Results and findings from today's vet trip.

[Mindibun]

Today was Raven's vet appointment. He's a boy! (I thought he was, but I had no real basis for knowing. I just guessed.) I saw Dr. Porcher at Shores Animal Clinic in south Florida. He was MUCH better and more knowledgeable than Dr. Kelleher at Broward Avian and Exotics. Do not go to that woman for your snakes. I can't stress that enough.

Anyway, he explained that it seems Dr. Kelleher made two mistakes. One, she diagnosed him with the wrong parasites. Two, she treated him with medication that wasn't even designed to treat the parasites that she wrongly diagnosed him with. What a tard.

So Dr. Porcher took a small fecal sample (and he did it the easy way instead of squeezing the snake until he pooped like Dr. K did) and put a smear under the microscope. (He even let me go back and look at it. I'd never used a microscope before. Way cool! ) It seems that there are still some ... forgot the term now... we'll just say "bacteria" for lack of a better word. It seems there are still some "bacteria" living in him, so he was treated with Flagyl which should kill off anything that's remaining within 3 weeks. Dr. P said that as long as I don't see any runny poops within that time frame, it's safe to assume that the snake is parasite-free.

He also gained weight, and that's going 7 days on empty! He was 267g, and today he was 338g! I was pleasantly surprised by that news. Dr. P said I've got him on a good feeding schedule, and he should start to gain weight fairly rapidly within the coming months (provided he doesn't go off feed for the winter).

I spent less, and learned more in this ONE visit to Dr. Porcher than I did in my FOUR visits to Dr. Kelleher. And he talked to me like I knew what he was saying. He didn't talk down to me, or interrupt me or ask me irrelevant questions.

Anyway, long story short, Raven seems to be doing much better and hopefully will continue to do so.

[Rapture]

Glad you found a vet you get along with who knows their stuff!

[Muze]

That's great news that you finally found out what was wrong, and it's being treated correctly.

The new vet will be receiving a visit from me whenever any of my herps need a consultation.

Thank you so much for posting!

[Mindibun]

You're welcome. It was really funny because apparently that's the vet my step mom has been using for quite a while now, (I had no idea he did reptiles also) and she happened to make an appointment for the same day, just after mine. So I bumped into her as I was leaving and she was coming in. It was really weird.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Definitely sounds like a good guy! Protozoa, by the way, that's what flagyl would be used for.