Came home to a dead Sulcata tortoise hatchling?????

Grapes

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Anyone ever gotten a necropsy done on a hatchling and how much did it run you?
 

dmmj

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if you go the necropsy route refrigerate the corpse don't freeze it.
 

Tom

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Anyone ever gotten a necropsy done on a hatchling and how much did it run you?

With my discount, it runs me around $500. I think most people will pay more. It also depends on what all you have done and if you send out the internal organs for pathology. That costs more. Some time they find the problem in the initial exam, and don't need to send things out. In my last one I had done a few years ago on some sulcata hatchlings that were failing to thrive, the vet found disintegrated perlite lining the entire GI tract. Turns out the breeder incubated them in perlite and then left them in the incubator for up to a week after hatching.

This prohibitive cost is why the death of a baby often remains a mystery.
 

Grapes

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Oh wow yeah I don't think I can swing that. I've got a baby on the way lol wife would lose it if I spent that much.
 

Tom

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Oh wow yeah I don't think I can swing that. I've got a baby on the way lol wife would lose it if I spent that much.

Ask your vet. Perhaps a cursory exam could be done cheaper and a COD might be easily discovered without the full histo-pathological exam. A simple look at the lungs, kidney and GI tract by a trained eye might reveal some important details. They might open him up and find a freshly swallowed black widow or wasp. Anything is possible.

Doesn't hurt to ask for a quote.
 

Grapes

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Ask your vet. Perhaps a cursory exam could be done cheaper and a COD might be easily discovered without the full histo-pathological exam. A simple look at the lungs, kidney and GI tract by a trained eye might reveal some important details. They might open him up and find a freshly swallowed black widow or wasp. Anything is possible.

Doesn't hurt to ask for a quote.

Yeah I'm gonna at least ask for a quote thanks
 

MPRC

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Be warned that if he hasn't been refrigerated (and not frozen) you might be out of luck.
 

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If there are Veterinary Universities or Colleges near you, some Veterinarians will do procedures for lower prices to teach students. I would call one and see if something could be arranged. It wouldn't hurt to explore that. I would want a necropsy done to ensure that I didn't do something. Sometimes you find that there was nothing that could be done. I am sorry for your loss. You may experience feelings of failure, guilt, and maybe a loss of some passion for a bit as you question yourself. Give yourself time but don't give up. Try again. There are excellent sources for tortoises here on the forum. There are also plenty of sections for different topics. When you're ready, message some breeders or post a thread. Lots of support here. Again, sorry for your loss. Hopefully you find comfort and peace in the memories made together. May your little one Rest in Peace. :<3::tort:
 

ZEROPILOT

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Yes. Give him a day or two to be certain that it is not still alive. Mine was "DEAD" for almost two days and today is happy and well. She didn't respond to anything. I dug a little grave in the yard. the next thing I knew, she was moving around again.
Limp is a good sign. Stiff is not. stiff with sunken eyes will mean dead every time. Limp and dangling, maybe not.
Is it possible that the tortoise overheated?
 

deadheadvet

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It is way to late for a necropsy. It would have needed to be done within 24 hours. A cursory look is not likely to yield the cause of death. It would have to be a full necropsy with histopath slides viewed by a pathologist. As far as a discount at a veterinary college, good luck. They are beyond expensive and are for profit. We only send the most severe cases to the vet school for that reason. All estimates start at 3,000$.
 

Yvonne G

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Wow! Prices sure have changed in the 20 years or so since I've had a necropsy done. We are fortunate to have a lab here in Fresno that does animal necropsy. I took a bird to the lab about 20 years ago and the initial exam was $70. If I wanted a more indepth or histological exam, it would have been quite a bit more. But the initial exam told me what the bird died from.

http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/cahfs/lab_tests/index.cfm
 

ZEROPILOT

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Having myself spent northwards of $2,000 trying to make a tortoise well, I am quite familiar with the costs associated with vets and tortoises.
I can't also say that I would 100% trust what the necropsy had to say about the cause of death. It seems that there is a good deal of guesswork with the whole thing and very little science.
This is just my experience.
 

Rue

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I have paid around $70 each for bird necropsies.

One came back (one of my chickens): "No idea".

The other came back (injured wild bird I took in for vet treatment, but they euthanized it on me!): "Healthy juvenile female".
 

Markw84

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Apparently it is too late for this case, but to echo Yvonne's post, the last I checked with UC Davis Veterinary school, a reptile necropsy was right about $200 for a private party living in California. That was last year.
 

ZEROPILOT

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Apparently it is too late for this case, but to echo Yvonne's post, the last I checked with UC Davis Veterinary school, a reptile necropsy was right about $200 for a private party living in California. That was last year.
That would be worth the cost if a cause was found and you had other tortoises or were thinking of getting another.
 

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