The Importance of Selecting an Experience Reptile Vet

Another thing to think about Craig, is that you are farrrrrrr kinder than I. Had that guy called me SEVEN years after purchasing and copped an attitude I would not be fronting for any tests anyplace. In fact, my "Piss Off" after his rant would hopefully be enough to convey that succinctly.

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Originally Posted by wilomn

Another thing to think about Craig, is that you are farrrrrrr kinder than I. Had that guy called me SEVEN years after purchasing and copped an attitude I would not be fronting for any tests anyplace. In fact, my "Piss Off" after his rant would hopefully be enough to convey that succinctly.

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Wes, that was my initial reaction - 7 years? Go find a pile a sand, a hammer and, well, you know the rest.

When he first contacted me I was busy with work so I told him to send me the vet info, the feed/crap logs and I'd call him back later. That gave me an opportunity to think and weigh which way I wanted to go. Thank God the animal had just died and he refrigerated it.

When I saw the history of regurges and discussed the timeline with him, I had already pretty much come to a conclusion on what happened. At that point, without the backing of a professional opinion I figured this could devolve fairly quickly to an argument between me and his vet. I'll admit it, I approached this as if we were going to end up on the BOI.

This is a dude who bought a trio of anthills, a trio of childreni, two female womas and a pair of blackheads over the last 8 years.......and he bought those womas back when I was getting $1200 for a female. I figured in that time, he'd spent some good coin on me.

So in the end I bit my tongue and decided to have my vet debunk his vet. In the end, our good doctor thoroughly exposed his sawbones for the part time reptile hack that he was. Have I got an apology for the accusation and the threat to take me to the BOI? No. At this point I don't care.............

The histology and the necropsy set me back about $575.00. It's a steep tab but in order to get clear on the IBD they look at several things. They also looked for damage to the lung in an attempt to rule out the possibility of OPMV. I hyperventilated when I was told that if they did find inclusions, they would then have to differentiate if they were IBD inclusions or inclusions from another virus. Yep, check every option on that form Doc, I've got American Express.

I've got an e-mail with a promise to drop off a check on the porch this weekend. That check clears and I figure we're square.

He posts here and he posts on Fauna. While I'm still debating whether or not to out that "vet" of his, I'll leave him anonymous.

Thought. Ponderation. The ending, or unbeginning, of many an argument that never happened.

I've used them myself on rare occasions. Useful they can be.

Sometimes I just miss The Wild West of Faunathatwas.

You handled this quite well, which not a surprise at all.

I have different Question at this point... If I good remember that was You Skiploder writing here about snakes living with IBD dont showing typical "hard core' symptoms..

Is even possible theoretically speaking That IBD will "hide" for SEVEN YEARS :O and just pop up like that ??

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Originally Posted by Aes_Sidhe

I have different Question at this point... If I good remember that was You Skiploder writing here about snakes living with IBD dont showing typical "hard core' symptoms..

Is even possible theoretically speaking That IBD will "hide" for SEVEN YEARS :O and just pop up like that ??

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Rafal:

My understanding is that there is no time limit that has been defined in which animals may remain asymptomatic. The time limit may be indefinite.

So yes, I suppose it's entirely possible. However this animal was thoroughly necropsied and was IBD free.

Skip
Thanks for the great post! Fronting 575.00 is really priceless to find out an amazing piece of information such as this one. I too will be copy and paste and forward this to my vet. Im hoping this Info is already on his radar screen but ya never know.
Thanks!


Check out what's new on my website... www.Homegrownscales.com

Totally sticky please itll be good if everyone here learnt from this and quit jumping to so many unsubstantiated conclusions trying to find someone to blame.

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.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

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

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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???

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

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

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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. :colbert:

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