Advice for finding a good herp vet

I read the stickied list but it is locked and I can't post there. I found no listings for Alabama at all. I live near Mobile. If anyone has knowledge of a good vet that treats snakes nearby I would really appreciate it. Barring that, what is good general advice for choosing one? Do I just need to call a bunch in the area and ask questions? Is there a particular license or expertise I should ask for or am I stuck just hoping "exotics" covers everything?

I see now reading here I should have gotten a vet lined up from the beginning. I was thinking as long as he looked fine I was okay, but I don't want to wait until he has a problem and find myself scrambling, especially if he winds up with a respiratory infection, which seems to be the most common problem.

I'm also pretty nervous about his first shed and hoping that goes well. Fortunately he is super calm and not nervous about much at all, though I've already discovered he's not real fond of being handled the day after a feed, and he's afraid of the sprinkler can :oops:

After poking around on http://arav.org/, the only vet they have listed for your state is way up north in Anniston, AL, but that doesn't mean you don't have options. If you don't mind a roughly 3 hour drive, you can contact College of Veterinary Medicine in Tuskegee

If memory serves me correctly isn't Mobile about an hour away from Florida? Have you searched for some vets in the Northern Florida area?

Not all herp vets are listed in ARAV.

OP look for an Alabama-based or even local reptile group on Facebook and ask for a recommendation for a vet who sees herps.

I'd just call around, most vets might have an idea who to refer you to if they can't help you.

Yes, I can be in North Florida in about an hour, and South Mississippi in about 30 minutes. I plan to search those areas as well since nobody here has one off the top of their heads. I appreciate the advice on looking for local reptile groups and will probably start there. It's not that I wouldn't drive 3 hours if he needed treatment so much as I'd rather have help closer if he's in trouble. I am fortunate to have gotten a young animal who is very vibrant, healthy, and calm, so my feeling is that if he got sick enough to go to a vet I wouldn't want to have to wait that long for him to be seen.

I'm hoping not to have to resort to the random list calling because I am pretty new and don't know what to ask. I'm concerned about being on the bad end of one of those stories where the vet is technically qualified for all exotics, but doesn't really deal with snakes much. I wasn't sure if they had a subdivision of veterinary medicine like when you have birds you ask for an avian specialist.

Keep in mind that the majority of herp vets don't have exclusively herp practices. Very few can make a living off of only doing exotics. Most of the time they are normal small animal vets that also have training and experience with reptiles, amphibians and birds. A lot of large veterinary practices will have one or two clinicians that have this experience. My advice is to call some major vet hospitals and ask if they can refer you.

Thanks, I may be down to calling around. I found one FB for Alabama Herpetological Society and nobody's answered thus far. After some extensive searching I found an email contact for someone in Mississippi but the email is dead.

I realize that there won't be someone who does only herps or even exotics, I just don't want to wind up with a vet who's like "yeah I touched a snake once." :D

Most modern vets have at least some training in exotics. Call a major vet hospital in your area and ask for a recommendation. You will find many more than you think.

Thank you again to everyone, and an update on this. After finding an Alabama Herp page and them pointing me to a Southwest Alabama Herp page which is exactly in my area, I have my vet lined up. There was one name that came up from both of them, and at my last visit to PetSmart to buy a mouse for breeding the girl who checked me out mentioned the SAME vet who cares for her bearded dragon. Even better, turns out she is the same one who cared for my avians when I had them, and she's great. Apparently she prefers to handle all exotics, so I feel a lot happier about this than some vet who is technically qualified but maybe not very experienced.

*edit* Oh, and I forgot to mention, she's also less than an hour away. Probably about 45 minutes. And she works every day there, not just a couple of designated days like some of the others.