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Joe Schmidt/Chad Fuchs and Cryptosporidium!
This needs to be talked about, so I’m sharing my story. First off - I readily admit that if I had been smart enough to properly quarantine, some of my beloved hognose might still be with me today.
This started when I became friends with Joe Schmidt, as we lived within easy driving distance of each other. He became my mentor and I purchased a number of snakes from him. Over the years, we would exchange snakes here and there. In 2017, he offered me a caramel male, which had been hatched by his partner - I found out later that this partner was Chad Fuchs. I went ahead with the purchase and weeks later the snake arrived. I met with Joe and brought home the snake, thrilled to have a caramel male for my breeding program. Well, the snake didn’t look quite right
and some of his stools were pretty nasty. I tried working with it, but given that I paid a good amount for this snake, I contacted Joe and told him I was not pleased with my purchase. Within days a shipping label was provided and the snake was sent off to a veterinarian. This is what I was told later: “Fecal floatation was neg. Fecal direct negative except for wbcs present, showing
inflammation. Fecal cytology with stain showed small cystic structures, that could be protozoalcysts.” None of that seemed alarming, so his tub and slot were cleaned with bleach and I was anticipating getting a replacement down the line - wasn’t going to accept another from that same clutch. To this day, no replacement has ever been given.
Just a few months later, I moved from Nevada to Texas. Short before I moved, I received a couple more snakes from Joe - 0.1 pearl, 1.0super het toxic, 0.1 conda het toxic and 0.1 albino het ppa. I also had 2 of his adult breeding females, to pair with my lavender male: 0.1 electric albino & 0.1 axanthic conda. Also moved with a group of 10 ball pythons, for me to raise up and have for 2 breeding seasons, babies/proceeds to be split 3 ways - and a pair of woma pythons belonging to Joe. Arrived safe and sound in Texas and got everyone situated. Now never having had a well before, I put all
snakes on well water - though I always run their water through a filter first. The albino het ppa was a skinny snake and just seemed to never be quite right. She would only eat sporadically and I finally found a reptile vet to take her and one of my pastel breeding females. Vet prescribed metronidazole, but the albino female ended up passing after all. Shortly after, the pastel female passed as well and I had a necropsy done. It only showed a bacterial issue, which we suspected the well water off. Thankfully my city water hookup was completed just shortly thereafter.
Meanwhile, Joe had broken his arm and was unable to work. He ended up asking my help, as he had trouble maintaining his collection. I agreed - was to get 25% of any clutches produced by his snakes and 50% of any that I owned one parent. I got a list of what was to arrive, got this huge
box containing 33 snakes. Now 6 of those had not been on the original list and were labeled “TLC”, all adult females - all underweight. Here is where I made the biggest mistake of my life - since I had been trading snakes with Joe back and forth, I figured there would be nothing mine hadn’t been around and placed them all in my main snake room. I got everyone settled in and first feeding went pretty well - only 3 snakes refused. Couple of weeks later, I found one of the female condas dead. Some of the tlc snakes would regurgitate and stools weren’t looking right. I packed up a couple and went to the vet. He ran some fecal samples and came up with a really high bacteria count. Metronidazole/Panacur was prescribed and I treated the whole collection, including my personal snakes. And it seemed to work for most, though some were still having ups and downs. Another trip to the vet and another round of medication, I was also told that I could use kaopectate to help settle stomachs. Then another snake died. Make a long story short,after doing a 10 day round of sulfa drug - repeating same 2 weeks later. Multiple vet trips were done throughout and Joe did offer to pay once, though I didn’t ask. The snakes were in my care and care for them I did to the best of my ability. I also received a 2nd shipment, containing a
couple more hognose (2 more TLC cases), 1.2 Nelson’s milks (1.0 splotched albino, 0.1 splotched albino vanishing pattern, 0.1 t+ albino), 1.1 albino Mexican milks, 0.3 adult rhino rats and 3.1 adult corns. Meanwhile, almost all hognose seemed to be doing pretty well. All but one TLC snake looked flawless and had gained proper weight. Then I paired those females - and the
males started dying. One young male went from being a great eater, to going off feed, to having mucous filled stool and dead within 5 weeks. Nothing worked! At this point, I took the remaining TLC snake (Brooke), the one that still had issues and had her euthanized and sent off for necropsy. Finally
got the verdict - crypto! At this point, I have lost over half of my hognose collection. I have halted all sales of snakes that had ever been in the main room. Along the way I had purchased new baby racks and set those up in another room - every baby went straight from the incubator into the new racks. This past year has been I total nightmare for me and I only hope I didn’t cause this same issue to anyone else!
