Principles of triage and immediate assessment of exotics: While it is impossible to cover all triage and emergency assessment of all exotics in one talk (exotics can encompass several hundred species even in general non-zoo practice), there are important first principles that apply to emergency care of any animal. Unsurprisingly these are much the same as for dogs and cats. This talk covers a basic A,B,C approach for emergency care of exotics showing examples of how dog/cat emergency care can be applied to exotics (birds, reptiles, and small mammals) allowing any practitioner to fulfil their RCVS requirements and stabilise a patient before progressing to further diagnostics and treatment or referral to a more specialised center.

Help, it’s an exotic emergency – what do I do? An accurate triage assessment of a sick or injured reptile is vital to enable a clinician to instigate correct first aid and emergency care. This short presentation provides the primary care veterinarian with the knowledge to perform a brief but thorough assessment of a reptile presented urgently, and provide correct stabilisation and first aid.