One day at a time, you can do it. This is invaluable experience and will serve you well for years to come.
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There is no way all of that set in just from you having her. I would contact the person you got her from and have them pay some of the bills. Was it a wild caught animal that was turned over to you shortly after, or a captive bred animal? Did they test for what kind of RI she has as well? If not, then the meds she is on may or may not work.
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I know for a fact she came to me with all of these things. I have been talking to the breeder this whole time. Kinda thinking that since I’ve already had her for a week I’m kinda SOL when it comes to anything he will be willing to do. They did a test for the RI to confirm. I am not sure if it’s the same thing as testing for the strain. Pretty sure the pair has been imported.
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If you paid with PayPal then you can get money back so long as you provide proof, or you threaten a lawsuit since all of this isn’t going to be cheap. Testing for an RI takes 10 days, and needs to be done before they get meds else you have to wait 10 days to test. It is done using an endotracheal wash and sending it for a test in a lab. If they were imported that means they are probably wild caught or farm bred. They could have parasite loads that need to be taken care if as well. Whoever sold you them isn’t as credible as you say if they don’t make sure their imports are healthy, and are in it to flip snakes for a quick buck.
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I definitely agree with you on that point. There is no way a snake can develop RI and have a bad case of mouth rot like the picture you showed in the time frame of when you’ve had her.
Hopefully the shots work, take it day by day. I’m sure you’ll do fine and if you end up keeping them, you’re going to have one tame snake on your hands from all the interactions of having to give her shots. At least that’s a bright side if any.
I agree on contracting the breeder, which I’m happy you’ve done. Hopefully they will work something out for you, as that’s not professional at all.
I’m sorry Switch, I hope it goes well from here on out.
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Thanks man, I have no idea how to go about asking him for a refund or for him to pay for the vet bill. I’m hoping she will pull through.
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This is the first time I have worked with this person, others have had positive things to say, I guess I just wanted to have faith in humanity and believe he was as credible as others had said.
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The fact the the seller wanted you to treat the animal yourself and did not offer any type and compensation knowing the animal probably had the underlying causes in his care is sideways to me.
If you were to try to treat the animal yourself and the animal did not survive you would have no evidence or paper trail and would be null and void to fall back on his end. A respiratory infection and mouth rot can be extremely dangerous for this animal and for him to suggest you not to take it to a vet rubs me the wrong way.
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Yeah that’s hard and complicated to ask for a refund or payment of the vet bill. But I would just be upfront and polite and try to point out that it is there responsibility to help you out or fix their mistake. I had a similar thing happen about 3 years ago from a retic breeder here in MN. It took me about 3 months to get him to cooperate and fix his wrong.
If they like what they do, they should eventually see the proper way to deal with it. Otherwise you may take a loss but if she ends up healthy in the end then worse things could happen.
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I’m such a non confrontational person as well, well I suppose here goes nothing.
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I’m so sorry you’re having to deal with this situation.
It’s showing me that it may be a good idea to implement some sort of sales agreement document when you sell animals. These types of things can spell out exactly what, if any, kind of health guarantee there may be, it would protect the buyer and the seller.
Let’s say you have a health warranty on the animals you sell. In order to honor that warranty you require that the animal be taken in to a vet for a check up within 48 hours of possession (which in reality may or may not be reasonable, just throwing it out there.) If this is done you warranty the health for X amount of time (for reptiles I’d say 14 days is fair, 30 days would be generous.) If they don’t take it, the warranty is void. If they take it and there is a problem, you would have language in the agreement spelling out what kind of compensation you would be willing to provide. Maybe it’s paying a % of the bill. Maybe it’s a replacement (with or without return of the animal.) If they take it and it’s good, but sometime within the warranty period something else happens, again, have it spelled out what you will do to make things right.
They buyer has peace of mind, and you have a good reputation. Nobody has to feel weird about asking for help.
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That to me as a buyer gives me red flags. Why would a seller want an animal taken to the vet as soon as I get it? Are you going to be selling me a sick animal? Understand what I’m saying? An animal should be healthy when you sell it and not make the person that is buying the animal have to worry about a vet bill. I guarantee you people will be wanting you to front the bill.
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So the buyer needs to out of pocket money for a vet wellness check to make sure your animals are healthy after they receive them and have the possibility of having to return the animal for a refund? That to me would deter people from buying from you in my opinion. How about we make it a standard that the breeder must provide their own vet check bill of health with every purchase so that there is no question that anyone can be sold a sick animal and solve everyone’s problems?
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Morphmarket support should be able to help you out. A rather large scale breeder was terminated from the site for doing similar shady things because I and other people who bought from the breeder reported him to MM. You could just hint that if the seller does not try to help somehow then you will have no choice but to report his methods because you dont want others to go through the same thing. That usually gets guys like this to be very helpful from here on out.
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Sadly, it wasn’t here on MorphMarket, it was through another well known site.
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Dang, well there has to be something you can do when it comes to the site you bought from. Let us know how it goes and I’m crossing my fingers for your gal.
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I have contacted him just asking if he could cover the vet bill. It’s less than a 1/4 of the payment for them. So far he hasn’t responded. But looking at her this morning. The swelling in her head has gone down, so I think she’s on the road to recovery.
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A lot can happen during shipping - animals get knocked around, they get stressed.
In many animals it’s standard for a health check to be done both before (by the breeder) and after shipping by the buyer. A health certificate is required to ship animals via cargo, domestic animals and livestock. This ensures liability may be laid at the feet of the responsible party.
I write sales and lease agreements all day so I tend to notice areas where they might be helpful, to clarify responsibility. Didn’t mean to offend anyone.
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You didn’t offend anyone and it makes sense, but there are going to be people that will see that as a red flag. Didn’t mean to come across as offended. No Worries.
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