Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm back, after an extended hiatus because of my two internships (completed with flying colours!) that marked the completion of my degree in vet technology. Woo hoo!

My clinic internship was at the Montreal Bird and Exotic Animal Hospital, and on my last day (last Friday) I adopted a sick water dragon because the owner did not want to pay for or do treatments and euthanasia was the other option.

Ivy (formerly "Iago," which isn't a very feminine name) was presented for not eating for a week, and she had laid eggs just the day before. When presented to the vet it was obvious why... She couldn't open her eyes!

We cleaned off her eyes which were full of soil caked in with secretions, her eyelids were distended and inflammed, an obvious conjunctivitis. An x-ray was taken to ensure that she had laid all of her eggs. Her bones are quite nice, too.

Here she is at home, you can see her eyes are still quite gunked up:

So the day after she came home I continued swabbing the dried gunk from her eyes, and to my surprise her swollen eyelids were mostly caused by woodchips caught under her eyelids:

Considering the woodchips in her carrying container were absolutely filthy, it's no wonder she had an infection. Here she is with the debris removed:

She just finished her seven days of parenteral chloramphenicol, and I will be tapering off her topical chloramphenicol and hydrocortisone drops. She's eating like a PIG, taking crickets, mealworms, silkworms, pinkies, nightcrawlers, red wigglers and guppies. Trying to get this skinny girl in good shape! Her fecal today was negative, which I find suspicious so I'm going to redo it later this week.

So that explains my extended absence Just starting my summer job which is going great... Also, check out my article on ectothermy in this year's Reptiles USA coming out in August!

Christina

Congratulations on completing your vet tech degree.

Nice looking CWD. Just wondering if you have tried any warm water showers (on the CWD) to help rinse out the foreign debris & some of the bacteria?

Looks like she's on the road to recovery. Good job!

Take care.
Lizardman

Once her eyes were open, I teased out the large chunks with a dampened cotton swab then flushed with warm saline.

Her eyelids no longer appear swollen so I'm starting to taper off the chloramphenicol/hydrocortisone drops.

She's bright-eyed and active

Christina

Good to hear.

PS--Thanks for adding the info to the other postings.L

Meanwhile I"m helping my own interns; it's that time of year, I shouldv'e known

Tell us about some of the exotic competencies you had to preform and what kind of patients are seen in Montreal (I have no idea what's legal in Quebec).

Unfortunately the internship at the exotics hospital was a waste of time. I was not informed ahead of time that they have a policy that their technician interns are not allowed to do anything to client animals, which is absolutely ridiculous since interns are supposed to be evaluated as technicians, not assistants (or maids). Because the head tech felt I was "ready," I was allowed to administer subcutaneous fluids to rabbits, guinea pigs and a hedgehog (that one was a bit of a challenge), and I did the anesthesia for 3 patients (because they "needed something to mark me on" according to the evaluation rubric) during my five weeks. I also did gavage intubations and lateral x-rays ad nauseum on some house budgies that were part of a study, because the technicians were tired of doing it every day...

My teachers found this as insulting as I did. Although I agree that certain extra precautions should be taken with interns and exotics, they cannot expect interns to pick up the cleaning tasks for their technicians.

There are two exotics-treating clinics on the island of Montreal, the other one being the Lachine Veterinary Hospital (with Dr. Jean Gauvin), where a friend of mine did his clinical internship. Since the clinic I was at particularly specializes in birds (Dr. Corina Lupu is a huge avian enthusiast), about 75% of the patients were avian, 15% small mammal (mostly rabbits) and the remaining 10% (if not less) were reptile (even fewer amphibians). The proportions are similar at Dr. Gauvin's, although that distribution of exotics is up against their easily 60% dog and cat patient body.

Pretty much, Montreal is very lacking in herp owners that pay any visits to vets. As far as what's legal, hot herps, crocodilians, all chelonians in Trionydae (as well as all sea turtles, of course), as well as some other native species (salamanders particularly) are the species banned province-wide. The only hedgehog species we are allowed is the African pygmy. For avians, I believe all native species are illegal as pets.

(Right now I'm holding a job in a very well run dog and cat clinic as well as some rodent caretaker work in a research facility. Not what I originally hoped for... But I still have a lot of time. I'm back to school in the fall to do my preuniversity courses.)

Christina

That's too bad; how are you supposed to make the switch from student to tech? I too worked in day time practice and a rodent research facility in my early days after school. After a bit of time off from being sick if it all, I really have rejuvinated my interest since working at the animal ER. If you ever give it a shot, you'll never wanna go back

As for reptiles... it's tough to specialize in something when patients are too few to base an entire practice on. I've been having fun teaching my ER on herps

Ian

I definetly agree about it being hard to specialize in herps. I'm going to be the vet's assistant for the exotics course (and potentially be a guest speaker for other courses' brief touches on herps), so that's something, at least.

Christina