Alex Hue- Not what we thought...

Not to get nitpicky but from what you have read you probably know by now that anorexia and regurgitation are not compatible. Anorexia means the animals will not eat, yours were eating (according to your last post). In my opinion you have one or the other. There's probably something else clouding the issue. I would strongly enourage you to take the surviving animals to the vet at least you might learn what the problem was.

raiquee said:

Why didn't i take the refund? You know, now i am kicking myself. We aren't set up to LEGALLY ship reptiles, and not only would it be an inconvience. If i would have just went and shipped the snakes back, this would be his problem now.

Click to expand...

Are you really kicking yourself for your mistake? Or are you kicking Alex by making your mistake his fault?

raiquee said:

And on the inconvience animals, yes, i wanted them as well. We deserved them. He told us we would get rectified in two different e-mails and he didn't. It's just ****ty customer service otherwise. If i had to make one of my customers wait a month to get an animal, i wouldn't second guess giving them a slight refund, like on shipping or something extra. But the difference is i'd make sure it actually happens.

Click to expand...

If you're so certain that the ailment that is affecting the snakes came from Alex, why would you want any more animals from him?

raiquee said:

I would if i spent more than 11 bucks per snake. To treat these things would cost HUNDREDS if not thousands...

Click to expand...

Ya know... this is what irritates me the most. If $ is all you're concerned about, and you're not willing to pay medical bills for animals that you KNOW are imported, what did you expect? I'm not a big fan of the 'disposable' pet trade, and if all you're willing to pay for a bp is $11 and you expect it to be in perfect health, GOOD LUCK. Cripes, I've seen cbb females that are feeding go for $25 at some shows. (I know... I just bought 4) WHY TAKE THE RISK IF YOU'RE NOT PREPARED AND WILLING TO DEAL WITH THE CONSEQUENCES?

On top of all this, you clearly missed the 5 day guarantee period. In my opinion, you paid $11 to keep an imported snake for 5 days.

WOW Alex you do still exist, After disappearing on me twice to complete our deal for the albino boas that YOU came to me about last May. Since your responding here & not to any of my emails or from me contacting you through your ads on K.S. which sent me copies but you never seemed to of gotten them. Alex how about telling me what happened?

Alright, i came off as defensive. I apologize. I'm not here to blow up in peoples faces or drag them through dirt. Let me take a step back, breath and reply in a non threatening way. Maybe more people will be less threating as well.

Yes, i should have i should have and i should have taken Alex's refund. I really should have. And no, i am kicking myself, not him. I really am.

Yes, i do agree, he doesn't have to do anything about this. Since it is after his 5 day health period. But sometimes to get repeat customers and good customer service, you bend the rules.

So this is my last post on this thread. I want to bring this to peoples attention and people can make what they like about it. If you think my husbandry skills can be improved from what i posted, or you want specifics on something, then please PM me. I am open minded and will take advice. We have kept our balls like this for awhile now, but if you think there is a better way please inform us. We are discussing taking in some of the ball pythons to a vet to see what can be done. We do need to give them a bit to get the flagyl and panacur out of their systems so that it won't over dose them if the vet prescribes something.

We won't be buying anything from Alex Hue again, nor will we be buying CH ever again. CBB is going to be the way to go for us.

Sorry to get everyone upset We won't be posting on this thread again.

raiquee said:

From basic knowledge of reptiles, an animal with runny stools, regurg and loosing weight while keeping food down is all linked to parasites.

The reason i mentioned that the skin probably was a parasite, was because we removed all source of water, and offered the balls a water dish once a night, twice a week. We were told that they would be okay with offering water twice a week only. Noticing the problem not subsiding, we looked at the "Understanding Reptile Parasites" manual by Roger J. Klingenberg, and it states:

A protozan parasite, Entamoeba in it's infective stage appear in cysts.

Also:

"The clinical signs are highly variable, but amoebic dysentery can lead to anorexia, wasting, dehydration and death. These animals usually are anorectic and often pass mucus-laden, bile-stained, and/or bloody stools."

Well we had cysts, death and bloody stools.

Click to expand...

I'm not trying to pick sides here, but I want to point out that knowledge of basic reptile care doesn't amount to much when it comes to identifying micropic pathogens and endoparasites. That you shotgunned with Flagyl and Panacur without even knowing what you were up against confirms this. There are plenty of ailments, including parasites, that neither Flagyl nor Panacur are effective in treating.

Roger Klingenberg's book with its fuzzy black & white photographs and vague descriptions really doesn't compare to the lengthy parasitology manuals vets have to study. It takes a lot of firstand experience to troubleshoot symptoms, but it requires actual fecal test results to substantiate the claims you're making.

This transaction sounds like a big mess to me, but I don't doubt that at the bottom of all this, you're trying to do what you can for the snakes. If you can't afford to take all of your snakes to the vet, my suggestion would be to take at least one to sample what may be causing the problems. It will offer more solid arguments, but more importantly, it'll give you a better chance at helping the snakes so as not to make this transaction a total loss.

