Two Snakes to the Vet

[rabernet]

Today I had an appointment for my dog, Diamond, because she has a stopped up nostril that I thought was just a cold, but it's lingered for 2 weeks, so it was time to get her seen. Turns out she has a sinus infection and needs dental work (which I knew already, but she's elderly, so I'm not really eager to put her under anaesthesia (sp?) ) One of her teeth is likely the cause of the sinus infection, he said, but he has her on Clindamycin for 2 weeks to see if that doesn't clear up the infection first.

Anyway, he's also the exotics vet at my vet clinic, and how I first found him and liked his gentle style, so all my animals see him now. The only ball pythons he ever sees is normal ball pythons, so he really enjoys getting to see my morphs. I knew he hadn't seen a spider or a pinstripe in person, so I bagged them up and took them with me. He saw the bags immediately and his eyes lit up and he said "you brought snakes for me to see!!!!"

We took care of Diamond's exam, and then he washed his hands and grabbed the bag with the pinstripe in it. He had never seen one before, not even in pictures (he doesn't keep ball pythons himself, he's a boa guy and he doesn't really hang out on the internet). He LOVED her - was completely fascinated by her, couldn't believe she was just two months old (he's used to seeing the usual "my ball python won't eat" cases). He kept saying - she doesn't even look like a ball python! She's sooo cool!

And of course, like all my animals that he sees, she proceeds to pee and poop all over him! I was laughing so hard I was crying. Literally, all of my animals, from Diamond nervous peeing on the floor, to rats he's examined peeing on his shirt, to the snakes relieving themselves on him, they all have to release themselves on him. Good thing he is such a good sport.

Next he got to see his first spider, asked why they were called spiders and showed him the spider webbing pattern. I also was able to discuss with him that if he ever had a client come in with one that looked like her, complaining about weird behaviors, like wobbling or twisting, that it's NOT IBD, and it's a behavior believe to be linked to the spider gene. He thanked me for letting him know and said "I'm going to sound super smart now that I know that, and I won't be running un-necessary testing!"

Then he said "you should have your own website". I told him I did and he asked for my website so he could check it out tonight.

Then we talked rats for awhile, his step daughter has two as pets, and one recently died and he said he had been told that rats were really social, but he never really witnessed just how social until he went to remove the rat that died and the other one literally grabbed the one he was removing with her front paws to pull her back in with her and was visibly upset, reaching through the bars of her cage as he carried it off and said how it broke his heart. She refused to eat for two days, even peanuts which are her favorite treat, and how they got her a new friend that he examined before putting them together and how happy she is now.

Anyway - this turned into a terribly long ramble, but I love being able to share this hobby and all the cool morphs with a vet who truly loves the reptiles and gets so excited when he sees that I'm in with one of my fur babies, because he knows he usually gets to see a cool snake too.