911 Help

[AZweifel]

Okay, so I work at Petco and have been transferred to another store for the day. Well the Veil Chams here are severely dehydrated and malnourished. My heart is completely broken. They are tiny, so I'm assuming they are maybe two months old? I don't know. Anyways, here is where I need help-
I can't afford to get EVERYTHING today, at least not in appropriate sizes. Do you think it would be okay in a small enclosure(12x12x18) until I could afford to upgrade? I could only take one home, but that would be one less sick Cham. Let me know what you think.

 

[laurie]

That is the devil if you do and the devil if you don't. Some will say you are helping petco sell chameleons that they should not keep. Others will say you saved one life. I say do what works for you. Yes the little one will be fine for a while in a small cage. Just thank a look at the care sheet on here, it will give you all the guidance you need. Best of luck, let me know how it goes.

 

[Andee]

Have you brought it to the pecto manager's attention? They are required to take them into the vet.

 

[AZweifel]

I mentioned it but he just shrugged me off. The chameleon we keep at my normal store are very well taken care of. The ones here just make me sick...

 

[AZweifel]

And I'm not blowing it out of the water, right? They do look ill?

 

[Andee]

Oh no they look very sick. What manager did you talk to? Both the GM and the animal manager? I would be really worried if they didn't all get vet treatment.... they ALL need it and honestly you shouldn't have to take then in because the store should be providing it . Both my stores are great about taking their animals in, just sometimes they don't recognize symptoms, if I mention somethijng they will pull the animal and usually next time I see it, it looks so much better.

If need be you could call cooperate... you could do it anonymously I think your still allowed to do that, and get them on your boss's case. Because honestly this is not acceptable because petco has cooperate rules against it and what is and isn't accepted. And lack of vet care for obviously sick animals, or even questionably sick, is a huge NO NO

 

[AZweifel]

Exactly. Our store is extremely diligent about vet care for the animals and the people here didn't even recognize that anything was wrong with the chams! They think they look completely normal. I'll try to talk to the manager again before I leave.

 

[Andee]

Tell them they look like they haven't been able to flush their eyes well, may have a vitamin deficiency, idk if your store has a uvb, the one I worked at didn't have one that was up to date. Two of them look like they have a RI. They will die without vet treatment I can guarantee that.

 

[AZweifel]

What is an RI?

If I took one home today would I need to care it to the vet or would TLC be enough?

 

[Andee]

Vet 100% which is why I recommended pushing them to do it. These guys won't be cheap with vet care from the looks of them. RI is respiratory infection

 

[AZweifel]

Okay. I'll talk to the manager and strongly urge a vet visit. I just want what is best and I wouldn't be able to afford vet costs

 

[AZweifel]

He said he will have is CAL look at them. But I don't know how much farther it'll go than that. :/

 

[Andee]

CAL?

 

[funnyCAT140]

Every time I'm at petco I always have to tell them about they're sick animals. There was a bearded dragon hatchling one time in with bearded dragons that were a couple months old and it was pretty much dead and the lady told me she knew so she acted like she was gonna take it to the back and when I walked away she put it back. She's pretty much the only person that takes care of the reptiles and she said she won't touch the snakes because the ball pythons might bite her, so she got the manager to get a sick snake out once and it had mites. They left the other one in there and didn't clean the cage. I'm glad your petco takes care of the animals and I hope the little chams get the care they need.

 

[AZweifel]

A CAL is a companion animal leader, they over see all animal care except for fish. We don't have one at our store, but this one did.
At the store I work at, we are very diligent about animal care. Our snakes had mites once and we didn't lose any of them, we kept them clean and sprayed with Mite-Off. our animals are very carefully separated by age. (We did have a new girl put a hatchling bearded dragon in with some older ones and he died after being brutally beaten).
Even our hamsters and other rodents are carefully monitored. They get what is called wet-tail, which is diarrhea, and we check them every morning and night individually and if there are any signs we pull them off the floor and immediately give them antibiotics.
We do have a gorgeous Jackson Chameolon that is way too big for his enclosure. When he came to the store he fit, but he just hasn't sold and is no way too large. I wish we had somewhere to put him and have urged my managers to get him a new set up but it isn't "policy".

 

[Andee]

If you are giving the hamsters antibiotics make sure to 100% give them benebac when in the process. I know our store did it. If you can't see if you can give them some greek yogurt... (I know stores can be weird about it and I only worked for them for 4 months) but antibiotics can easily destroy a hamsters hind gut fermentation bacteria so you gotta be careful. And with wet tail they can't eat their own feces to correct it. Also be super careful, wet tail is easily transferrable. Just in case you didn't know. (I have currently 4 rescue hamsters, have had 6 before)

 

[OldChamKeeper]

The pictured animal is a goner. Very likely at the least.

Tell the manager at that store that PETA got a call. I used those pictures since in the background you can tell it is a petco. No PETA wont be able to tell which store since you didn't give that info, but PETA likes chewing on corporations so those pictures are enough... heh heh

I'd call the local animal control. That's blatant neglect. The local Petco locks the doors if they see me coming in to buy some flea spray....

 

[Andee]

He/she is not a goner, but will be if he doesn't get TLC and vet care. I have turned around far worse. But yeah, generally they won't get what they need at Petco.

 

[OldChamKeeper]

Andee I've saved my share too. That critter has all the hallmarks of a goner. Granted there is always a chance but sometimes you gotta know when tossing money at a critter is not going to help.

It would take a 'Doc Mader' to pull that one out.

 

[Andee]

It depends I think those are two different chameleons, not positive though. But I have dealt with one veiled around this size and similar issues. She is currently rehomed and doing well, actually grew larger than I expected. But her care required me to be home all day. Which thankfully I worked at home during her time. She required syringe watering, syringe feeding and thankfully I had an auto mister as well to help with eye health. I also took her in three times for vet care, and once more for a check up before sending out. Took I think 4 months of 3 times a day feeding, and doing 4 syringes watering a day trying to get a total of .5 cc at least into her. It's not easy taking on cases like this and I definitely don't recommend it for people who work normal 9-5 jobs at all... it's one reason why my job works so wonderfully with my rescue work. The RI would be the hardest thing to work with in my opinion with the deficiency and everything else. I am not saying she can be saved but I think she could be. She just would not be a simple case sadly. And will likely die because very few schedules and lives actually allow for it. Which honestly people and chameleons should never have to worry about that... it's so frustrating. Because though the petco cooperation isn't perfect with cham care, they should never be sick like this if the managers followed the rules. But of course convincing them can be.... like trying to smash through a brick wall with a baguet. I need to finish cleaning up my giant aquarium so I have room for at least two more cages for rehabs, and those would be dedicated to either small species or youngsters I plan to get healthy and rehome.

I didn't mean to sound... arrogant? Btw @OldChamKeeper, I always bow to you when it comes to your chameleon knowledge. You have so much experience and should come post more often than you do.