Barrie's medical emergency!

[Catherine]

You are right that vet training is flawed. There are big gaps. They don't learn a lot about birds.
I doubt they have any geriatric pet training.
Veterinary training was geared towards treating farm animals. The pet vet is a newer thing. The vet training still heavily involves farm animals. Understanding nutrition is a newer thing in medicine in general. 
With reptiles it is all about lighting and vitamins. Those are the things we have to get right. That requires so knowledge of reptile metabolism and physiology. No vet college is going to "waste" time on that.

Medicine, human and animal is geared towards drug and surgical interventions. Nutrition and lifestyle studies would be more effective. Eating well and being active will overcome many health problems. I had a doctor tell me I need to spend time on a tread mill to get exercise, it is the only kind exercise that counts. He never asked me if I have an active lifestyle. People who know me tell me to slow down and get some rest.

Like you with your back, rest is a welcome thing and is often enough to fix things(with a little Ibuprofen).
Many people are on medications that require medications for the side effects, that also require medications for the side effects and so on.  How about a good healthy meal and a good walk. That would do more good. 

For the back they would rather do surgery that try physio and rest. I encouraged physio for someone who was planning surgery. Before they could do the surgery she recovered. She will need to look after her back in future, but that is better than the long term effects of surgery.

As for Barrie, he is sleeping a lot, but he is a lizard. They always sleep a lot.
I know it could still go bad, but he is as strong boy. I think he can make it.

Quick update, Barrie just ate a proper supper and looks very happy about it.