Veterinarians in Halifax/Dartmouth

I just wanted to suggest Dr. Suzette Dibblee as a great exotics vet here in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was trained by Dr. Benoit before he left the province to pursue another career. Though she has personally never been my own veterinarian (my rescue organization has a special arrangement with another veterinary clinic), she has amazing surgical skills and I am pretty sure she treats ratties. She works at Fairview Animal Hospital (902-457-3353).

My friend who owns rats is has had both regular and emergency visits to Dr. Eric Carnegy. He does seem to be okay, though I have heard mixed reviews and probably wouldn't see him myself.

Another wonderful vet in the Dartmouth area is Dr. Kathy Lamey at the Metro Animal Emergency Clinic (902-468-0674). She treated my boa constrictor previously for a number of issues as he had been a rescue, as well as performed surgery on my Savannah Monitor's tail when it had abscessed. I think that Kathy would be excellent choice to treat rats locally, though I would caution you that the emerg clinic prices are much higher than at a regular vet clinic.

Just wanted to share my experience with veterinarians here in case anyone needs this information in future.

I've taken my rats to Dr. Dibblee. She was very thorough with questions about their home and in the examination.
I would recommend her. What I really liked about her was she handled them gently and securely, not what I had expected especially since they wouldn't cooperate.

hi there lizardqueen!! didnt know you had joined the shack!
yes and dr. benjamin where i work is good with exotics as well. between her and i we have an extended knowledge base although always learning and i think that is very important with an "exotic" vet is the willingness to admit you dont know but you are going to find out.

I second the recommendation of Dr Dibblee at the Fairview Animal Hospital (Bayers Rd, Halifax). Every time I go, she checks on their habitat, food and porphyrin secretion. She is great at handling them, always provides a nice towel for them in place of the counter-tops and explains everything fully and in great detail (but simple enough for someone still bringing their first rat in to understand new illnesses and ageing). As well, she is very knowledgeable about behaviour in rats as well as their medical issues. That she regularly attends a January conference on small mammal medicine makes me very confident that she is doing everything she can to keep up with the newest developments in exotic/small mammal care.

She is honest, but does not push more expensive treatment/diagnostics in the place of conservative treatment in the case of students and people dealing with tight budgets (now, I got an x-ray for my boy, but she did make sure I knew that trying various antibiotics was an acceptable route as well).

Hi my baby is going into dr Benjamin for surgery on Tuesday, she has been great with him so far.

theratlady said:

hi there lizardqueen!! didnt know you had joined the shack!
yes and dr. benjamin where i work is good with exotics as well. between her and i we have an extended knowledge base although always learning and i think that is very important with an "exotic" vet is the willingness to admit you dont know but you are going to find out.

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A few years ago, the only trained exotic vet in Nova Scotia (Dr Benoit) said I knew much more about rayts then he did as he did much more work with birds and reptiles.
If Dr. Suzette Dibblee worked under Dr Benoit, she did not learn much about rats from him.

Wondering if she was the vet working under Dr Benoit that pts one of my boys.
That vet lied to me, didn't medicate him properly, and I will never forget how he screamed.
He seemed to scream forever although it was just a few mins.
Then he was handed back to me to hold until the meds took effect and he could be pts humanely.

That particular vet also worked as an emergency vet after leaving Dr Benoit, when he downsized & moved to the bottom of the Fairview clinic.
My little Ruthie died in an oxygen tank, while the vet argued with me re my decision to have Ruthie pts.
Ruthie died alone instead of being cuddled by me.
The vet bill was very extensive and huge ... I was even charged for nursing care that Ruthie never recieved.

I found that Dr. Eric Carnegy was not very knowlegable about rats.

There is a thread on here about experiences with him.

At least 3 members have had horrible outcomes after he neutered or spayed their rats.
The rats survived but fought infections caused by surgery for months or longer.
Some of my boys developed an "antibiotic resistent hospital infection" as a result of their neuters.

Edit: Nicole's boys also had bad results, and Twitch's vet in NB inquired who "the butcher was" when she was asked to provide needed follow up care after Twitch's rattie boy was operated on by this vet

Dr. Benjamin is a vet I saw once when I lived in Halifax.
If I had not known better and had followed the vet's instructions re meds for my two boys' respir infections.
my two rattie boys would have died.

Fortunately, I knew more about rats then this vet did.

I believe that this vet knows little about rats and takes unnecessary risks with their lives.
I would recommebd that people do not take their rats to this vet.

SQ said:

I found that Dr. Eric Carnegy was not very knowlegable about rats.
Joanne's boys also had bad results

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I had four girls spayed and two boys neutered all on the same day. Everyone did fine, no problems.
Nicole, who adopted five boys from me, had them all neutered and had chronic problems with neuter abscesses their entire lives.
Go figure.......

