Jeremy Alberti / TMJ Reptiles

Chris,
You didn't act out of line. On the contrary, you acted as any reasonable person would, given the information that was available to you.

I'm glad to hear that Jeremy is willing to work with you. I am assuming then, that "T" is not affiliated with his business? If so, then my comments would apply only to him, and not to Jeremy's business.

Once you get your refund. Just come back on here and let everyone know that all is good, and this post should not hurt him at all. Because people can see that he took care of the problem.

But then again we all would like to know what killed the snake he sent you. Because as you said he took the animal into his snake room with his collection.

Ken, that's correct according to Jeremy he'll be working on his own from now on.
I guess sometimes when you communicate through email it's easy to misunderstand eachother and get pissed off at something that could be resolved by picking up the phone. Jeremy made a mistake by involving himself with someone who didn't share his ethics. I was really excited about getting this snake (it was gorgeous...not just your typical spilotes). It was tough watching it circle the drain but I honestly feel like Jeremy made a mistake and sold someone's animal for them without knowing there was a problem. The snake appeared to be outwardly healthy but obviously something was seriously wrong.
  Anyway, a lot of people read this board and I should have considered my words more carefully before trashing someone like that.
   Chris

After speaking with Jeremy tonight I should mention that the person in the photo holding the snake that I thought was Jeremy was actually a friend of T's. The picture was taken in someone's snake room but it might not have even been Jeremy's since it wasn't him in the pic (like I originally thought). The snake has been isolated from my collection so I'm not really concerned with my other animals.
  I may still try to get a diagnosis depending on the costs because I am curious what would cause such severe symptoms and kill a reptile that appeared to have good body weight.
   Chris

Chris,

I think the point Franklin was making is that you should go ahead and get a necropsy to find out what the pathogen was, not so you can know if YOUR collection is safe, but so we can all know that Jeremy's collection is safe for others to buy from in the future.  THAT is why we're all so interested in what killed that snake.  No one is trying to bash Jeremy.  It looks like he stood up when it mattered.  It's just that stuff like this can be devastating (as you know first hand), asn we all need to help one antoher nip it in the bud.

Thanks!

You make a good point, I will bring it to my vet and see if we can figure out what caused it. I'll report back to Jeremy and the BOI when I get an answer.
  Thanks,
    Chris Raden

I brought the snake to the vet today for a necropsy. He said he could only perform a "gross" necropsy in the clinic which would not necessarily be diagnostic. We sent the snake out to a lab for a thorough necropsy. He said it can take up to 2 weeks for results but he usually gets a preliminary report from the lab pretty quickly. I'll notify Jeremy and the BOI when I hear something back.
Chris Raden

I apologize to Jeremy and the BOI for taking so long to post the findings from the necropsy. I did call Jeremy shortly after getting the call from my vet and filled him in with the diagnosis. I was waiting for a copy of the report that my vet was mailing me before posting the facts on the BOI. For some reason it didn't arrive until today and it had slipped my mind until I opened my mail today. Sorry for the delay.
I am happy to report that they did not find crypto on the necropsy as my vet and I had suspected. Jeremy did follow through with his promise and sent me a refund ( + $20 to help with the $95 necropsy I paid for). Jeremy seems like a pretty stand up guy who made a mistake and sold a friend's snake that he didn't know the condition of. I stand by my assessment of Jeremy's former partner "T" who had to have known that the snake was in poor health. (it exhibited symptoms almost immediately and never held down a meal.) This snake was also identified to be a male on the necropsy although it was sold to me as a female. (The gonad tissue was identified microscopically as testis rather than ovary.)

The necropsy report is a few pages long but here is the "interpretive summary" word for word. By the way, this wasn't a gross necropsy it was sent out to a lab for a thorough analysis.

"This snake's clinical disease process and death were most likely attributable to bacterial enteritis, peritonitis and presumptive septicemia with secondary interstitial pneumonia. The peritonitis may have occurred secondary to a perforation, but no specific site was identified either grossly or microscopically. No evidence of endoparasitism was found (no cryptosporidia were observed in the stomach or intestinal tract microscopically.) The seizure activity was likely to have been the result of terminal septicemia/endotoxemia"

Anyway, I appreciate that Jeremy followed through with his promise and resolved this situation.
Chris Raden

Some more info:

A material that resembled necrotic fat was identified in the distal peritoneal cavity. This tissue was loaded with bacteria. Similar tissue was present intraluminally in some sections of the intestine. The report mentions that some intestinal sections also demonstrated moderate serositis.

No wonder this poor guy couldn't hold down a meal.
Chris Raden