Bearded dragon look alike a????

Ok so there aren’t very many reptile vets close to were we live but I did take my beardie to my vet and she looks great from what she says and her tip fell off with no tail rot visible. But my bf had a question for the vet about his dragons size because he’s a year old and on the smaller side. Well the vet told him to take him to the reptile vet for a more in depth look at him because there is a bearded dragon look alike that doesn’t grow as big as bds. Is this true or is my vet just not very knowledgeable on the subject? Because if so I’m going to take her to the reptile vet in the city because I just can’t trust her judgment on the tail rot if she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

Theres nine different species in total, only two are available outside of Australia... At least for the US that is.
That being the central bearded dragon and the rakins dragon.
Your vet is not very knowledgeable most likely as rakin dragons are incredibly different.

Theres only one other species that can get up to the 24" mark and thats Pogona Barbata (Eastern bearded dragon) which looks quite different from centrals.

Two species being Pogona Henrylawsoni and Pogona Minor Minima get up to 12 inches. The Pogona Minor Minima is also known as the Western bearded dragon, and the Pogona Henrylawsoni is known as the rakins/lawsons bearded dragon.

Pogona Minor Mitchelli or Mitchells bearded dragon gets up to around 18 inches.
Pogona Minor Minor can get up to 14-18 inches.
And Pogona Nullarbor can get up to 14 inches.

The smallest species currently is Pogona Microlepidota, which only get up to about 4-6 inches.

Each species is very different looking compared to the centrals.

I do believe there are hybrids out there of certain species, however I doubt yours is. He's probably just a slow grower.

For inexperienced people Rankins look a lot like the more common central bearded dragons more commonly kept. To me they look a lot like baby or stunted central bearded dragons, but they do have identifying features (mostly head shape and spike locations). Rankins are available in the US but it’s unlikely you’d accidentally end up with one. If you post a photo we can help ID the species for you. Dietary and lighting deficiencies can cause stunted growth, so if you want to go over your setup we can help you make sure it’s where it should be.

Your vet seems to be pretty upfront about their knowledge here. They are aware of the other species, but not being a reptile specialist probaly don’t have experience differenting them. Tail rot is a layman’s term for an infection or necrosis of the tail - a regular vet would probably be able to diagnose this based on a physical exam since the damage/trauma in reptiles wouldn’t be terribly different than more common pets. They may however not be reliable to treat it and probably not reliable to diagnose and treat more reptile specific ailments. Feel free to post photos of the tail too and we can probably suggest if it looks like it needs a second opinion.