Now back to those babies in the other room, Joe told me he put every hognose he had left at his house down and tossed all his tubs. At that point, I sent him a package with 24 of those babies, some co-bred some were from my snakes. He was going to raise them up for us and lighten my work load, since he was himself back to working at that point. They shipped out in time for him to take along to the Sacramento Reptile Show, where he claims
not to have sold a single one of those we were going to sell. He came home with a bunch of new snakes from the show, including more ball pythons. Not having access to live feeders, he wanted to sent those to me to raise up as well. I started breeding my own rats over the summer, as I had a couple that just wouldn’t eat f/t and whatever needed to be done was done. He kept saying he was going to ship and it never happened. Then after the 4th time of being told he was going to ship, I never heard another word from him that day. Didn’t hear for a couple more days, so started talking to some clients. Came to find out he had collected 10k on a big package deal - he had asked for 3 snakes of my breeding to add to that package originally, 7 others came from my females (his male) and I had been promised my 25% share on another high-end trio. I never saw a penny of that money. Him not following through on shipping and me finding out he had kept that kind of money all to himself, were the key to me deciding to leave the partnership. I only asked for 3 of those baby snakes back - 1.0 lavender conda, 0.1 lavender and 1.0 pastel axanthic. I was willing to let him keep all the rest which was mostly supers and condas, either het lavender, toffee or albino. I had already given him the normal pattern lavender male. I didn’t even mention the money, I just wanted things to be done and move on with my life! I shipped all remaining hognose snakes I ever received from Joe back to him on 11/28, along with the 1.2 Nelson’s (which I had paid him half value on), 1.1 albino mexicans and 1.1 Xenodon dorbignyi I had given him. The corn snake adults were already in brumation and to be shipped after. I was going to keep the partnership going on just the ball pythons (I had raised them up from babies and they are actively breeding) and the rhino rats - I had purchased the male. I also warned him about 3 of the hognose still having some issues - the axanthic super had done a regurgitation 2 weeks prior, so he could properly quarantine. It was his turn to make those calls. On 12/7, he posted pairings. Some where snakes that had already been paired here, but some involved snakes coming from my house and him having obtained elsewhere. This proves that no proper quarantine protocol was being followed.
Then he was going to ship my snakes to me - never happened. Finally, after Christmas he contacts me about shipping my snakes to me and notifies me that the lavender female has suddenly died. No restitution was offered, but I could see a video of proof if I wanted and was I ready to receive my remaining 2 snakes this on 1/1 or the day after? I have to admit I lost it and told him I would never deal with him again and he wasn’t getting anything else of his I had left here. Which of course was followed by a barrage of nasty messages. In the end we finally did come to an agreement. I'm going to send him back most of his stuff, because I can't stoop to that level and give some with his ethics/lack there off a reason to call me a thief. No cash money was ever offered, but I’m supposed to receive my remaining 2
snakes. I will be shipping corn snakes after brumation and ball pythons/corn snake babies and 1.1 rhino rats (we did get 2 male hatchlings from a clutch) on 1/7.
A mutual friend recently received a snake from Joe - a caramel with an umbilical scar. I remember him posting the story of saving that snake on facebook and that was before I moved to Texas. Now I’m not so sure he was honest about putting everything down at his house. Another client mentions being offered ready-to-breed females from Joe, as he has 67 of them. Wonder where they all came from????
Should I actually receive my 2 remaining snakes, they will be in quarantine for a minimum of 90 days and testing will be done!
Now for those worried about crypto, here are some things I learned: bleach & F10 are absolutely useless! The only things that will kill crypto are a minimum of 5% ammonia solution (make sure you don’t forget to wear gloves, not a pretty sight to have your hands peeling multiple layers of skin for about a week!), hydrogen peroxide or heat (above 165 degrees). I purchased a hand steamer, that will reach 212 degrees. I know using the extension to get far enough into the racks, some degrees are lost, but it’s still going to be well above 165 degrees. I now sanitize all my rack and tubs with it.
And the most important of all: ALWAYS quarantine, no matter how big a name someone seems to be or how much you think you can trust them. I was stupid and paid dearly - so did my beloved hognose snakes.
I will be uploading a number of attachments as proof! Then I won't be online anymore by this evening, as I'll be enjoying it watching movies with my daughter and ringing in the New Year - it can only get better from here!
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Joe Schmidt/Chad Fuchs and Cryptosporidium!
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