Recommended regular check-ups?

[ChileanTaco]

Are there any vet check-ups that are recommended for an adult, male dragon that appears to be healthy?
No concerns (dragon appears to be healthy, and on top of that is brumating currently), but I was just wondering while I checked online (without actually contacting them) which vets here take reptiles at all. (There are at least two, surprisingly, but not specialized reptile/ exotic pets.)
If there is anything that should be done e.g. yearly, I would check that out after my dragon is back from brumation.

 

[hdochow]

we take our boys in once a year for general exams and parasite checks, even if we do not suspect parasites. taela (the parakeet) also gets his nails trimmed. sir henry will let us trim nails, taela won't and that damned little beak HURTS when he bites if you try! outside that, we don't take them in unless it is an emergency, and luckily have never had to do so. it is an almost 2 hour drive to the vet, one way.

 

[ChileanTaco]

Thanks!
Years ago I also had a parakeet, a cockatiel. Trimming nails, them biting... yes. (We then did nail trimming with two people, one distracting and putting a stuffed animal between head and feet. But it makes sense to have this done by a person who is not his human, to not infer with trust.)

Here in Chile reptiles aren't that common, and I don't know about the quality of the vets (website says only they take reptiles, example photos show an x-ray done on a leopard gecko). No specialist, however - and my Spanish is still limited, e.g. I could not call them.

Good that your dragon is fine so far! Mine is also, and for any emergencies which I hope never happen but nobody knows... I've looked into vets that at least take reptiles and could check for parasites or do an x-ray.

A real reptile vet is an approx. 24 hours drive (bus ride) away, also one-way, 1500 km. (Which whenever necessary I would do, despite for that I would have to take 3 days off and it would also not be fun for my dragon. But if necessary I would do so.)

 

[Chris.]

In most cases a vet will let you send in a fecal to be tested for parasites which I would preferably do before putting them into brumation.

Personally I also want to bring them in for a checkup once a year and get a small blood test done. A few weeks after they wake from brumation and have been eating again for a week or two is a good time.

 

[ChileanTaco]

Regarding "putting" them into brumation: My dragon went. So it was just that he stayed in his cave more and more until I realized: okay, is brumating. Next time I likely will see the signs earlier.
(Parasites: I don't suspect such, but one never knows. Not suspect such as of: never diarrhea, feces smells very inconspicuous, even really little for something that is feces.)

The "small blood test": What should be on that test? I'm asking especially as I'm not sure if the vet is familiar with that.

 

[hdochow]

we'll have to try the stuffed animal trick. koori, our previous parakeet, would let us do nails. we got her when she was about a month old though, so she was used to being handled. we rescued taela at about 2.5 years. he still to this day is not fully hand trained, and i truly believe age is the difference. he couldn't even fly when we got him, so for him to be where he is at right now is a miracle in itself. but we try every day, and know we will get there eventually. tori, my kiddo, was able to give him a small head scratch the other day for molting feathers. koori would have been crazy grumpy if she had not had the same head scratches. we just go at their own pace.

 

[ChileanTaco]

we'll have to try the stuffed animal trick. koori, our previous parakeet, would let us do nails. we got her when she was about a month old though, so she was used to being handled

Mine was absolutely used to be handled (was raised by hand by us), but nail clipping... no.
The stuffed animal was used so he could not see what was going on exactly, and that he would bite into something soft. Also a very small pillow, or sock stuffed with another sock would be something I could think of.
(Btw.: Thanks for rescuing a bird )

For my bearded dragon, I never had to do nail clipping, but I guess he would be fine with that. I can touch him everywhere, I can lift his feet, I can put an harness on...

 

[Chris.]

That is what my vet tested for and he talked me through it afterwards. Surprisingly my boy had quite high uric acid (Harnsäure) levels last time and I had to put him on a diet.

They always have parasites, the question is just how many. The fecal should be very cheap and it's always better to be safe than sorry. You don't want him brumating with very high levels of parasites obviously.

