Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well i had posted about a vet that had treated my snake with amikacin last week.
Heres a short reintroduced version:

My male anery (age 18 months)
This snake was being brought up slow as i was in no great hurry for him to be a breeding monster.I still am not 100% sure of how the wound was inflicted. As i always have done i had opened my rat rack picked out the rats to be doomed and proceeded to start breaking necks by cervical seperation.I had put down around 5 for multiple feedings and had placed them on the table over the course of about 5-10 mins i came back to the rats all were still dead not even the slightest sign that one had moved .I proceededto open cages and toss in supper to my collection.I then walked into my other room sat down and watched the news , after about 10 minutes walked in and 2/3's of the rats were gone even this ones meal was in the hatch.Well approx2-3 days later i noticed a slight swollen spot behind the right jaw of my anery , i opened the cage got him out and noticed a small bump appro. the size of a green pea and then noticed a "punture wound approx' 1/2 " above this bump at first there was no real alarm on my end as all f the feeders were raised by me and were 100% healthy and kept in very clean racks . i proceeded to watch him closely over the next 5 days the weekeend came and i noticed more swelling so i decided it was time to goto a vet, well being i have just moved to this area and didnt know of any vets i called the yellow pages and got a few refferals tothe vet that looked at my snake. made an appointment and went the next day ( tuesday of last week) the vet seemed to think it was not a major problem and prescibed amikacin injections . she went and weighed my snake and came back with the injections and asked if i was familair with giving them and i responded with a definate yes i am .Now here is where things went from a "NORMAL VISITTO THE VET " TO A DEATH WARRANT FROM A VET " She proceeded to give the first injection there at the office directly to the snakes head at the immeadiate source of the swelling...In utter amazement i watched as she quickly gave 5 ml of amikacin into my snakes head ...I quickly spoke up as she was doing this and asked her WTH she was doing ? her response was that "she was the vet " and knew what she was doing . i proceeded to tell her i had NEVER seen a vet or had my previous one EVER give a shot ofthat volume to a snake of the size of mine 3/4's of a lb and was told it would be ok . i proceeded to take my snake and immeadiately leave after paying her fee . well while on the 38 mile ride back to my home i checked on him about the time i was getting off the highway to find him nearly motionless when picked up and his head had swollen to the size of a ping pong ball / small lemon i was totally in shock his gums were at this point severly swollen outwards and eyes sunken into his headi rushed home as fast as possible to call the vet to alert her of this which they had closed already. i left a message for her to call me the next day ASAP i needed to discuss the state of my $$$ snake. well time passed and no call i called the next day and was told she wasnt available and that they would take a message . 4 days went buy w/ no contact from the "butcher" aka Vet . i checked almost every 2-3 hrs on him and misted him so that he would have some source of water as his head was so swollen he couldnt lift it or possibly drink form his bowl w/o drowning in it i was afraid. well i had to go out of town over the weekend to see my son 3 hrs away. when i returned home on monday i ruashed in to check my snake to find him dead in his cage . i called the vet and then went buy her office were i demanded to be seen, i demanded that she show me the weight of my snake so that i could consult a more compentant vet as to her diagnosis and medication dosages. well she came back with a weigh of 3 1/2 lbs which i immeadiately knew she had made a mistake in weighing him as he was only 3/4 of a lb so which in turn meant by her prescribed dosage that she had infact been negligent in her medication dosage, i also had already talked with my old vet aboutthis and he assured me that she had overdosed my snake which would have contributed by the direct 5 ml to the head casuing a detremeantle side effect of severe swelling and utimately death. I took my snake to my old vet (225 mile trip one way) for him to do a necropsy to verify his assumption i will be getting results back soon and then i will be filing charges of malpractice against the vet that had butchered my poor snake with a overdose. so i just wantedto warn all of the others out there to please please please be sure that your vet is backed up by more then just other vets when reffered to them if they cant give you numbers of patients / other herpers to talk with you are definately playing russian roullette with your animals i found out the hard way
take care guys/gals

Alan
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Buisnesses come and go everyday, what keeps you here is how you treated the customer the day before....

Sorry to hear about your snake. Unfortunately, these circumstances do happen with vets who have inadequate training re: reptiles/amphibians. I'm not sure if there is malpractice against vets, but I believe that there have been some relevant cases filed in small claims courts. I have seen "pet insurance" advertised for mammals, but I'm not sure if they cover reptiles/amphibians.
Goodluck on receiving a positive outcome from this.

I am very sorry to hear about your snake. It makes it even harder on us when we are trying to do the right thing for them by taking them to the vet, and the vet turns out to be an imbicile.

I had a similar experience. I lost nearly a whole clutch of snakes. I called the vet. The only vet in town who sees herps. Told him I was worried about a baby python. He presribed amikacin injections every 3 days for the entire cluch. Soon the whole clutch was sick. He told me to up their dose. (Without reweighing them) When I questioned him on this he got angry with me, and gave me the "who's the one who went to school for 7 years?" routine.
After the first snake died I had a necropsy done. No use. He came back with a non-specific bacterial infection diagnosis. Prolonged and upped the dose for remaining babies. After the 2nd and 3rd babies died, I got a little upset with him. I got his confession that he'd been busy and hadn't actually performed the C&S test I'd insisted upon. Said he'd do it.

This vet charged me over $300 to tell me that one of my babies had salmonella, and all of my herps would need to be put down!

I lost one more baby. However, after kicking his butt to the curb, throwing out the amikacin, the remaining 2 babies are healthy as little horses. They just never grew.

I do my best to not need a vet, of course, but if I do-it is worth the 400 mile drive!!

Best of luck to you and the rest of your collection. May you not have need of vet sevices for some time! I sure wouldn't go back to that one!