Baby Veiled From LLL Reptile Died Tonight.

[Loki2013]

I also bought a baby cham from the same supplier at the same expo. I brought my baby to the vet yesterday I spent 4 hours and $150 between the visit and medications. They sent me home with no answers as to what was wrong with my cham other than he showed signs of dehydration bc he stopped eating and drinking sat and sunday. They sent me home with antibiotics. fluids. And a dewormer. My cham died two hours after I got home.

 

[carol5208]

I also bought a baby cham from the same supplier at the same expo. I brought my baby to the vet yesterday I spent 4 hours and $150 between the visit and medications. They sent me home with no answers as to what was wrong with my cham other than he showed signs of dehydration bc he stopped eating and drinking sat and sunday. They sent me home with antibiotics. fluids. And a dewormer. My cham died two hours after I got home.

Why don't you contact LLL?. There could be a parasite that is effecting all these chams or something that they are dying.

 

[ellbodavis]

I am very sorry for the loss of your precious baby. I agree that you might want to contact LLL directly to determine a solution. It sounds like they are willing to work something out.

I purchased a baby cross almost 2 months ago from them. She is growing and thriving. I did experience an eye issue with her, but it has since cleared after daily flushing.

 

[fluxlizard]

Just a minor point-

LLL is a retailer, not a breeder. I'm sure they may breed a few things from time to time, but their business model is mainly buying from suppliers and breeders and reselling. Nothing wrong with that and LLL seems to be very very good compared to most retailers from what I have seen. I've even sold a few lizards to them in the past and they were good to deal with in that relationship as well.

One more minor point-

Parasites usually only come from feeders if your supplier of feeders also keeps lizards. Most (such as pinworms) are host specific. It would be highly unlikely, for example for crickets purchased directly from a cricket farm would be contaminated with pinworms, unless one of the workers had lizards as pets at home and his lizards were infected. Pinworm cysts are super sticky and super tiny. The result is they are easily spread around when doing normal things like cleaning and feeding and watering a collection. Once spread they wait for a host to come along and eat them, and can last quiet a while while they wait. If your lizard has pinworms, he most likely got them from his parents and grandparents and great grandparents while the breeders were cleaning, feeding and watering their collections. Or from your local pet shop where the employee who scoops your crickets picked up cysts on her wrists from a lizard for sale when cleaning earlier in the day and then she drops them into the cricket bin when chasing crickets around for customers later. When your lizard has a healthy immune system, they are no problem and go unnoticed. When the immune system becomes compromised (stress, cold temps, lack of nutrition or bad lighting, etc) then the pinworms have a party in your lizard and explode in numbers.

At least that is more or less how a famous reptile vet once explained how pinworms work to me 20 years ago. Maybe thinking on this has changed today. At that time he felt pinworms were maybe even species specific (bearded dragons different pinworms than chameleons)- don't know if that was ever proven though.

Most parasites are at least fairly host specific- meaning what infects your lizard won't infect you or your feeder bugs or live in the dirt in your backyard (unless you have wild lizards living there), etc. There are a very few exceptions - like a relatively few types of salmonella for example. But they are exceptions.

Something to think about when choosing where to buy a pet or where to buy feeders and evaluating the risks involved. What else comes into contact with the animals- how many sources do they come from and how many pass through a caretaker's hands and how long have they been with a caretaker before passing along to the buyer. Breeders dealing with few species are going to a little safer in most cases than retailers who deal with dozens every day, many of which are wildcaught with parasites from the wild, stressed and shedding the parasites. The best retailers, like LLL maintain high standards of cleanliness to minimize risk to the buyer, but there is always going to more risk when dealing with a large retailer, and there is never going to be no risk, even with a very small breeder with very high standards...

And of course, once the animal is in home, there are risks there as well, which is why communication with the seller is important early on when a problem arises.

Of course it is very hard to say what went wrong in this case. Seems like the OP was doing a pretty good job to me. But with life, there is always some gamble involved. Really I'd rather see new owners pick something a little larger for a first animal- it really minimizes the risk a lot.

 

[Loki2013]

I contacted LLL via email and they responded today. They did say that the reptiles sold at the expo are only guaranteed for 24 hours. But being that it was such a short amount of time and I purchased his entire set up for him directly from them at the expo they offered a store credit which can be used online or to replace the baby for the price of overnight shipping. I'm feeling crappy about the little guy dying so I'm not eager to try again right now. I did take the store credit so I can it for supplies down the road if I decide to get a chameleon or a different reptile later.

 

[NWD]

Well

LLL is right baby chameleons are fragile and can die I'm guessing the captive bred babies didn't have parasites but like any pet store I see chameleons in there at the edge of life for sale. I personally wouldn't sell a Cham unless it was healthy.
Also I'm pretty sure they are a reseller not a breeder.... They might breed a bit but I'm pretty sure that's not there main thing.
Iv sold them my chams and mine were all grade A!!

 

[Carlton]

Parasites in babies is often rare as the pinhead crickets they feed on have a small chance of contracting parasites. I would say the problem was the coil bulb they are to hard on babies eyes.

A parasite load that serious in such a young baby would be unusual. Something else was going on and there might not be any way to determine just what without a necropsy.