 

[ChileanTaco]

Thank you! Do you have it written out completely for the first three abbreviations? (I can run the other things through a translation software to translate it into Spanish, but the first three ones not, and I guess written out it will help.) Are there maybe reference values? (Not sure if the vet knows what are good values. Even if they do reptiles, I'm not knowing whether they know about bearded dragons as they are really unusual here. And I'm not sure if their "we do reptiles" is rather "we don't know but do it nevertheless" which I've seen here often regarding other (not vet-related) things.)

They always have parasites, the question is just how many. The fecal should be very cheap and it's always better to be safe than sorry. You don't want him brumating with very high levels of parasites obviously.

Absolutely. I'm not concerned regarding costs, and the "better safe than sorry" approach is very much mine. (That's why I already looked up vets, despite he appears to be healthy, and asked here.) And I also know why brumation with high parasite levels isn't good. (I just don't wanted to "rip him out" of his cave as nothing seemed off. If I had known before, however, that he goes into brumation, I had vent with him to the vet as I've read here that it should be done. He was just faster.)

 

[Chris.]

Thank you! Do you have it written out completely for the first three abbreviations? (I can run the other things through a translation software to translate it into Spanish, but the first three ones not, and I guess written out it will help.) Are there maybe reference values? (Not sure if the vet knows what are good values. Even if they do reptiles, I'm not knowing whether they know about bearded dragons as they are really unusual here. And I'm not sure if their "we do reptiles" is rather "we don't know but do it nevertheless" which I've seen here often regarding other (not vet-related) things.)


Absolutely. I'm not concerned regarding costs, and the "better safe than sorry" approach is very much mine. (That's why I already looked up vets, despite he appears to be healthy, and asked here.) And I also know why brumation with high parasite levels isn't good. (I just don't wanted to "rip him out" of his cave as nothing seemed off. If I had known before, however, that he goes into brumation, I had vent with him to the vet as I've read here that it should be done. He was just faster.)

Unfortunately I do not have the first ones written out and I'm not sure anymore what that was

You don't need to take him out for a parasite test, you need a fecal and if he's already brumating he won't poop anyway.

 

[ChileanTaco]

Unfortunately I do not have the first ones written out and I'm not sure anymore what that was

You don't need to take him out for a parasite test, you need a fecal and if he's already brumating he won't poop anyway.

I know how a parasite test/fecal works from other pets (birds)
Exactly, he won't poop now, and I don't wanted to get him out to try to "activate" him, "prevent from brumating" (he went to brumate without me intentionally doing something) or some stuff.
For the blood test, however, I would have to bring him in obviously.
As it didn't seem urgent, I wanted to use the time my Taco is away for brumation for planning a few things to do when he's back.

Thanks for the answers, as things are a bit difficult here especially as I can then use this information to ask at the vet before. (I can't call because my Spanish is still not good enough and especially the noise distraction on the phone is too much for me; e-mail isn't widely used here surprisingly; so I would have to go there to ask (verbally with my limited Spanish and showing translations on an app) and make an appointment. That's why I want to be prepared If it would be in a country where I speak the language well and where I would know that a fecal and a blood test on a bearded dragon is a regular thing for them it would easier.)

Does somebody have reference values of how "good" test values look like, what are the ranges?
I'm also asking this as likely I won't understand much of wen they talk with me about the results afterwards. Even with translation apps, for understandable reasons people then always keep their answers very brief. It would help me if I would have an idea about this matter. (Same is what I'm also doing when I go to the doctor here.)

 

[ChileanTaco]

@Drache613
Do you have maybe any reference values for the fecal and blood test?
I'm here in a country where I don't speak the language well (and most people, also vets, don't know English), so any explanation of results by the vet will be hard to impossible for me to follow. It thus would help me very much to have an idea which values of what are too high or low.
Thanks in advantage!