Urgh. CRAP.
Okay.
I am simultaneously pissed off and sad.
My iguana is developing lumps on her body that may be fatal if they aren't taken care of.
I like Lennin. I don't want her to die.
One of the lumps is fairly large and situated on her jaw.
The other one is quite small in comparison and made itself known a day after the first visit to the vet.
A new, different vet, which we are never going back to again.
Our normal vet, the Wildwood Veterinary Hospital, is very good with our iguanas. I highly recommend Dr. Welsh, if you happen to have a scaly of your own. She removed a large tumor in the dewlap of Stumpy, however, she's away continuing her education in West Virigina until August 18th, so we couldn't take Lennin to her, and the lump was just growing larger, so we decided it couldn't wait until then.
The receptionist at Wildwood referred us to a place in Santa Clara that does 'exotics'. So we went there. We met with the guy who apparently started the clinic, so it says on their website, and it was a bad experience. We went into the examination room, and it was clad with posters of mammals. There's nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but not even one photo of a non-mainstream pet.
So, to examine Lennin, the guy grabbed his neck very tightly, and started poking and prodding at the lump. Lennin's eyes were BULGING. I objected very loudly when I saw this, and said "you're hurting her!" because clearly, he was. She was wiggling all over the place when she is generally very still and tame, and when the eyes of anything that has eyes are BULGING and their eyelids are turning purple when they are normally pale grey, you know something is wrong.
He let go of my iguana, and got a tone in his voice I didn't like. He started lecturing me about how all iguanas bite (bullshit, lennin has never bitten me), and they have very dangerous bacteria in their mouths, salmonella and god knows what else (only mammals can spread the bubonic plauge), and that he knows another vet that was in the hosital and had to get an IV drip because an iguana bit his finger. (Maybe so, but my iguana DOESN'T BITE.) And how they are icky, nasty creatures and I should wash my hands and wear gloves whenever I handle them. (He wasn't wearing gloves.) During this admonishing lecture, I picked up Lennin and started cuddling her, and kissing her on her scaly mouth, which is something I very normally do. Every day, if I can. When I put her back down on the table, I held my precious fingers in front of her mouth for about a minute, right in front of the doctor. He was not left speechless, but this demonstration was enough for him to hold Lennin's neck and NOT choke her.
He then told us that the lizard had a hard lump in it's jaw. (No shit, Sherlock?) I'd figured this out before we went there. He suggested a blood test, an x-ray, and a biopsy to see what the hell the lump was. I agreed to the blood test and x-ray, but I didn't want a guy who couldn't hold my lizard properly to cut her open. So he took her in the back room, and I was freaking out because Dr. Welsh does blood tests in front of us. He was going to choke her again, I knew it, and there was nobody to tell him to stop. My sister who was there reassured me, that if Lennin was hurt at the vet we would raise hell.
The x-ray came back, and I didn't even see the lump on it, but he pointed to the jaw bone and how it was rougher than the one on the other side. He thinks the lump is an infection inside the bone and it's erroding it. Osteomyelitis, it's called. He suggested a biopsy again, but me and my sister made it very clear that we trust the vet that previously cut open one of our lizards before to do it again. I think he just wanted more of our business, which is a horrible thing to suspect, I know, but it really didn't seem like he had any personal concern at all for Lennin.
So we paid for the x-ray and blood test, (about $250) and drove over to Wildwood to make an appointment with Welsh for August 18th. In the meantime, it's just getting bigger. And there's one in his arm, too now. We both think it's a real emergency and can't wait three more weeks, but what can we do? That vet cannot be trusted with reptiles, and Welsh is not coming back before then.
My sister called around and found a place in Monterey that does only exotics (bunnies, guinea pigs, ferrets, reptiles, giraffes, all count as 'exotic') and we have an appointment for a consultation that may include an operation afterwards. Because they do only exotics, no cats or dogs, I already trust them more. But I'm scared.