Joanne said:

SQ said:

I found that Dr. Eric Carnegy was not very knowlegable about rats.
Joanne's boys also had bad results

Click to expand...

I had four girls spayed and two boys neutered all on the same day. Everyone did fine, no problems.
Nicole, who adopted five boys from me, had them all neutered and had chronic problems with neuter abscesses their entire lives.
Go figure.......

Click to expand...

:wallbang:
Sorry, my confusion, for some reason I had thought it was you.

SQ said:

A few years ago, the only trained exotic vet in Nova Scotia (Dr Benoit) said I knew much more about rayts then he did as he did much more work with birds and reptiles.
If Dr. Suzette Dibblee worked under Dr Benoit, she did not learn much about rats from him.

Wondering if she was the vet working under Dr Benoit that pts one of my boys.
That vet lied to me, didn't medicate him properly, and I will never forget how he screamed.
He seemed to scream forever although it was just a few mins.
Then he was handed back to me to hold until the meds took effect and he could be pts humanely.

That particular vet also worked as an emergency vet after leaving Dr Benoit, when he downsized & moved to the bottom of the Fairview clinic.
My little Ruthie died in an oxygen tank, while the vet argued with me re my decision to have Ruthie pts.
Ruthie died alone instead of being cuddled by me.
The vet bill was very extensive and huge ... I was even charged for nursing care that Ruthie never recieved.

Click to expand...

This post SO disturbed me. You poor thing! I can't imagine having to go through something like that!
How inhumane of the vet!! So many vets think it's ok to stick a needle in a tiny animals stomack or heart while they're awake. How many rats have died with their last moments being a burning pain spread through them. It makes me so sad and angry. :rant: Why do they think this is ok!?! Cause it's only for a few seconds?? And if the needle slips into their lungs by mistake, they drown on burning liquid instead? But i guess this must be ok too. :gaah: Do vets REALLY love animals?
I must admit my vet has been Dr. Carnegy. (It's true he doesn't know everything about everything, what vet would. But he does have lots of experience. And he is always ready to listen to me and learn new thing. I'd be concerned if a vet wasn't. We who have rats as our babies are the real experts (i know we shouldn't have to be, but vets are getting better). We have so much first hand experience, have done so much research. It's ok, and good, if we know things the vet might not yet. But it's true, they should have a very good general knowledge of each species in particular. i.e. a rat should not receive the same treatment as a mouse or ginea pig. And they should not be so lost as to have to ask you how to do anything.)
Anyway... I always go in with my rats when they are getting euthanised (why would a vet NOT let you go in, are they hiding something?). My vet knows that i insist on them being completely asleep (the same as they would be for surgery) before he sticks a needle in an organ. It's sucks cause you can't hold them until the very end, but at least there is no pain, and that is the point of euthanasia, being humane. Euthanasia actually means "good death". Please, lets help educate our vets. Explain and insist. It's sad we have to, but we'll get there.
Again SQ, i'm so sorry for your experience. I feel just horrible. Our poor little babies. All we want is to love them their whole lives. It'd be really good to know for sure which vet this was. Did she work with Dr. Benoit when he had his own practice in Clayton Park West (Parrots to Ferrets/Vetopia)? Did she have curly dark brown hair and freckles, or dirty blond hair? Neither of those is Dr. Diblee. Maybe i'll give the vet where Diblee works now a call and ask how they do their rat euth. just to make sure they do it correctly. I don't know where the other two women i remember currently work, but i might be able to find out. Hopefully they've all learnt the correct humane way.

Sorry for the rant guys. Just joined and this is my first post.

SQ said:

I found that Dr. Eric Carnegy was not very knowlegable about rats.

There is a thread on here about experiences with him.

At least 3 members have had horrible outcomes after he neutered or spayed their rats.
The rats survived but fought infections caused by surgery for months or longer.
Some of my boys developed an "antibiotic resistent hospital infection" as a result of their neuters.

Edit: Nicole's boys also had bad results, and Twitch's vet in NB inquired who "the butcher was" when she was asked to provide needed follow up care after Twitch's rattie boy was operated on by this vet

Click to expand...

Just to say, i've had 25 rats and most spayed and neutered by Dr. Carnegy. Only once had a little problem with a neuter quite a few years ago where my rat had a sort of blood clot inside the surgery site, and the vet said it'd eventually disapate, which it did without any other problem. I do know that several years ago, he used to give them an injection to put them asleep for surgery (very unsafe), and used to do the neuter like a dog neuter (prone to more complications in rats). By the time i read and learned about the correct way, Dr. Carnegy had changed his methods (they, like us, are always learning) and now uses gas to put them to sleep for surgery (much more controllable), and does the neuter like a cat neuter (less invasive and less prone to complications). I haven't had a problem since. Of course, not to say it doesn't happen.