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My Vet just googled it

"My Vet just googled it" is one of those phrases I cringe when I hear people say. Reptile vets face a tough audience. If you have chosen a good vet, then he or she will have an excellent set of colleagues, techniques, medical knowledge, and labs in which to draw upon in order to properly diagnose and prescribe treatment from. In my experience, they use all of these tools when they are needed. When we have been unable to find a solution, a necropsy has been performed. Likely your vet will have the animal sent off to a pathologist for details. Even in the event that a vet has been unable to diagnose and/or cure the reptile patient, they will still be instrumental in working with the pathologist and ultimately getting further information for the animal caretaker and increase the working knowledge of reptile husbandry as a whole. Furthermore, let's say you are a mechanic with 25 years of experience. It is very likely that you can google some resources and determine how to fix your own care.  That isn't because anyone can just hop on google and quickly fix their own car, but it is because you have the knowledge and background to weed out the noise and hone in on the signal, and once the signal is detected, the experience to apply it soundly.

Of course, you should also consult with keepers and breeders who have dozens of years of experience with a particular species, as they may have specific knowledge of which diseases or treatments are most common with a given species. However, if you want to provide your reptiles with the best care and increase your own knowledge beyond what is already widely recognized, then you're going to need to partner with a qualified and interested reptile vet and approach that person with mutual respect.




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