Not thrilled with LLL Reptile.

[Skiploder]

I'll post this and then I'm done trying to tell you what to do.

Mike, one of two things happened here. I'm discounting husbandry errors because king snakes are damn near bullet proof and I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt.

1. The snake was born with a defect.
2. The snake had some sort of pathogen.

The problem with business models that solicit buying whole lots of animals from a wide audience is several fold. First and foremost when you add a snake from such a vendor to your collection, you have no idea how many snakes from different sources it has been exposed to. Secondly, you may not know who produced the animal. I could go on, but you get the point.

Now if the snake was born with a defect and coincidentally died just after you purchased it, then all a necropsy will do is give you piece of mind.

But if it didn't, well, then you got a whole new set of worries.

Regardless of what some people suppose, there are a whole host of ophidian diseases that can jump from colubrid to boa, from elapid to viper and so on and so on. OPMV, crypto, viral meningitis and yes, even IBD. IBD has been potentially indicated in snakes other than boids - it is not likely that this is the problem, but it is important to realize it is a possibility.

If your vet is charging you $450 for a necropsy, then I get why you are hesitant to do it for a $45 snake. But you are essentially doing it for every snake in your collection.

LLL Reptile has a history laid open on the BOI of selling sick and sometimes parasitized animals to people. In the end, LLL Reptile usually does the right thing, but only after things have been brought to the general public and the heat gets turned up a bit. Yes I understand that their TOS does not cover your time span and I understand that you cannot force them to allay all your fears and concerns.

But, you can make sure that other people understand exactly what happened here and can make better informed decisions next time.

Since you have a valid concern, and LLL SHOULD have a valid concern (since that animal was exposed to their animals) then they should be open to finding out what that little snake died from.

First things first: ask LLL for the history of they snake. Did they produce it in house? Did they buy it from someone else? If so, who and when. If not, ask for all of the husbandry records. If they refuse to provide this information, let the snake community know. I supply a complete history of a every animal I sell on an excel spreadsheet if asked.

If you still do not have a warm fuzzy, then it is not unreasonable for you to approach LLL about a necropsy. Again, if they refuse, post that here.

The idea is to make sure every one who does business with them understands that every time you add an animal you are putting your other animals at risk and any vendor who sells animals that they do not properly acclimate, or flip also puts your animals at risk.

It's no skin of my back if you don't get a necropsy, but you are no dummy and I know that you realize that this is about more than a relatively inexpensive animal. This is about a vendor who pretty much told you to shove off until you posted here and now wants to discuss the issue further. Realize that it is their bests interests to make you happy.