Danielle M
5/5
50000% go to this vet.
On the 14th of June I found a monstrously huge Giant Marine Toad in a local pet store I used to frequent for supplies for my Pixie Frog. I wasn't necessarily in the market for a new pet, but also, I have a huge weakness for gigantic amphibians and just had to have him.
I should have researched the pet store more, because it turns out, they're notorious for selling sick, dying, and injured animals.
I quickly discovered that my poor toad, who I named Ōgama (after the Yokai of Japanese folklore that is basically just a gigantic toad, lol), had a horrific infection just behind his eyeball. It was TWO CENTIMETERS into his head, he was very very pale, and he was also extremely malnourished. Once he stopped puffing himself up into an anger orb, Dr. Romo could see just how skinny my poor boy really was, and gave me a regimen of high-fat feedings to help him gain some weight back.
I was initially referred to this vet by the exotic vet closer to my home. This all happened during that cyber outage, and their vet was trapped out of state, unable to catch a flight or rent a car. This hospital is about 35 minutes away from me, but I will ABSOLUTELY always make this drive whenever needed because of the amazing experience I've had here.
Dr. Romo and his entire staff (reception included) are amazing human beings that treated my boy with the same kindness and compassion I treat him with; the same level that cats and dogs get to enjoy. Now, toads don't really have the ability to understand or conceptualize any of this, but that is precisely why I am so touched by their bedside manner. This is the only place I've been where I don't feel weird for baby talking my amphibians. Because they do it too, LOL. And even though it doesn't help Ōgama feel better, they are still gentle and compassionate with him. My buddy was never manhandled.
His first stay was a surgery to grind down the damaged bone. The infection had kind of honeycombed it, and it was dying. Dr. Romo's techs showed me how to clean his wound, give him his antibiotics, and pack the wound. I set up a hospital tub for him at home and got to work. As the days went on, the wound looked a lot less angry, but it wasn't closing up. At his follow up, Dr. Romo found out why: more of his bone had suffered damage than initially thought because it was out of sight at the time of that exam. Now, the skin was shrinking back, and a shard of his orbital bone was wiggly and loose, like a baby tooth.
Not good news. They kept him again, for another surgery to remove that shard. The hitch was this: if the infection was deeper than a certain point, the best case scenario was that Ōgama would lose an eye. The worst case was, there would be nothing they could do because you can't just go removing chunks of an animal's skull, and I would lose him. I was very sad about that scenario, but hey - at least I gave him a shot, and if he died of this infection, going peacefully and quickly at the vet was way better than dying slowly in a tank at the corner of a shady exotics store, right? I tried to make myself less sad knowing either way, he was in the best hands, but I really hoped he'd pull through.
Which is why I was so excited to get a call the next day saying that although Ōgama refused to stay sedated and they had to use a local anesthetic on him, lol, they were able to get the dying/sick bone out of his head without ruining the integrity of the socket. So: He got to keep his eye, and maybe, his life.
He's been home ever since and I am happy to report that he is vibrantly gold as opposed to the brown-gray he was when I got him, he continues to mistake my fingers for worms and has bitten me so many times, and his wound is CLOSING RAPIDLY following the removal of that damaged bone. His follow up isn't for a few weeks, and I'm going to continue flushing, cleaning, and applying ointment to it until he gets the all clear, but I think Ōgama will finally get to go back into the vivarium I built him, and it's all thanks to this incredibly kind and wonderful vet staff.
