John Jaehn RedHook Cuesmiths

Beware of John Jaehn or he sometimes goes by RedHook Cuesmiths or Jhook. I purchased several boas from him in a group deal on 6/30/13. I received 6 adult boas from him and all were in terrible condition. As soon as I took them home. One of them was throwing up water and some sort of clear goo. While another was extremely dehydrated and had several layers of old shed on her. It took several soakings to completely remove the old sheds. I had immediately contacted him and asked if the boa had any health issues which he played off as the car ride caused them to throw up. In addition, within less than a month of having these boas, one of them died, while the rest were having feeding issues. Some wouldn't eat and they were all infested with mites. As of today, I'm still spending money on vet bills and tube feeding the stubborn eaters. He's supposedly not working with boas any more but he still continues to sell ball pythons. PLEASE BEWARE! I also later found out that the pictures he sent to me were old pictures and not recent pictures. I found this out later through facebook and the post date of the same pictures he had sent to me. I have never had any boa die on me before receiving this group. I now have one that passed away from this group and I fear that another will soon pass away as well. I have never had such a bad experience purchasing boas. This was a very painful and costly mistake that I've learned. This is my very first negative BOI post and I will attempt to load some of the text messages that I have. I have more text messages as well if I need to post up as well as vet visits/bills.

I am very sorry to hear about your awful experience. It seems like this guy would have known if his animals had mites and or URI. Shame on him. There are pieces of crap like him everywhere in the hobby. Unfortunately it seems like this could have been avoided had you covered your bases. Did you check this guys rep? Did you meet in person? Yes.. Did you visually inspect each animal? Maybe, I can't tell from your post if you did or not. Maybe you took his word and those old pics at face value and never looked over the animals you purchased. It was 8am when he texted you saying he was gassing up. How could you have looked at all the animals, and all of them turn out to be mite infested with URI's? Also you did not provide pics of your sick/ mite covered snakes here.(recommended,it's a form of PROOF) Again, sorry for your loss but this could have been avoided if you took the time to research your seller. Also being able to physically ID ailments with your animals is key to a healthy setup/ facility. How do you not recognize mites? Or URI's? Good luck with whatever resolve your looking for. Hopefully all your remaining animals come around and you chaulk this up as a lesson learned the hard way. -Patrick Sterling

I am sorry you are going through this but as as Patrick pointed out you had the opportunity to visually inspect these animals before accepting them into your care, correct? Did you not notice the boa with the stuck shed at that time or any of the other issues you are describing?

On top of posting the texts, would recommend you post your receipts and documents from the vet so you have more solid proof of the conditions of these animals.

Sounds like a good thing the seller got out of boas but hoping he takes better care of the BPs.

yes I attempted to check him on the boi but there was nothing on him. I decided to give him a chance since I thought he may just be a person that was selling his animals and not a breeder. (I hope to one day be a seller on here with the animals that I hope to produce soon and buyers give me a chance since I'm not known or anything). I did pick up the snakes in person and I did say they were skinny and under weight to the seller. I tried to inspect the boas but they were really aggressive. in addition, the one that I could inspect, which was the dehydrated one with old shed on her, was bringing too much attention and drawing in a crowd. I'm currently at work but I will post more proof after work and the vet visit.

Sorry it took a while but i've been really busy with work... i will upload everything i have... please again advise me if i'm doing anything incorrectly... thanks

This post serves as a good warning to not deal with this guy. I would suggest to you, though, that you not buy any more snakes until you learn how to tell the difference between a healthy and a sick snake. If I was presented snakes in person to consider and they were in the condition you described, I'd turn around and get the hell out of there.

I agree with Jeff. If you had the chance to look over the snakes and they were skinny "all were in terrible condition" and one with stuck sheds, perhaps that was the time to rethink your purchase.
Do you have earlier vet bills? The ones you show are dated almost a month after you acquired the snakes?

I noticed the vet report mentions the possibility of Inclusion Body virus. I do not know how large your collection is, but I hope you are paying attention to every detail of the quarantine process.

Originally Posted by Lucille

I agree with Jeff. If you had the chance to look over the snakes and they were skinny "all were in terrible condition" and one with stuck sheds, perhaps that was the time to rethink your purchase.
Do you have earlier vet bills? The ones you show are dated almost a month after you acquired the snakes?

I noticed the vet report mentions the possibility of Inclusion Body virus. I do not know how large your collection is, but I hope you are paying attention to every detail of the quarantine process.

Yes, can't stress the importance of quarantine enough.

Also, the beginning section of the first document uploaded that the snake had been in your care for a month, eating, and with no sign of illness. If he wasn't showing any sign of illness it's a little tough to blame the seller with this particular snake because how was he supposed to know that the snake wasn't alright if no signs were present?

Originally Posted by Lucille

I noticed the vet report mentions the possibility of Inclusion Body virus. I do not know how large your collection is, but I hope you are paying attention to every detail of the quarantine process.

IIRC IBD can be found post-mortem, if I'd read that on my vet report I'd lock down my collection and order the tests for IBD, crypto, and OPMV.

Originally Posted by bcr229

IIRC IBD can be found post-mortem, if I'd read that on my vet report I'd lock down my collection and order the tests for IBD, crypto, and OPMV.

I would definitely get a necropsy done, but I wouldn't be so quick to conclude IBD. Vets with little experience often bring up IBD whenever there's a URI. IBD is a progressive disease in Boas, meaning they rarely die quickly from it like pythons do. The vet, also, must go by what the person tells them. If the OP tells them they saw nothing wrong, they might conclude there was no signs of illness.