Things to ask during vet visit
I set up a vet appointment for tomorrow (suspect My ball has an RI) and am curious if there are any questions I should ask incase they're important and don't get brought up. The vet I'm going to I found online when searching for reptile vets in my area. I also asked on the phone if they cared for reptiles and they said two vets there do. Seeing as I have never gone to a vet appointment or met this vet I'm unsure of what types of questions I should be asking. I know I should have found a vet before having an issue but I made the mistake of not and now I'm trying to make up for it in anyway I can. I want to make sure my pet has the best care so I want to be as best prepared as I can be on my end.
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Re: Things to ask during vet visit
ceftazidime was prescribed with shot every 72 hrs. Now I'm not going to be home on a day the shot falls on (14th) and was told I could give it to him on the 13th. Does this sound correct? It threw me off because the woman said "because it's only an antibiotic"
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Re: Things to ask during vet visit
Ooo the shots are fun. I'm giving mine the same antibiotic and have been for a bit. Honestly, if it makes you feel uncomfortable find another vet or call an emergency exotic pet vet.
The vet that I go to (an hour and a half drive) has two doctors who deal with reptiles. One who actually got her doctorate in reptile studies and the other one is almost that experienced. I called the emergency vet to double check how to give the shots right before I did. They can answer any general question.
Re: Things to ask during vet visit
Oh the shots are fun (not really). It's not too bad though. I'm giving mine the same antibiotic and have been for a bit. Honestly, if it makes you feel uncomfortable find another vet or call an emergency exotic pet vet.
The vet that I go to (an hour and a half drive) has two doctors who deal with reptiles. One who actually got her doctorate in reptile studies and the other one is almost that experienced. I called the emergency vet to double check how to give the shots right before I did. They can answer any general question.
Re: Things to ask during vet visit
Sorry about the double post, my talk to text type isn't working properly.
Re: Things to ask during vet visit
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Viol8r
yes, antibiotics can be doubled. They're most often doubled on the first dose though. Just make sure you use all of it, and as close to how it says as possible. :)
Whew! Thanks for the info, that's good to know and get another opinion. I'm going to try to get as close to the 72 hours i can get, I just didn't want to hurt him because I'll be early on one day by about 12hrs. The vet showed me how to do everything so I'm going to try my hardest to do exactly how he did and I'll definitely be using every shot and keeping a log of times/progress. My main concern is I do not want to hurt my pet and shots are intimidating.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DanAnna
Ooo the shots are fun. I'm giving mine the same antibiotic and have been for a bit. Honestly, if it makes you feel uncomfortable find another vet or call an emergency exotic pet vet.
The vet that I go to (an hour and a half drive) has two doctors who deal with reptiles. One who actually got her doctorate in reptile studies and the other one is almost that experienced. I called the emergency vet to double check how to give the shots right before I did. They can answer any general question.
All day I've been trying to figure out if i called a vet that specializes in reptiles if they would give me a second opinion. Now that I know that I will be doing that. I trusted the vet I had but another opinion from someone who is a vet who cares of ball pythons would ease my mind better.
I haven't given a shot yet but I bet they're going to be harder than the vet made them look today! Thanks for the help!
Re: Things to ask during vet visit
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Viol8r
What are your ambient temps? My vet recommended bumping ours up a couple degrees when one of ours went exploring on his own, knocked a water bottle over(amongst a bunch of other things), and spent the night in a cold damp closet.
I raised them temp to ambient on cold being 85-86 and on the warm side around 88-89. Uth is at 95. All surface temps are taken below two layers of paper towel. Humidity is at around 40-45.
When I went to the vet I had already been raising them to cold 84-84 and hot side 86-92. Was told to bump it off and from surfing the net read to keep while enclosure around 90. He's now laying outside his hides in the middle by his dish since the cold side climbed to surface 88 degrees.
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Re: Things to ask during vet visit
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Sauzo
That's is too hot. When my bearded dragon had RI(yes I know its not a snake but its a reptile) I raised her temps by a few degrees to basically the max acceptable temp for that species. So I would probably lower the temps a few degrees and keep the cool side around 83f, hot side 88f and UTH 92f. You want it warmer so that one their metabolism doesn't slow down as you got antibiotics going through their system and two the higher temps will also kick in their own immune system. Think of it like when you have a cold and you get a fever, that's your body fighting the cold.
Fortaz is fine. I used Baytril for my beardie as I didn't want to do the whole injection thing and its much easier giving oral medication to a beardie than a snake. Be aware though that RIs can be a bear to kick and might require lots of time. I'm assuming the vet took a mouth culture to determine exactly what bacteria it is and to make sure it is a bacteria?
Also I'm guessing the vet at the least used a listening device to check the snakes lungs to make sure it wasn't pneumonia? And like I said up top, he/she also took a mouth culture to have that checked at the very least? Those are two things I would definitely make sure were done. I also had a full blood panel done on my beardie but that was because she had never been to the vet so I wanted her overall condition assessed too but those are kind of expensive.
I also thought those temps sounded too hot so as soon as I saw him lounging outside his hide I watched for a bit and then adjusted temps. My surface is still at 84 and air is 81 on my cold side. I lowered my UTH temp as well so it will be around 92 with the occasional high being 94.
There was no culture that was done. I had prepared to asked and with that being my first vet visit ever I just spaced a lot of my questions. He never mentioned one either. He did listen to his lungs though and also felt all parts of his body as if massaging him a little, checking for lumps/numbs. He also checked his mouth. I'm praying this medication works.
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Re: Things to ask during vet visit
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Sauzo
Well without a mouth culture, you are playing darts. An RI can be bacterial, viral or fungal. If its the latter 2 then fortaz wont work. Just keep an eye on your snake. You should see improvements within a few days if it is working. Fortaz and Baytril are wide spectrum bacterial antibiotics so chances are if it's bacterial, it will work. I'm surprised the vet didn't want to do a mouth culture to find out exactly what "bug" was causing the RI. It's good though that he listened to lungs to make sure it wasn't pneumonia though.
What do you mean surface is 84f and air is 81f on the cool side? Are you using something to heat the substrate on the cool side? I would personally shoot for 84f ambient temp on the cool side. I mean I'm sure 81f will be fine but I would try and bump it up a few degrees.
So I'm pretty sure my acurite thermometer is broken which would give the messed up temps. What first tipped me off was the different temps for surface and air. I have nothing on my cold surface, I just measure the temps. I then messed with all my other thermometers I have and placed them in that cold spot and voila, it read far higher than it said on the one I was using. Like 90some degrees. [emoji27][emoji32]
Now I'm even more panicked and freaking out. When I got home from the vet I had upped my temp by switching it a bulb for a higher one, point being that he only was in those danger zone temps for a while but still then I question if his cold side temps were wrong this whole time.
I just ordered these acurite thermometers and haven't even been using them for more than a month and a half.
Also this morning I woke up to the floor of the tank filled with water because he tipped over the dish I put it there last night for humidity before I could get more moss. I'm guessing this could have kept him cooled down during my yet another major mistake.
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