Water dragon / lizard help and vets advice UPDATE - shes been PTS :(

loulou123

My bfs waterdragon has damaged its face she did it a couple of days ago and on the advice of a reptile specialist he has been cleaning it with salt water.

Now today she seems as though it is bothering her more, so alarms bells are ringing r.e infection setting it. (up until today been eating well, jumping around and swimming etc as normal.) Whereas today she is more lethargic and not herself.

Before anyone says it i have rung the vets and this is where the problem starts.

As she is a reptile, normal vets are not happy about seeing her, his local vets (whom he takes the cat too) have said they will see her if we believe she is suffering, but has admitted that none of the vets there know the 1st thing about reptiles, so properly all they can offer is to put her to sleep

He then called the vets the lizards are registered with (a specialist) and he only works tuesdays and wednesdays, so no one there can help until next tuesday.

So i went through the phone book and called every local (within a reasonable driving distance, considering we need to keep her stress down) vet, only one of which had a vet prepared to look at exotics, only to be told that this vet is on holiday until the 19th July.

I don't know what/who else to try and im fully aware that if infection has set in then every day counts as to her likely chance of survival. But i really dont want to take her to the local vets and have her put to sleep if theres a good chance that with some simple treatment she could get better.

Anyone got any ideas or know of any retile/exotic vets in the west sussex area???

DansMum_2

Used to have a waterdragon, years ago now but was lucky enough to have my local vets as specialists. There is a specialist in East Sussex New Priory Vet Practice in North Brighton (excuse me but from Suffolk so a little way away!) 01273 540430.... I hope this helps poor little thing. They are so pretty too.... Good luck xxw Priory Vet Practice, The Deneway, London Road, North Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 8QR

loulou123

Thank you Dansmum will keep that in mind, but bf is actually on the West Sussex/Hampshire border so that could potientially be a 3 hour + round trip, and the stress this will cause her is abit of a concern. But thank you for the suggestion which i will certainly bear in mind.

MaximumImpact

Hi Lou

Have you tried these ones??


Alphavet Veterinary Centre
W.Sussex
Tel: 01243 842832

Or


Mr R W Reynolds BVSc CertZooMed MRCVS
Seers Croft Veterinary Surgery
Tower Road
Horsham
West Sussex
RH12 4SD
Telephone: 01293 851122
[EMAIL="vets@seerscroft.co.uk"]vets@seerscroft.co.uk[/EMAIL]


Or

Alan K.Jones BVetMed.MRCVS
The Cottage,
Turners Hill Rd, Worth, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 4LY
01293-884629

I asked a mate who's into reptiiles and he emailed me these......

Hope it helps???

tankgirl1

To be honest I think you are better off finding an exotics vet, as you know, and going to them - even if it means a long trip!
I work in a mixed practice, and all of our vets will admit they know nothing about lizards. They will treat them after reading up on them, if there is no other option, but these lil critters are so different to the usual mammalian species they see day to day, that I think both vet, owner and animal would all fare better if the animal was taken to a specialist from the off!
I don't know the area you are in - sorry
here is a list of the RCVS certificate holders - scroll down to find the exotics ones, and then google their name;
http://www.rcvs.org.uk/Shared_ASP_Files/UploadedFiles/rcvs/100A006E-CACF-438F-A4F9-599D54CFB3F1_cert_list_2009.pdf
And the RCVS recognised specialists;
http://www.rcvs.org.uk/Shared_ASP_Files/UploadedFiles/rcvs/03CD385B-B32D-44D3-A7C7-BD5ED2B1BA5B_spec_list_040310.pdf

Bear in mind though, that just because a vet isn't on those lists, it doesn't mean that they are no good with lizards - just that they haven't gained a recognised RCVS post grad qualification in exotics

Good luck!

tankgirl1

Sorry - they may come under either exotics or zoological vets
anyway good luck again!

loulou123

Thank you everyone. We took her to the local vets who agreed to see her and got a reptile specialist he knew socially on the telephone (was actually really impressed by this as he called the other guy at home!) to help diagnose.

Anyway unfortanetly she had a huge absess in her mouth and jaw and it had damaged both upper and lower jaws, so we had no choice but to have her put to sleep (both vets agreed this was the only action to take.)

RIP Wally

EmptyPockets

So sorry for you

Rest in Peace, Wally :A and big hugs to you both x♥x

Ladyhawk

So sorry about your loss... I had to put my darling kitty to sleep yesterday so feel your pain.