Creepy crawlies, crocs, crayfish: Vet that’s treating your unusual pets

Queenslanders with an array of unique pets are travelling across the state to have them treated by this vet. Here’s why.

Creepy crawlies, scaly dragons, slippery snakes and cranky crocs; one vet treats them all.

Dr Joshua Llinas, owner of The Unusual Pet Vets in Brisbane said when it comes to treating unique animals, there isn’t much he hasn’t seen.

“Probably one of the strangest ones I’ve treated recently was a crayfish, but we get a lot of fish, reptiles, birds, native animals, everything you wouldn’t get at a cat and dog vet,” Mr Llinas said.

Unusual Pet Vets Dr Josh with Saltwater Croc

“I’ve done stingrays, a lot of crocodiles and some invertebrates, spiders, scorpions and centipedes, lots of parrots, an axolotl, and a squirrel glider came in the other day.

“Pretty much any animal out there, you’ll find someone interested in keeping them.”

Dr Llinas wanted to be a vet from the ripe age of five, so it came as no surprise when he jumped at the chance to become an exotic vet.

Now Queenslanders travel far and wide to have him treat their unusual pets.

“I’ve kept lizards and snakes since I was 10 or 11 and worked in a pet store and I think the vets I worked with, there was little understanding on how to keep them (exotic pets) and that was part of my goal was to do better than that,” Dr Llinas said.

A rough knob tail gecko treated at the vet.

“We’ve got one client who drives ten hours with one of his pets from Central Queensland and two weeks ago, I had a really lovely lady come by, she drove nearly two and a half hours with her 11-year-old goldfish and we performed surgery on them,” Dr Llinas said.

“But one of my toughest surgeries was probably an internal carotid aneurysm in a bearded dragon. The surgery which usually has poor outcomes and we got a great outcome.

“It’s definitely a job worth waking up for in the morning.”