Since there were problems on the buyers end, waiting too long, not taking the offered refund, maintainence changes and inconsistencies, and possible over/under/improper dosing with meds, I'd say chalk it up to a learning experiance.

Take one or two of your remaining pythons to the vet, have blood work done, fecal samples checked and possibly an oral culture taken. THEN you should have a pretty good idea what the problem(s) with your snakes is/are.

Then you two should just walk away from eachother. If there is no way to reconsile this that makes everyone happy, as it seems there is not, and there is NOT a bad guy involved, as it seems there is NOT, then going each of you on your own path is most likely the best thing to do.

No need to sling insults or hurl invectives, just learn and move on.

It seems people are more so nitpicking about my typing than trying to support or disagree. I don't care if you don't support the opinions, but don't try to pick apart my every sentence. When i said we got "deeper scale counts" I meant deeper than normal female scale counts. Not that i probed them once, it was 5 scales, and probed them again and it was 7.

Click to expand...

i am sorry but I am just reading what you typed.
you don't want me to "nitpick"?

((here we went through a probed them twice, and got some deeper scale counts. I was worried so i brought it to his attention...this is also the third time i ask for inconvience animals, or a slight refund for the inconvience...I recieved no reply to this e-mail...))

Click to expand...

you posted the above did you not?
okay then.
you probed them...got 6-7 a couple days after they arrived. you informed alex.
then you went through and probed them again and got DEEPER scale counts.

]((here we went through a probed them twice, and got some deeper scale counts. I was worried so i brought it to his attention

Click to expand...

Why would you be woried that they sexed "gay"? (not male , not female)
You already sexed them and brought it to his attention.

But you sexed them again.....got "DEEPER" scale counts and was so worried that you had to bring it to his attention again.

words may not mean anything to you..... they mean a lot to me.
if words don't mean anything to you....then you won't mind if I read this whole thread as "I want some free animals"

Our balls are kept individually, in 12 quart boxes. Hot spot of 95, ambient of 80-85. We clean their boxes twice a week, we started off feeding once a week. Then every five days. We would clean more often, when they would regurg or have very runny stool.

Click to expand...

not to "nitpick" but you fed an animal after it regurged?

From basic knowledge of reptiles, an animal with runny stools, regurg and loosing weight while keeping food down is all linked to parasites.

Click to expand...

okay ......they would regurge, loose weight AND keep their food down?
not to "nitpick" but how can they regurge AND keep their food down?

If i had to make one of my customers wait a month to get an animal, i wouldn't second guess giving them a slight refund, like on shipping or something extra. But the difference is i'd make sure it actually happens.

Click to expand...

so a full refund waws out of the question.

Yes, i do agree, he doesn't have to do anything about this. Since it is after his 5 day health period. But sometimes to get repeat customers and good customer service, you bend the rules

Click to expand...

you are absolutely right.
he should have bent the rules.
he should have offered something even though it was 25 days past his guarantee.
OH YEAH....he offered the refund.



anyway i think those animals were stressed. then their fragile little systems had to cope with doses of panacur and flagyl. Like I said...given in the wrong doses...metronidazole can cause your snakes death.

What dosages were they given?

I agree they need to go their separate ways and just let this whole thing go. The seller offered a refund and the only real fault I can find with the seller is (unless I missed something here) that he offered extra animals for the shipping delay and didn't send them. Send her 2 or 3 animals and hopefully she'll look elsewhere next time she wants a deal on baby Balls. Randy

I just want to say if you need to get ahold of Alex when he is avoiding you. Post on here. He wasn't able to repond to my emails or by way of K.S. but post on here & you'll get a response.

raiquee said:

Alright, i came off as defensive. I apologize. I'm not here to blow up in peoples faces or drag them through dirt. Let me take a step back, breath and reply in a non threatening way. Maybe more people will be less threating as well..

Click to expand...

But that is exactly what you did by creating a bad guy post when there was no bad guy. Alex is a reputable guy who did nothing wrong. He did offer the refund.

Alex has never avoided any contact with me at all. Quite on the contrary when he noticed that a message had gone unanswered for a while he sent an e-mail apologizing. Am I a “big time” buyer? Not by any means. But one has to understand that when a person is responsible for thousands of animals and hundreds of clients, he can’t be sitting in the computer all day answering e-mails. If you want a more "personalized" attention you probably need to buy from someone that sells fewer animals. Alex sells a lot, and most are repeat customers, don’t you think there’s probably a reason for that?

Thanks.

I have had several dealings with Alex including ball pythons. All of my transactions were flawless. I am actually working with him now for about 8 animals and everything is perfect. Now if I can just get him to slip a mack in the box for free life will be good..lol
-Matt

Alex is a hard guy to get a hold during this time of the year. But then again most big breeders are. But what does that matter in this thread?

I like everyone else here STRONGLY agree with you taking your snakes to the vet. I really hope that the remaining snakes turn out to be ok. And i really hope that you learned a lot from all of this.