUCH better conditions than he had. He actually had 2 or 3 different burrows within the tank itself.

We may try and ackie next time but it will be awhile before we get another reptile, but for the price we may end up going with a tegu because the same place we got Abraxas from has a grown and tame tegu for the same price as an ackie. We have actually handled the tegu and he will sit on our shoulders then climb on top of our heads to get a better view of things.

I really need to try and get a pic of the enclosure he was in to show everyone how much it was actually improved.

[allergenic]

The parasite theory was disproven after the vet visit (as I posted).

Sorry, all I read was that the store was "treating him for worms" before they handed her/him off.

Good luck with the tegu.

It's interesting that people get very up in arms when it's suggested that bad husbandry will kill animals, like in this thread:
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=82996

But yet your parasite-free animal is now dead.

I still agree, you did right by the animal, and it looks like that battle was over before you received it.

[Little B-Py]

it's all good. There was a flurry of posts and it could be easily overlooked.