Exotic Pets
The vast majority of small animal training in veterinary school is devoted to canine and feline medicine. If veterinarians want to treat birds or ferrets or snakes, they will need to do a lot of work on their own during and long after veterinary school.
“Exotics” is the term used for just about any pet other than a cat or a dog! This includes all small mammals, birds and reptiles. Amphibians, miniature pigs, sugar gliders, the list goes on.
Even an “exotics” vet may not see all exotics. A vet may have the training to see birds but not reptiles; small mammals but not hedgehogs or marsupials; and so on. At Indian Creek, we feel comfortable seeing a very broad range of species, smaller to larger, feathered, furred, finned, and scaled. However, please understand if we do not feel equipped to seeing your particular species and may refer you to a different facility that can better offer the appropriate care. |
Why Caring for Exotic Pets Can Be Difficult
1. Each Species Is Unique
There’s an old saying in veterinary school that cats are not small dogs, so don’t treat them as such. In olden days, vets would apply what they knew about dogs to cats. Many times, this would lead to inadequate or inappropriate treatment...
Today, we know better. This lesson applies to exotics tenfold. Exotics veterinarians know they cannot extrapolate from one species to another. Canaries are not small parrots. Chinchillas are not little rabbits. A degu is not a big gerbil! Simply put, seeing a large array of exotics demands research time, consults, interest, experience, case load and skill.
2. Handling
Not only does the veterinarian need to know how to handle your Amazon parrot or your sugar glider, but he or she needs qualified technicians to assist. Taking blood from an iguana, positioning a parakeet for an X-ray or trying to look inside the beak of a screaming Macaw requires experience, patience, and a gifted and qualified helper. We take pride in our staff's ability and eagerness to work with different species.
3. Environment and Stress
Many exotics are not as domesticated as our dogs and cats. They don’t like strange environments, and they react badly to stress. A noisy, brightly lit hospital with barking dogs and busy waiting rooms is not a good place for a weak guinea pig or an egg-bound cockatiel. Ideally, an exotics facility should have controlled temperatures and humidity appropriate for each patient and as little commotion and stimulation as possible. This is difficult for a small practice, but we do our best to accommodate patient needs.
4. Specialized Equipment
Appropriate restraint tools as well as small and specific tools for examining each special patient should be utilized. This could be as simple as towels to hold them safely, to speculums to look inside a rabbit mouth!
Surgery and dental instruments and units must be specialized for exotic pets. Specific electrocautery units are required. The vet must be able to work in tiny spaces with small-scale instruments and suture. Special dental instruments must be purchased for rodent species, and so on.
Proper housing of exotics pets is essential to keeping up body temperatures and minimizing stress. Incubators, oxygen cages and heat sources must be designed to fit the needs of a parakeet or a rat. The requirements are different.
5. Education
Sometimes people with exotics do not know as much as they should when they acquire their ball python or eclectus parrot. An exotic pet housed wrong, fed a nutritionally deficient diet or not monitored properly is a recipe for disaster.
Because exotics hide illness as a survival mechanism, people often present these poor creatures to a veterinarian when they are too far gone.
The commercial pet industry is usually no friend to exotics. In order to sell and make a profit on cages, hamster tunnels and aquariums, a pet store may sell an animal to an owner who is not truly informed or prepared enough to give the pet a healthy, humane, enriched experience. An African grey is not an ornament that hangs in a cage. An iguana is not a conversation piece in a cold, dry dorm room. We work with local exotic animal dealers to promote education among staff, which can then be passed on to prospective owners, as well as treating many patients from those local areas.
As far as buying that hamster for your 10-year-old who might lose interest, parents should own up to the fact that they might be responsible for the care, not the kid! The price of the pet should not reflect the quality of care or attention it receives!
There’s an old saying in veterinary school that cats are not small dogs, so don’t treat them as such. In olden days, vets would apply what they knew about dogs to cats. Many times, this would lead to inadequate or inappropriate treatment...
