Re: On a SAD NOTE! -- Petsmart torture!

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Posted by Souella on October 17, 2000 at 10:33:47:

In Reply to: On a SAD NOTE! -- Petsmart torture! posted by Leslie on October 16, 2000 at 10:12:07:

I've had my own experience with Petco. I went into on that had a small female forest hingeback. There was no water in the tank and she was on dirty aspen pellets. Her eyes were just glued shut and I could see she was terribly dehydrated. I asked to see her and immediately took her over to the sink in the fish area and gave her some water from my cupped hand. She just drank and drank and drank. She was so weak and thin that I didn't think she had long to live. I pointed out the problems with their setup and that she was sick and needed immediate help. They actually set her up in an isolation tank in the back and promised to take her to a vet. I called the store daily to talk to the manager about the turtle's status. They did wind up taking her to the vet where she got a single shot of Baytril. That was the extent of her care. I had to be very persistent with why her setup was incorrect. Their official care sheets called for dry aspen bedding when she really needed high humidity and I had to give them some really good care sheets from Tortoise Trust before they would believe me. Anyway, I kept tabs on her. To their credit, the manager and staff did seem to genuinely care, but they seemed to have their hands tied as to how much money they could shell out for vet care for this turtle. After about a month, they contacted me and actually gave me the turtle for free because they just couldn't do anything else for her. When I went to pick her up that evening, she had lost even more weight that she couldn't afford to lose and her eyes were still closed. Her legs were pencil thin and she felt weightless for her size. I took her to a 24 emergency vet clinic immediately. Luckily the reptile vet was on staff. The turtle was in such bad shape that nematodes were coming out of her cloaca as she was being examined. She weighed only 228g (her length was about 8 inches). The vet gave her Vitamin A, Flagyl, Panacur, and a regimen of Baytril. I gave her daily Baytril shots and was force feeding her and trying to reheydrate her. Unfortunately, it seemed too little too late. Her eyes never opened. She did gain some weight and her skin tone improved as she got the water she needed. Sadly, tho, she died of pneumonia 2 weeks later. I was very sad that she had to suffer that much.

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: I've had my own experience with Petco. I went into on that had a small female forest hingeback. There was no water in the tank and she was on dirty aspen pellets. Her eyes were just glued shut and I could see she was terribly dehydrated. I asked to see her and immediately took her over to the sink in the fish area and gave her some water from my cupped hand. She just drank and drank and drank. She was so weak and thin that I didn't think she had long to live. I pointed out the problems with their setup and that she was sick and needed immediate help. They actually set her up in an isolation tank in the back and promised to take her to a vet. I called the store daily to talk to the manager about the turtle's status. They did wind up taking her to the vet where she got a single shot of Baytril. That was the extent of her care. I had to be very persistent with why her setup was incorrect. Their official care sheets called for dry aspen bedding when she really needed high humidity and I had to give them some really good care sheets from Tortoise Trust before they would believe me. Anyway, I kept tabs on her. To their credit, the manager and staff did seem to genuinely care, but they seemed to have their hands tied as to how much money they could shell out for vet care for this turtle. After about a month, they contacted me and actually gave me the turtle for free because they just couldn't do anything else for her. When I went to pick her up that evening, she had lost even more weight that she couldn't afford to lose and her eyes were still closed. Her legs were pencil thin and she felt weightless for her size. I took her to a 24 emergency vet clinic immediately. Luckily the reptile vet was on staff. The turtle was in such bad shape that nematodes were coming out of her cloaca as she was being examined. She weighed only 228g (her length was about 8 inches). The vet gave her Vitamin A, Flagyl, Panacur, and a regimen of Baytril. I gave her daily Baytril shots and was force feeding her and trying to reheydrate her. Unfortunately, it seemed too little too late. Her eyes never opened. She did gain some weight and her skin tone improved as she got the water she needed. Sadly, tho, she died of pneumonia 2 weeks later. I was very sad that she had to suffer that much.

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