Whoever he is,and wherever you met him, if he told you a necropsy was required for a small claims case, he is simply incorrect. One of the reasons small claims procedures were initiated was to avoid costly proofs and expert advice that can run into the thousands of dollars.
He did not say it was required, I thought that it was, my mistake, before I talked to him. That's why I've already stated you were correct, Lucille. The attorney did say it wouldn't hurt to have one ... the more evidence, the better his case. That is why I went into the take-a-picture-yourself mode. If what I am thinking is correct, and I think someone else mentioned it earlier, the seller may have overmedicated this animal and done some damage, and that is the real reason it died several days after being stressed. I really don't think a lack of heat pack would have killed the animal several days later, but more like either in transit, or maybe the next day. If it had a healthy liver, it could handle more stress, but if it was compromised, then just a little stress would flip it over the edge. Think of the over 500 functions the liver does, and that is why I say cut it open and see what it looks like.
Now back to the freezing/necropsy argument. I decided to call someone else who specializes in necropsies only. His name is Patrick Knisley, and he is the head of the necropsy department at the University of Florida's small animal veterinary teaching hospital. He said he could do a necropsy on a lizard that has been frozen for 2 weeks, or even longer, and there would be some artifacts in the tissue samples that can mask certain histological facts, but he could still do the necropsy, and they can look at tissue samples and rule in or out if the liver was previously damaged. He also made it clear they cannot say what damaged the liver if it is damaged, but can say that it was damaged before being frozen if it was indeed damaged. He also stated that yes, freezing is an evil thing against necropsies, but it is the lesser of the two evils of that or degredation, so if the necropsy is going to be put on hold for a while, which it has, freezing is the only viable option, and they can tell what most of the artifacts caused by freezing in a tissue sample are. He then made a suggestion after I told him the whole story, that would be cost effective. Since a necropsy can cost $380, he suggested going to a local veterinarian and have them send in tissue samples to the lab to be analyzed. Two tissue samples costs $50, and if the OP has the liver and kidneys checked, those would indeed cover pretty much what would be damaged from overmedication. If he wins the case, he could also recoup any losses for getting these looked at, but probably should warn the seller, in writing, he is going to do this so the seller has a chance to give a refund before possibly incurring more losses (my advice, not my attorney friend's). He also explained how to do it:
Go to
www.vetmed.ufl.edu then click on the link to laboratories. Next go to surgical pathologies and click on submission forms. The address to send the tissue samples to is on the form. Also, write on the form they were frozen, so they know what they are looking at. He also specified DO NOT send it to his attn, as he will not be the one doing the report. They will in turn bill the vet clinic who took the samples. Anyway, I hope this helps, as that is all I am trying to do here.
The case could be that simple. Possibly have a histology workup showing the liver had problems or the kidneys were damaged and have the seller's statement he typed earlier where he admits giving it panacur, then make the case the animal was already sick from being overmedicated. NTA did fail to mention he had medicatied this animal before the deal was done. It's a lot easier than making the case of no heatpack caused it to die a few days later, which may be what happened, but it is just harder to prove. All the seller has to do to refute that is get one of his buddies to say he received the same species packed the same way in 40°F temps, and it is fine.
I figure that is the very best advice I could find, and I realize these are second-hand statements, but I'm not using them to prove anything, just to pass on advice.
