Reptile & Amphibian Forums

for any of you who were curious, junior was spayed today by dr divers at the university of georgia.

the student caseworker called to tell me that she dealt with anesthetic beautifully, and is groggy but responsive with good heart and breathing rates. also she is on some morphine for pain, as well as an anti-inflammatory whose name i've forgotten.

unfortunately her ovarian follicules were far too enlarged to be removed endoscopically, so they went through her plastron.

i am supposed to get a call from the dr later saying when i can pick her up, and about aftercare etc. she'll have to get stitches removed from above her leg. i'm curious as to how exactly to care for her patched plastron, but the student wasn't exactly certain, so i'll wait to talk to the dr.

anyone else deal with plastron healing? i'm guessing that it'll probably take months to heal up completely...?

thanks to all who have asked about her.

one of the vets called me last night to "confess" that they had overdosed one of junior's medications (meloxicam, an anti-inflammatory drug). it was a "decimal error" and she wound up getting ten times what she should have. overdoses of this drug can cause irreversible kidney damage, so they are now going to keep her through the middle of next week to treat her for that... she has a tube for fluids now, and they are pushing fluids in an attempt to flush the drug out before it can do any damage. they will also do blood tests to check her kidney function.

i really can't begin to describe how angry i am over this... without even going into the financial aspects of all of this, i've taken her to the people who are supposed to be the experts, and junior makes it through what for a reptile is a very major surgery with significant risks, only to be overdosed because somebody didn't double-check their math, or was too busy flirting with a coworker, or thinking about their friend's baby shower, or mentally making their grocery list, or something. accidents happen, but when a life is at stake, is it too much to expect people to focus?

being angry really doesn't help junior, though.
time will tell.

Sorry to hear of the setback. Human error sucks in siutations like this. At least they were honest with you and hopefully will take full responsibility for the cost of the services they are now providing (and that she requires) because of this.

Remember that "may lead to" is not the same as "always casues". At this point in time I'd be frantic too, but time will tell how she will do. And you know that they are going to be extra careful with her now as she goes through recovery. Hope and prayers sent your way. Please keep us posted.

here's the latest on junior:

because she has some liver damage (this had been previously evident from blood tests, and was caused by her reproductive problems), she is taking longer to metabolize the medication than she normally would. on the bright side, though, medical studies done with green iguanas given daily doses of far much more of the drug than junior received suffered no long-term effects.

on the downside, however, she also has an infection that she now has to fight off (which may have been caused from the repeated injections of fluids into her body). they have lavaged (sort of rinsed out) her lower body cavity with an antibiotic fluid to get some of the bad stuff out, and today they were planning on looking into her with the tiny endoscopic camera again.

she is still staying at uga until she is 100% better. mom and i were able to go out and see her yesterday, and we thankfully got her to eat for the first time since she had surgery last thursday (they were starting to have to give her nutrients and fluids via a feeding tube). also, she is pooping and peeing like normal again, so this is a good sign. she was high as a kite on morphine, so i hope she remembers that we visited her... last night i was told that she finally drank a lot of water on her own, too. throughout all of this she has remained bright, alert, and quite active, at least.

it's been an up-and-down kind of ordeal, with bits of good and bad news sprinkled throughout. i feel guilty sometimes for having put her through this, but if she'd never had surgery, her liver would have probably been destroyed eventually, and her weakness of course would have continued.

i truly appreciate any positive thoughts that y'all can send her way.

I'm glad you were able to see her finally and that you got quite a bit of positive news. The eating and drinking being the best overall signs that she is getting better. For what it is worth, my own experiences with reptiles is that they take sooooo long to get well (compared to mammals) under optimal conditions, that anything additional to that makes it longer. They are remarkably hardy though.

I don't see anywhere in the post where you explain to the readers that the vet services at UGA are the result of a teaching college. I'm pretty sure that it must have been explained to you.

You can be angry but don't be surprised. Dr. Divers is one of the leading vets in the world... the students... they are just that... students.

I can say I know how you feel and I didn't hold the vet at fault.

If you can establish a pattern and there was gross negligence... the anger might be justified but mistakes do happen. That is part of the learning process.

There are vets who would do the procedure with less risk but you would have to pay for it. Scott Stahl in VA would have allowed you to ship the animal...

>>one of the vets called me last night to "confess" that they had overdosed one of junior's medications (meloxicam, an anti-inflammatory drug). it was a "decimal error" and she wound up getting ten times what she should have. overdoses of this drug can cause irreversible kidney damage, so they are now going to keep her through the middle of next week to treat her for that... she has a tube for fluids now, and they are pushing fluids in an attempt to flush the drug out before it can do any damage. they will also do blood tests to check her kidney function.
>>
>>i really can't begin to describe how angry i am over this... without even going into the financial aspects of all of this, i've taken her to the people who are supposed to be the experts, and junior makes it through what for a reptile is a very major surgery with significant risks, only to be overdosed because somebody didn't double-check their math, or was too busy flirting with a coworker, or thinking about their friend's baby shower, or mentally making their grocery list, or something. accidents happen, but when a life is at stake, is it too much to expect people to focus?
>>
>>being angry really doesn't help junior, though.
>>time will tell.
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Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

i'm not at all angry with dr divers; i understand that it was a student error. they are completely covering the costs of her continuing care as a result of the accident, so that's something.

accidents happen. i'm just upset that it happened to my tortoise.

as for shipping, i'd've been too fearful to do that...

>>I don't see anywhere in the post where you explain to the readers that the vet services at UGA are the result of a teaching college. I'm pretty sure that it must have been explained to you.
>>

"the student caseworker called to tell me that she dealt with anesthetic beautifully"

That's a pretty big clue to the readers right there, plus mentioning UGA a few times.

I hope everything goes well for Junior from this point on.

caseworker? How does that provide a hint... alright... I'll admit... it is a hint... if you are familiar with UGA.

I'll also bet big bucks that half the readers were going... wtf is UGA????

(and I get blamed for stirring crap)

The OP wasn't offended. Why make such a comment but to get a dig?

>>>>I don't see anywhere in the post where you explain to the readers that the vet services at UGA are the result of a teaching college. I'm pretty sure that it must have been explained to you.
>>>>
>>
>>"the student caseworker called to tell me that she dealt with anesthetic beautifully"
>>
>>That's a pretty big clue to the readers right there, plus mentioning UGA a few times.
>>
>>
>>I hope everything goes well for Junior from this point on.
-----
Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

>>caseworker? How does that provide a hint... alright... I'll admit... it is a hint... if you are familiar with UGA.
>>
>>I'll also bet big bucks that half the readers were going... wtf is UGA????

"junior was spayed today by dr divers at the university of georgia"

That would have helped them, if they read it.

P.S. No dig intended.