Erik Strait, aka Eriks Reptiles, Parasites and Misrepresentation

I've read over this thread a couple times and can't seem to figure out who "Derek" is. What is Derek's last name or business title? This could be my mistake that I can't find it...

Thank you.

Originally Posted by Lorraine

I never was able to have the male tested for parasites, if you look in the emails, I told Erik the feces were too runny to collect for testing. I only ever found urates and maybe a tiny smear of fecal matter rubbed in. After the female passed, I decided the safest course was to dose him for worms and anything else he might have come in contact with. I hate shotgun dosing, but in this instance, I felt it was safer than leaving him untreated. The problem with treating worms in the chest cavity according to my vet, is that since they can't be excreted through the digestive tract once you've killed them off, they all rot inside the animal and release toxins. So far he seems to be hanging in there, but then he was never as lethargic as the female was.

hmm am I the only one that sees this as indicating there's an issue with the male? I don't know how you handle your collections but "hanging in there" isn't exactly a clean bill of health. unless runny feces are normal for this species that would generally indicate some kind of illness

Hmn, no update on the male? No information on his condition? Has he been vetted to assure he doesn't have what the female does?

Originally Posted by sakasuvaki

I've read over this thread a couple times and can't seem to figure out who "Derek" is. What is Derek's last name or business title? This could be my mistake that I can't find it...

Thank you.

I would think it would be Derek Dunlop, of DDReptiles. Great guy, largely focused in crested geckos, but dabbles in odds & ends. Erik bought some of his uros from Derek.


Noelle

Originally Posted by rcarichter

I would think it would be Derek Dunlop, of DDReptiles. Great guy, largely focused in crested geckos, but dabbles in odds & ends. Erik bought some of his uros from Derek.

Thank you for answering me! I had to go over the possibility in my mind that his supplier might have been the one that had some sort of parasite in his collection from the start.

Though I really don't know for sure and probably won't ever, I personally highly doubt Derek (if this really is Derek Dunlop we are speaking about) would have parasites in his collection based on how he handles himself professionally in this hobby. If he had parasites (obviously very common for WC imports) I would believe he would do whatever it took to get rid of them first - especially before selling. This is just my opinion, of course.

Originally Posted by Lorraine

To be honest, I wanted it out of my house as soon as I was done taking pictures. I had worms crawling all over my gloves and the paper towel, and they rapidly spreading to the kitchen counter. I ran everything out to the dumpster, and spent the next hour bleaching everything it had touched. I've since read that some of the lung worms are transmittable to humans, so I don't think I was exactly overreacting. Again, according to my many conversations with Dr. Greek, it was most likely a type of internal parasite, there was no way it could have been maggots in a freshly dead gecko, and worms inside the chest cavity aren't that uncommon in WC animals. The problem is these were not WC, they were CB.

As for my accusations, Erik bought this other breeders collection in either June or July. In July he started listing a couple of hundred Uroplatus on the classifieds, first large numbers of sikorae, and then the other species, saying he needed to prune back his collection. I believe the term for this is "flipping". He never mentioned that he had recently acquired these, he told me he had gotten them from importers and they had been in captivity around a year. That led me to believe he had gotten them when they were imported a year ago.

Why did I go back for repeat business after the first geckos had Coccidea and Flagellates? My bf had asked if they were treated, he responded that he left that up to his importer. I figured that was an honest answer, and that I should treat them as fresh WC's, seeing as most importers don't do more than just a shot gun round of Panacur. In other words, I knew they would have bugs. I however did not expect an $800 CB pair of geckos to have them. Here's that email, it was in my bf's inbox.

On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 2:50 PM, erik@eriksreptiles.com <
erik@eriksreptiles.com> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I tried giving you a call, feel free to call me at 303-905-1592<3039051592>
> .
>
> Yes, I do have some CB and LTC sikorae available. The only reason I am
> selling some is because I have held back to many sikorae. I currently have
> and breed 11 species of Uroplatus, not including aff animals. So I have a
> very full plate. I have over 600 individual Uroplatus, not including other
> species, and held back so many animals I just don't have room for them all.
>
> I actualy wrote the cover article for the June issue of Reptiles Magazine
> on how to breed fimbriatus. I have a very extensive background in breeding
> Uroplatus as well as numerous other species.
>
> Some have been in captivity for around a year and some 6+ months. The
> smaller animals were imported as young babies and I have grown them up, and
> some were hatched from eggs that import females dropped. Some are also
> proven. However the CB pair is only about 4-5 months old. I have background
> for every animal. So I can provide that upon request/sale.
>
> None are burnt out breeders. When I got them from my importer friends, I
> made sure to buy smaller animals to ensure I wasn't buying old imports.
>
> They were treated by my importer. Random fecals came up clean upon
> recieving the animals into my facility. All are thriving so individual
> fecals were not performed.
>
> If you have any further questions feel free to email or call.
>
> I also have some henkeli, fimbriatus, lineatus, and phantasticus for sale
> at the moment if interested.
>
> Thanks Erik

You seemed adamant that Erik stated he does not do fecals on his animals, but he told you in this e-mail that he does...

Originally Posted by Silveretta

You seemed adamant that Erik stated he does not do fecals on his animals, but he told you in this e-mail that he does...

He said "random". Why even bother? If five animals out of a hundred or more are sick, and you perform "random" fecals on, let's say, ten, or even twenty, are you really able to gurantee a healthy snake to a buyer based on the notion that if a certain percentage of them are okay, they must all be okay?

sorry, meant to say "guarantee"

Originally Posted by Chris Kennard

He said "random". Why even bother? If five animals out of a hundred or more are sick, and you perform "random" fecals on, let's say, ten, or even twenty, are you really able to gurantee a healthy snake to a buyer based on the notion that if a certain percentage of them are okay, they must all be okay?

Very good point.

Originally Posted by Chris Kennard

He said "random". Why even bother? If five animals out of a hundred or more are sick, and you perform "random" fecals on, let's say, ten, or even twenty, are you really able to gurantee a healthy snake to a buyer based on the notion that if a certain percentage of them are okay, they must all be okay?

Random samples are actually very common in the scientific world. If you're sampling say, Uroplatus in the wild to get an idea of their population numbers, do you think you will be able to count every single one? No way. So why even bother? You instead can take random samples in random areas and get an idea of a population that way.

No, your cannot guarantee that none have parasites out of a random sample. But you can get an idea. Hopefully he would do these fecals on a large percentage, but you'll have to ask him how he figures that out based on how many he gets. And he was up front about this fact.

I just feel like the OP has been trying to peg Erik as a liar, and I at least have not seen that yet. She tried to pick apart his background and current living situations but the lies she has claimed so far have not been true. You can be angry about the worms, I understand that, but don't try to make him seem like a worse person by lying. It doesn't make you look any better.