I am simultaneously pissed off and sad.
My iguana is developing lumps on her body that may be fatal if they aren't taken care of.
I like Lennin. I don't want her to die.
One of the lumps is fairly large and situated on her jaw.
The other one is quite small in comparison and made itself known a day after the first visit to the vet.
A new, different vet, which we are never going back to again.
Our normal vet, the Wildwood Veterinary Hospital, is very good with our iguanas. I highly recommend Dr. Welsh, if you happen to have a scaly of your own. She removed a large tumor in the dewlap of Stumpy, however, she's away continuing her education in West Virigina until August 18th, so we couldn't take Lennin to her, and the lump was just growing larger, so we decided it couldn't wait until then.
The receptionist at Wildwood referred us to a place in Santa Clara that does 'exotics'. So we went there. We met with the guy who apparently started the clinic, so it says on their website, and it was a bad experience. We went into the examination room, and it was clad with posters of mammals. There's nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but not even one photo of a non-mainstream pet.
So, to examine Lennin, the guy grabbed his neck very tightly, and started poking and prodding at the lump. Lennin's eyes were BULGING. I objected very loudly when I saw this, and said "you're hurting her!" because clearly, he was. She was wiggling all over the place when she is generally very still and tame, and when the eyes of anything that has eyes are BULGING and their eyelids are turning purple when they are normally pale grey, you know something is wrong.
He let go of my iguana, and got a tone in his voice I didn't like. He started lecturing me about how all iguanas bite (bullshit, lennin has never bitten me), and they have very dangerous bacteria in their mouths, salmonella and god knows what else (only mammals can spread the bubonic plauge), and that he knows another vet that was in the hosital and had to get an IV drip because an iguana bit his finger. (Maybe so, but my iguana DOESN'T BITE.) And how they are icky, nasty creatures and I should wash my hands and wear gloves whenever I handle them. (He wasn't wearing gloves.) During this admonishing lecture, I picked up Lennin and started cuddling her, and kissing her on her scaly mouth, which is something I very normally do. Every day, if I can. When I put her back down on the table, I held my precious fingers in front of her mouth for about a minute, right in front of the doctor. He was not left speechless, but this demonstration was enough for him to hold Lennin's neck and NOT choke her.
He then told us that the lizard had a hard lump in it's jaw. (No shit, Sherlock?) I'd figured this out before we went there. He suggested a blood test, an x-ray, and a biopsy to see what the hell the lump was. I agreed to the blood test and x-ray, but I didn't want a guy who couldn't hold my lizard properly to cut her open. So he took her in the back room, and I was freaking out because Dr. Welsh does blood tests in front of us. He was going to choke her again, I knew it, and there was nobody to tell him to stop. My sister who was there reassured me, that if Lennin was hurt at the vet we would raise hell.
The x-ray came back, and I didn't even see the lump on it, but he pointed to the jaw bone and how it was rougher than the one on the other side. He thinks the lump is an infection inside the bone and it's erroding it. Osteomyelitis, it's called. He suggested a biopsy again, but me and my sister made it very clear that we trust the vet that previously cut open one of our lizards before to do it again. I think he just wanted more of our business, which is a horrible thing to suspect, I know, but it really didn't seem like he had any personal concern at all for Lennin.
So we paid for the x-ray and blood test, (about $250) and drove over to Wildwood to make an appointment with Welsh for August 18th. In the meantime, it's just getting bigger. And there's one in his arm, too now. We both think it's a real emergency and can't wait three more weeks, but what can we do? That vet cannot be trusted with reptiles, and Welsh is not coming back before then.
My sister called around and found a place in Monterey that does only exotics (bunnies, guinea pigs, ferrets, reptiles, giraffes, all count as 'exotic') and we have an appointment for a consultation that may include an operation afterwards. Because they do only exotics, no cats or dogs, I already trust them more. But I'm scared.