The Importance of Selecting an Experience Reptile Vet

[kitedemon]

The thing that makes me sad is not everywhere has a great reptile vet. The only reptile vet we have is doing lots to learn fast but still is missing experience but at least she is willing to listen and accepts that she doesn't have as much experience as she would like. I am sure not everywhere is as lucky as I am and has the heavy handed 'I have a doctorate and you don't so I know more than you do', vets. In my case the vet I'd like to take my animals to is just short of 19 hours away by car.

As always an excellent post.

[Evenstar]

The thing that makes me sad is not everywhere has a great reptile vet.....

I am also saddened and worried by this. I wish more vets would be open to learning about different animals. I have a pair of sugar gliders and I have to travel 45 min to get to a qualified exotics vet. And my herp vet is 30 min away. I don't mind that, in fact I think I'm pretty fortunate, but it is concerning that there are folks in large cities who don't have a qualified vet within driving distance....

Thank you so much for such an informative post! I am sorry you had to deal with something like this, but it can really benefit the reptile community and we owe you a lot for sharing so much. If I may, I would encourage you to let us know the name of that vet. Not so we can gossip about it and I would certainly not disclose the buyer's name, but knowing the vet can help prevent repeated future mis-diagnosis. At the very least, perhaps let the mods know so they can remove the name from the list to which newbies are referred.

Mods, please sticky???

[purplemuffin]

The thing that makes me sad is not everywhere has a great reptile vet.

This is why it is SO important to care for our pets in the best way possible. 99% of the time, a reptile illness can be prevented or even cured by proper knowledge from the keeper! It is for those rare instances when there is something simply above our capabilities/requiring extreme medical interference or needing medical tools not in our possession that we need to call upon reptile vets.

Honestly this too also shows the importance of knowing how to properly care for your animal. While a good reptile vet should have known what was wrong, the keeper should have as well.

We can never stop studying our animals, it's important to continue to strive to learn the best care possible!

[JLC]

'Tis stuck.