top 'exotics' vet giving really embarrasingly bad advice.
 

at the group of vets where my girlfriend works, she spoke to the exotics vet and he mentioned that he recomends med tortoises to eat:

soaked brown bread 3 times a week,

peppers,

babyfood consisting of peas and meat,

mushrooms.

after my girlfriends hard work being the tortoise person, answering peoples emails and giving advice, it takes one idiotic vet to undo all her hard work. we're preparing to go into battle over this one.

........... . . .


:x

Sounds like the type of husbandry advice I found in book published in the 1970's. Vet's don't cover tortoises at college & some times they do come out with strange things. At the end of the day does it really matter? I take my tortoises to the vet to resolve an acute health problem. I don't go to get advice on long term husbandry. Put it this way I would'nt ask a divorce lawyer for advice on how to have a happy marriage.

Hi,

Thats Awful Advice.

I hope you win the battle, the person in question might be an exotic specialist but is far from a tortoise specialist giving harmful advice like that. :twisted: :twisted: :roll: :roll: :twisted:

Ade :wink:

well the bloke is in his late 60's the oldest vet they have, i just think that he's giving advice thats too old.

the reason the other half was told about his advice was because a tortoise was coming in for a problem at the vets. he rang from the main branch because another vet was taking the appt and he just wanted to give his input.

My other half got to the client before he could and told them straight, luckly these people have had their two tortoises for 15 years or so and were already about 15 years old when they took them on. they thought his advice was bad too.

we were mainly worried about a new keeper being told this advice or a child that knows no better.

still its pretty embarassing for the vets, and although my other half works for the group, i'll gladly tell you where it is if you pm me.

Neil.

have a good weekend everyone, i've got the week off so i'll not be on here for a few.,....

I have been known to say that a lot of exotic vets are great with insides, but hopeless with
the general husbandry of tortoises<g>. He is not the only one around believe me.
Just as well there are a lot of great tort vets too.

My own vet does not profess to be any expert on tortoises but i have known him for 20 years and I know if he does not know he will find out before making a comment or judgement. I took my tortoises to another vet who is an exotic vet he was good but I trust my own vet more so went to him with my tortoises afterward.I think it is just some vets are not open minded to anything new, so still stick by the old beliefs on keeping tortoises, and this definately does not just apply to tortoises as you can well imagine, as vetinary medicine has moved as fast as human medicine over the years. It is just human nature some people are open minded and open to new ideas and some are not, and there is always a grey area.

Anna x

Far better to use a vet you trust, and one thats not afraid to ask if they dont know. He/she
sounds like a really good vet.

He is the best, he operated on my 16.5 year old Jack Russell the day his wife was in labour (she had a beautiful baby girl via cesaerian in the end so was not straight forward as you can imagine),

I said to him Jay could wait as she had been in the vets for 3 days on a drip and his partner was more important, but he wanted to get her op done (I broke all her toes when I accidently shut her foot in the door) That is what I call dedication to the care of animals. Jay made it through the operation thank heavens, my vet had a lovely baby girl and all was fantastic with the world :D . Jay is a very tiny Jack russell she only weighs 4.2 kilos so as you can imagine her paws are tiny, the pins in her paws (all 4 of them)look smaller than a small darning needle so as you can imagine it was not a straight forward operation.

If you have a good vet keep using them :D wether they are an expert or not as long as they are willing to learn and not embarassed to ask :D I trusted my vet to micro chip 3 out of my 4 tunisians and the smallest was 115mm and he did it with no fuss and no problems.

Anna x

This advice is not exactly the worse but not very good nonetheless. I do not think he had any bad intentions, it's better if you explain to him the right thing kindly.

Re: top 'exotics' vet giving really embarrasingly bad advice
 

[quote="scrambled legs"]at the group of vets where my girlfriend works, she spoke to the exotics vet and he mentioned that he recomends med tortoises to eat:

:shock: I read the 1st line wrong! i thought he meant he eats them! DOH :oops:

At least your girlfriend can put him straight!

Zen