Thank you Amanda! I will write up everything that I have going on so they have a clear knowledge of my husbandry. That gives me a much clearer idea of what to expect and ask! You are awesome!!!!!To be entirely honest, what my vet tends to do is take one look and go "yep that's mouth rot" and rarely bothers taking a swab! It's pretty much always the same bacteria responsible, and they all respond to the same treatment. Depending on the severity she'll flush the reptile's mouth out with an oral disinfectant and/or recommend sedation to debride any dead tissue and then send the owner(s) home with a topical cream +/- oral or injectable antibiotics and pain control. I haven't seen injectable antibiotics used often unless it's a severe case and there's something else going on as well.
At our clinic we don't tend to draw blood samples from reptiles for routine wellness exams, as it can be a pretty stressful experience for the animal and is more often than not unnecessary (with reptiles). It can certainly be useful information to have, and you can catch some things early. I guess some of it is personal preference! We don't tend to run reptile bloodwork unless we suspect that something is wrong and the doctor deems it necessary. I'd bring it up with your vet and see what their thoughts are on the matter!
You don't necessarily need to run another fecal if you've already had one done - honestly, the principle is the same regardless of species when it comes to looking for parasite ova (eggs). I'd still bring a sample as your new vet will probably like to see it (the fresher the better!), and I'd bring it up with them to see if they'd want to retest.
For the wellness exam itself, it's really quite similar to any other pet exam. Doc will get Beman's weight, access his overall body condition, test his grip strength/mobility/etc, look in his mouth/eyes/ears... very routine stuff! As the person that fairly regularly ends up going over husbandry with owners, it's very helpful to us if you bring all of your enclosure parameter information. The "how to ask for help" form on this site is actually quite similar to the questionnaire that we have new reptile clients fill out! I personally like a picture or two of the set up as well.
Hope that helps a bit!
~Amanda
