vet on hand for good honest advice.

[wayne020668]

turtle rescue is thinking of getting a vet to offer real advice to all keepers all across the u.k, we see to often here that a lot of keepers cant either find a good vet for these animals as most are the normal house hold pets such as cats and dogs etc, when they really need a reptile vet. a case came in recently where a turtle has got two abscesses on it head, the keeper done the right thing taking it the vet who said he could remove them for £100 but offered no information on weather he should do tests to see if it was cancerous or not or even if it would be cured or not, would they grow back? is the turtle in any pain ? the keeper is willing to pay the asking price but is this to much ? if the turtle has cancer would it be in the animals best interest to have it put to sleep to stop the suffering ? these questions and more could be offered to you straight from the vet...

now we want a lot of feed back please as to whether owners would pay around £5 payable to the vet direct for you to ask him/her all the questions that you should be asking your vet prior to you going to the vets or even offer you the keeper a cure that wont even need the vet to see you or your loved turtle, i can see this potentially saving owners pounds and pounds....

you thoughts please before turtle rescue offers yet another first..

thank you regards Wayne.

[turtlegirl]

In principle it sounds like a great idea Wayne. How would it work
1. Email consultation with photos
2. Phone call from Vet?
3. Can owners pay by Paypal?
4. What about presrcriptions (antibiotics need one in UK)?

As you say most vets will only treat fluffy pets. Turtles are considered "exotic" and few vets have enough in-depth knowledge to diagnose and treat them properly. In my case the only turtle vet is a good 1.5 hours by public transport and involves3 buses to get there. I dread having to take a sick turtle all the way there especially in winter. It may not survive the return bus journey.Having access to a good turtle vet by phone and email would be a great relief

[wayne020668]

well there is a long way to go from here but its hoped that by asking a check-able qualified vet that people can ask him/her all sorts of questions, with photo's etc, the trick is to ask all the questions you want to know about in one question and payment, yes you could e-mail him/her directly with photo's and he/her would give very good accurate insights on at the very least what you should be asking your vet and at best offer a treatment that would save pounds for all owners, as for a phone call from the vet then yes if a contact number was included then if it urgent enough then i would expect the vet to at least call for the cost, owners would pay via pay-pal direct to the vet and this would be between the owner and the vet and we do have to finalize all the In's and outs as for prescriptions then the vet would be able to advise on weather they need any ( from all the info given ) but at least every owner would know its honest advise and would be needed, and a vets consultation is needed in that case... to obtain these.. ;D

we need a lot of feed back from all turtle keepers across the country before we offer this service at no profit to turtle rescue, the hope is you the keepers can ask if there being told the truth and a true forecast of what to ask and treatment can be offered saving all turtles / terrapins grief and owners much urned money to get the right results.... without making appointment after appointment at the owners cost...

this is big fellow turtle owners and could save you and your turtle / terrapin both money and heartache so please offer any info or thoughts you may have...

regards Wayne..