Help, my snow bird In-laws came home to quite the mess. They have a main floor toilet that is plugged and when you use a plunger lots of hair come up. It's animal - possibly a squirrel that has come down the vent pipe, got stuck and died. A plumber worked on it and said it's bad. They need $1000.00 in repairs to open the wall and locate the dead animal. My father in-law doesn't have the money and wants to use muriatic acid.

Is there another way to get this taken care of safely?
Any ideas?

Thanks:confused:

Did the plumber snake the vent pipe from the roof?

How about removing the toilet and snaking that pipe?

A grand to snake out a dead critter? Fly me up and pay my expenses and I'll do the job for $850. Kind of pricey for a job that should'nt take over two or three hours. (I retired too damm early! )
If I were you I'd handle it like this. First I'd rent me a sewer machine,(see image) ask for cutter and auger tips,(see image) I would first snake from the lavatory roof vent with a auger tip and attempt to haul the critter out of there. If I couldn't do that I would change tips to a cutter and cut that sucker up into small pieces and flush him out into the city main. It's doubtful he made it all the way from the stack into your toilet but if that's the case you could also auger out the toilet as well. I*f you let the job out get three estimates and lose plumber #1. Good luck, Tom