General Care Discussion :: Question exotic vets

[putt510]

I know that vets went through many years of school to become a vet; and those wanting to work with exotic animals prob. need more years of school. I'm not saying that every exotic vet is wrong, but after reading this, you should see what I mean.
About 6 years ago, my little sister had two eastern painters and a res turtle that I gave her. I caught them out of our local lake. One day the two painters are missing one of their front legs. HUGE MESS! We took them to a herep vet. nearby to us, and he sewed their missing limbs up. He told us to keep the turtles out of water for around a month. I told him that these are aquatic turtles, and their only eat in the water. I don't think I could have insulted him more! He said to keep a shallow dish with them. I knew that wasn't going to work, but this bonehead wasn't going to listen to me, so against my better judgement, I took them home and put them in a waterless tank, with a shallow dish of water. Tried to feed them, but about a week later, they unfortunitly passed away. Went and told the vet, and he started talking to me like I was retarted. I don't go to that vet anymore. I'm not saying that all herp vets are wrong, but if the vet is talking you to do something that is the opposite of what the facts about that animal say, You should question the vet's judgement; It could possibly save your animal.

[megcornell]

I don't mean to disagree with you, but I think the vet was correct. Re-attaching a limb is a VERY serious operation and I'd imagine the chances of infection are extremely high. After something that traumatic it's very hard for turtles or any animal to recover. The post-op care of most animals just isn't close to being equal to humans, so keeping the turtles dry was the safest way to ensure they wouldn't get infected.

However, your story does raise two great points-
One being that it is very dangerous to keep other turtles with RES, RES are simply too aggressive.
And the second being that it is a good idea to make sure you understand what your vet is doing and why they're doing it. There's no harm in getting second opinion when it's your animal's life on the line.

I'm sorry things turned out so badly with your painteds.

[whereswares]

i've been working alongside vet's for 12 years now and granted i don't work for a vet that does exotics on a regular basis, nor do i claim to know the first thing about stitches on a turtle. one thing i do know is that stitches and water should never mix. period. i rehabbed a western pond turtle and we fiber glassed his shell and he was out of the water for a good month, all he had was a dish for water and he's doing great now. i can't imagine turtle water is good for a freshly sewn limb nor do i think all vet's are created equal. bummer about your turts.

[TheComputerGremlin]

I hate to agree, but yeah, the vet was correct about keeping them out of the water. However, a shallow dish with the pellets floating in it should be plenty for them to eat. A turtle doesn't need to be IN the water to eat, they need the water to mix with their food in their mouth to provide the saliva that they don't have so the food goes down their throat. And I'm going to say I doubt it was your vet's fault that the turtles passed away. Reattaching limbs can cause so many other problems, post-op infections and whatnot. It was probably slim that they would have survived in the first place.

This definitely raises the point of choosing a vet wisely though. But that's like choosing any business, you want to look for the best one to suit your needs and if they don't, you should find another one. Also, please don't take turtles out of the local ponds. Turtles caught like that frequently carry diseases that can be passed on to healthy turtles and animals, and turtles hide their illnesses so well that you may have already gotten sick turtles from the pond, which would have made post-op recovery nearly impossible.