Jaime, the Bearded Dragon, and the Emergency Vet

"Mom, Jaime's not walking right and she keeps turning over."

"What?"

Poor little Jaime, Emma's bearded dragon, was dragging her leg behind her. I was terrified that she had broken her leg.  Evidently, she had jumped off of Fred's lap and banged her leg into the wall in the process.

What is a Mom to do?  Afterall, Moms are supposed to fix everything.

So, I got on the phone and started calling around to different vets.  This all had to happen on a Saturday afternoon, didn't it?

Finally, after several calls I called back the first vet that was on my list, Winter Park Veterninary Hospital.  They sounded nice enough on the phone, and they could see Jaime today.  Not all vets will even see lizards, and Jaime is all lizard.

We arrived and were seen almost immediately.  I didn't even get a chance to sample from their selection of Keurig coffees.

In short order, the veterinary technician in and Jaime was weighed, and the technician left.  I'm expecting, a bit more of a weight and sit down to read one of the magazines on the rack in the room.  Completely surprised that they had magazines for reptile lovers.

 I didn't even have a chance to read an article before the vet was coming in the room.

She carefully inspected Jaime's leg and explained the whole process to Emma who was obviously concerned about her baby.  The vet couldn't tell whether or not the leg was broken right off, but Jaime had feeling in her leg, which the vet explained to Emma was a good thing.

Off Jaime went for x-rays.

Not even 15 minutes later, the nurse was back with the good news.  The leg wasn't broken!

Hurray!

The technician explained that Jaime had just sprained it and would only need a little anti-inflamatory and pain medication.

Complete and total relief was evident in both Emma and myself.

Emma was obviously curious about the x-rays and the vet technician picked up on this.  She asked if Emma would like to see the x-rays.  This really impressed me.

What impressed me even more, was that when we were brought out to the x-ray viewing machine, the vet was back, explaining all of the x-rays to Emma and showing her how nicely everything looked.  The vet took the time to explain and show Emma that Jaime's leg was not broken and that the swelling was from it being sprained.

I can't verbalize just how greatful I am to them.  I never thought I'd have to take a lizard to the vet, but I am glad that when I had to that I was able to find such a wonderful and caring veterinary hospital as Winter Park Veterinary Hospital.