Wrong Veterinary Care
The study of veterinary medicine requires high intelligence, perseverance, and passion. Not everyone can manage it. The study lasts many years and then continues with practical training and certification – during the practical phase of this profession. The issues surrounding exotic animals are taught as a separate subject only at certain universities, and specialization in reptiles is very rare, often only a subject of postgraduate specialization typically based on the individual initiative of the veterinarian.
Chameleons, in particular, are a very specific and sensitive group of reptiles, and only a handful of veterinarians around the world truly understand them in depth. This is why we struggle so much with the proper care of chameleons by veterinary doctors. The darkest side of this issue is that despite a lack of qualification and understanding of the anatomy and physiology of chameleons, some veterinarians dare to charge large sums of money for treatments that are professionally incorrect and result in mutilation, sterility, or even the death of the animal.
Veterinary medicine is a complex, interdiciplinary science, which to study takes many many long years and the profession requires a dedication to lifetime proffessional training and growth, driven by science and valid practice…Ethically, it is regullated by the Hippocrates Oath which promotes the best practice and lifetime learning and absconds from anything bad. If it comes to the studies, only a litle fragment is dedicated to the "exotic animals", which include reptiles, with few hours of learning, often treated extremely marginally.Chameleons with all their specifics, are out of scope in most if not all syllabuses.
The result of this whole situation is disastrous.
The VETs are usually incompetent to deal with chameleon related issues. They charge nonsensous sums for analyses and treatments which have NO sense or are absolutely erroneous.
Incompetent instruction to nonsensous soaking... Chameleon skin is not penetreable for water, soaking is meaningless...
Absolutely disastrous torture of chameleon / the VET does not even know the plug is to be removed in 180degrees other direction. Instead of helping, he hurts.
One of these tragic cases is the following incident. A breeder sought veterinary help for a strange object protruding from the cloacal opening. (Picture 1) The diagnosis was: dead and partially mummified hemipenis. The animal was mutilated by the amputation of the organ. As clearly shown in picture 2 (H - hemipenis, P - hemipenial plug), the hemipenis was perfectly fine; the diagnosis was wrong, and the mutilation of the animal was a serious professional error. A professional treatment would have taken exactly 10 seconds, during which the hemipenial plug would have been removed, and the hemipenis massaged back into the pocket.
The absolute professional ignorance was crowned by the fact that the veterinarian left the second hemipenis without inspection, and an equally large plug (already at least one year old) was left inside the hemipenis for over another year until it prolapsed, and the plug was removed by the breeder herself (using videos on YouTube that I recently published as a reference). (Picture 3) This case occurred in the Czech Republic in the city of České Budějovice, and a similar case was reported from Jihlava. A dozen similar cases that I know of have come from the USA over the last few years.
What to do about it?
1. Use nighttime misting; it is well known to provide natural hydration, and the correlation between the absence of hemipenial plug problems and nighttime misting is evident.
2. Inspect the cloaca and hemipenes of your chameleons at least every 6 months, preferably after each molt.
3. Watch for remnants of hemipenial plugs on branches and in feces in the terrarium.
4. Remove hemipenial plugs if necessary.
5. If professional intervention in this area is needed, first refer the VET to info on the following links and then only allow him to act...
Photo courtesy Jitka Pilarova
Few months ago, a well known clinic in the US was showing a surgery done on a hemipenis of a poor chameleon, where the educating ignorant VET clearly demonstrated he has no clue at all. Instead removing a hemipeneal plug in 3 seconds, he tyranized the poor chameleon for tenths of minutes leaving the bemipenis not even amputated but teared in pieces with half of the plug still inside, charging hundreds of dollars for the surgery and leaving the otherwise healthy chameleon to die after three days in pain. Nonresponse from that clinic was received when writing fir explanation.
Another case few weeks ago from Czechia, where a totally healthy large male panther chameleon was consulted for a two days hunger strike. The VET even did not know how to hold the chameleon and in the seek of bloodwork sample she totally destroyed the subcaudal veins and milked all the blood out of the poor chameleon, which died in few hours with vessels sithout blood - fir nothing.
And, I could continue with the horror stories of mutillated and killed chameleons, just for filthy greed of charging high bills for nothing…Terrible.What to do?
1. Find a specialist group where biologists or educated veterinary doctors are in the admin teams.
2. In case of any health issues, consult with competent admins first. Lots of disorders can be solved without a VET intervention. The boundary management if our groups will clearly separate a VET issue from an otherwise to be solved one.
3. For complex troubles to be solved, a competent VET service is to be found, admins can usually recommend, if there is an authority in the area in question.
In problems, do not panic. Seek help here.
Only then, go VET.