Incompetent vet

[ConcinusMan]

I dont disagree, there are vets who specialize in reptiles, but only through experience there is no schooling for it.

There is schooling for it at many university zoology depts but it's not specifically required to become a vet. It's rather ironic that a zoologist is going to know more about reptile medicine than your local vet, yet we take our snakes to the latter since a zoologist isn't in the business of treating people's pets.

And if they did indeed break the poor girl's spine, don't vets in Canada have liability insurance?

And remember this is still speculation. I've seen plenty of broken backs and I've never seen it cause immediate death and I've seen plenty of them survive just fine and heal after having their backs and many ribs broken. And I'm talking obviously broken to the point of kinking. They didn't just suddenly drop dead. I just find it hard to believe that the vet used that much force, as to break the spine and even if he did, that alone shouldn't cause such rapid death. I think it's more likely that there was internal injury (pre-existing to some degree) made worse by the vet. Did the vet do x-rays on the area? I mean, did he confirm that the lump was indeed a blockage? If it was instead an infection, cyst, etc., then aggravating it could cause internal bleeding or release of toxins from the infection. Now that would cause rapid death. Going limp from that point down doesn't have to mean the snake was paralyzed or mean that it's back was broken. Like I said, a broken back alone doesn't usually cause rapid death and they can even go on to live with it.

Just trying to offer other plausible explanations because it's only natural to want to blame the vet or someone even if he only did what any vet would do. It's not fair to call them incompetent when you don't know the cause of death. You wouldn't call a cancer specialist incompetent just because they couldn't cure someone's cancer. I think it's important to know for sure if they did something incompetent before calling them that and all you really know for sure at this point is that the snake died after seeing the vet. Unless you immediately took it to another place for a necropsy to confirm the cause of death, I'm afraid there's nothing you can do. You could blame the vet here, but there's no real proof to confirm it.