luevelvet
Avid Member
Hello Everyone,
First off, I'd like to thank those who responded to my emails. The past two weeks have been torture but I think the worst is behind us now and we're looking forward towards the future of our operation.
I won't go into every detail since we could probably write a short book with all of my notes from our experience so here is the abridged version:
Two weeks ago we noticed one of our male Bradypodion translvaalense seemed to have gone blind. After two days with no improvement we found one of our T. quadricornis exhibiting symptoms. Having sent a few emails out, I soon received a response from Ivan Alfonso.
For the duration of last week, we spent a great deal of time troubleshooting every aspect of my husbandry, caging, feeder sources, fecals, you name it.
Unfortunately on Friday the other T. quadricornis came down with the same thing. By this time both Bradypodion's had passed on and the other T. quadricornis that came down with it was going downhill.
By Saturday evening we found what we believe to be the cause. The herp room is really just a converted master bedroom with a full bathroom attached. We house our cricket bins in the bathroom along with any herp related dishes and supplies. The issue came from where we place our cricket bins. Directly under the AC vent. This normally wouldn't be an issue but when I looked up I saw mold.
Suddenly the whole puzzle came together and was clear as day. Mold blowing into the crickets bins 24/7 had to be the cause, but how could such a small vent produce enough toxins to take out 4 chameleons?
I shut the AC off to clean the vent (and any others that may have had a few little spots of mold) and when I was done, I turned the AC back on and noticed a moldy smell coming from the vents. This couldn't be good.
It didn't take me but a few seconds to realize we had serious issues here and I immediately checked the AC. Sure enough, the drip pan was clogged and was leaking via the back corner into some drywall where no one who wasn't looking for it would find it. The entire AC unit was a toxic mold factory! Unbelievable how quickly this stuff grew and took over. It wasn't but a few months ago that I made sure the pan wasn't flooding, but sure enough this had to be the cause of the issues.
Our best assumption was the mold from the entire AC unit blowing and dusting the crickets making feeding them a game of Russian roulette.
All of the symptoms matched the accounts of severe toxicity in mammals. They all exhibited exactly the same symptoms. Soon after being fed, they would go into a gaze then behave as if they've gone blind. Within a day they become catatonic yet seem to regain their vision shortly after. A little later (few hours up to a day) they appear to recover slightly until sever neurological damage is apparent. They continually arch their heads back until they fall over. The Bradypodion never reached the phase of neurological damage, he simply advanced to the next stage which is catatonia with multiple episodes of seizures.
Each one expired shortly after the seizures with exception to one male Bradypodion who I found dead on Thursday afternoon after stepping out of the house for a few hours. He was fine and drinking in the morning.
Needless to say the past two weeks have been an emotional and physical rollercoaster. We also lost our LTC Senegalensis to kidney failure. He wasn't even a year old and we were very attached to that guy. We're still committed to working with Senegalensis but this whole situation has put major delays on a few things.
The AC unit has been cleaned, bleached and half of the duct work has been replaced. If nothing else, we're 98% better than were just 5 days ago. I have amazing friends who would give their shirts to help someone out and they came through once again.
The rest of the animals are doing well and haven't been affected at all. In fact we have a gravid U. Henkeli and two U. lineatus eggs due to hatch any day now.
At any rate, I'm still coming down from the bizarreness of the past few weeks so if I missed something, I'll be sure to come back and update. I just figured some folks would be interested in our situation and maybe encourage some to check their AC. I know we've linked it to many health problems we've and if it weren't for the losses we had, we may have let it slide for a few too many more months.
Thanks,
Luis
First off, I'd like to thank those who responded to my emails. The past two weeks have been torture but I think the worst is behind us now and we're looking forward towards the future of our operation.
I won't go into every detail since we could probably write a short book with all of my notes from our experience so here is the abridged version:
Two weeks ago we noticed one of our male Bradypodion translvaalense seemed to have gone blind. After two days with no improvement we found one of our T. quadricornis exhibiting symptoms. Having sent a few emails out, I soon received a response from Ivan Alfonso.
For the duration of last week, we spent a great deal of time troubleshooting every aspect of my husbandry, caging, feeder sources, fecals, you name it.
Unfortunately on Friday the other T. quadricornis came down with the same thing. By this time both Bradypodion's had passed on and the other T. quadricornis that came down with it was going downhill.
By Saturday evening we found what we believe to be the cause. The herp room is really just a converted master bedroom with a full bathroom attached. We house our cricket bins in the bathroom along with any herp related dishes and supplies. The issue came from where we place our cricket bins. Directly under the AC vent. This normally wouldn't be an issue but when I looked up I saw mold.
Suddenly the whole puzzle came together and was clear as day. Mold blowing into the crickets bins 24/7 had to be the cause, but how could such a small vent produce enough toxins to take out 4 chameleons?
I shut the AC off to clean the vent (and any others that may have had a few little spots of mold) and when I was done, I turned the AC back on and noticed a moldy smell coming from the vents. This couldn't be good.
It didn't take me but a few seconds to realize we had serious issues here and I immediately checked the AC. Sure enough, the drip pan was clogged and was leaking via the back corner into some drywall where no one who wasn't looking for it would find it. The entire AC unit was a toxic mold factory! Unbelievable how quickly this stuff grew and took over. It wasn't but a few months ago that I made sure the pan wasn't flooding, but sure enough this had to be the cause of the issues.
Our best assumption was the mold from the entire AC unit blowing and dusting the crickets making feeding them a game of Russian roulette.
All of the symptoms matched the accounts of severe toxicity in mammals. They all exhibited exactly the same symptoms. Soon after being fed, they would go into a gaze then behave as if they've gone blind. Within a day they become catatonic yet seem to regain their vision shortly after. A little later (few hours up to a day) they appear to recover slightly until sever neurological damage is apparent. They continually arch their heads back until they fall over. The Bradypodion never reached the phase of neurological damage, he simply advanced to the next stage which is catatonia with multiple episodes of seizures.
Each one expired shortly after the seizures with exception to one male Bradypodion who I found dead on Thursday afternoon after stepping out of the house for a few hours. He was fine and drinking in the morning.
Needless to say the past two weeks have been an emotional and physical rollercoaster. We also lost our LTC Senegalensis to kidney failure. He wasn't even a year old and we were very attached to that guy. We're still committed to working with Senegalensis but this whole situation has put major delays on a few things.
The AC unit has been cleaned, bleached and half of the duct work has been replaced. If nothing else, we're 98% better than were just 5 days ago. I have amazing friends who would give their shirts to help someone out and they came through once again.
The rest of the animals are doing well and haven't been affected at all. In fact we have a gravid U. Henkeli and two U. lineatus eggs due to hatch any day now.
At any rate, I'm still coming down from the bizarreness of the past few weeks so if I missed something, I'll be sure to come back and update. I just figured some folks would be interested in our situation and maybe encourage some to check their AC. I know we've linked it to many health problems we've and if it weren't for the losses we had, we may have let it slide for a few too many more months.
Thanks,
Luis