Today, we know better. This lesson applies to exotics tenfold. Exotics veterinarians know they cannot extrapolate from one species to another. Canaries are not small parrots. Chinchillas are not little rabbits. A degu is not a big gerbil! Simply put, seeing a large array of exotics demands research time, consults, interest, experience, case load and skill.
2. Handling
Not only does the veterinarian need to know how to handle your Amazon parrot or your sugar glider, but he or she needs qualified technicians to assist. Taking blood from an iguana, positioning a parakeet for an X-ray or trying to look inside the beak of a screaming Macaw requires experience, patience, and a gifted and qualified helper. We take pride in our staff's ability and eagerness to work with different species.
3. Environment and Stress
Many exotics are not as domesticated as our dogs and cats. They don’t like strange environments, and they react badly to stress. A noisy, brightly lit hospital with barking dogs and busy waiting rooms is not a good place for a weak guinea pig or an egg-bound cockatiel. Ideally, an exotics facility should have controlled temperatures and humidity appropriate for each patient and as little commotion and stimulation as possible. This is difficult for a small practice, but we do our best to accommodate patient needs.
4. Specialized Equipment
Appropriate restraint tools as well as small and specific tools for examining each special patient should be utilized. This could be as simple as towels to hold them safely, to speculums to look inside a rabbit mouth!
Surgery and dental instruments and units must be specialized for exotic pets. Specific electrocautery units are required. The vet must be able to work in tiny spaces with small-scale instruments and suture. Special dental instruments must be purchased for rodent species, and so on.
Proper housing of exotics pets is essential to keeping up body temperatures and minimizing stress. Incubators, oxygen cages and heat sources must be designed to fit the needs of a parakeet or a rat. The requirements are different.
5. Education
Sometimes people with exotics do not know as much as they should when they acquire their ball python or eclectus parrot. An exotic pet housed wrong, fed a nutritionally deficient diet or not monitored properly is a recipe for disaster.
Because exotics hide illness as a survival mechanism, people often present these poor creatures to a veterinarian when they are too far gone.
The commercial pet industry is usually no friend to exotics. In order to sell and make a profit on cages, hamster tunnels and aquariums, a pet store may sell an animal to an owner who is not truly informed or prepared enough to give the pet a healthy, humane, enriched experience. An African grey is not an ornament that hangs in a cage. An iguana is not a conversation piece in a cold, dry dorm room. We work with local exotic animal dealers to promote education among staff, which can then be passed on to prospective owners, as well as treating many patients from those local areas.
As far as buying that hamster for your 10-year-old who might lose interest, parents should own up to the fact that they might be responsible for the care, not the kid! The price of the pet should not reflect the quality of care or attention it receives!
6. Treatment Failure
Undeniably, the most difficult part of exotics practice is lack of success. Sadly, as mentioned above, many of these pets are too far gone when they are first brought in.
The rabbit who hasn’t eaten for a week will probably not make it. The iguana who has been on the wrong diet for the past 5 years may be too damaged to make a comeback. Birds on seed-only diets are nutritionally compromised. The rat suffering with respiratory disease for several months has end-stage lungs and will not survive.
Exotics vets try to save the lost causes. They face a losing battle.
7. Money
And then there is the perennial problem of exotics pets and what their veterinary care may cost. We do our best to encourage people to treat their exotics and work within a budget. But in reality, treating exotics is often more expensive and requires specialized training, skill, equipment and a qualified staff.
If you have an exotic pet, our facility is a great option for routine care and small medical issues. However, if you have a true emergency, our facility may not be able to accommodate you in a timely manner. For a true emergency where time is of the essence (which is almost always with an exotic pet, especially in regard to injury, inappetance, lethargy, and respiratory issues, don't forget they hide illness until they can't anymore!) we recommend an emergency facility that takes walk-ins.
Undeniably, the most difficult part of exotics practice is lack of success. Sadly, as mentioned above, many of these pets are too far gone when they are first brought in.
The rabbit who hasn’t eaten for a week will probably not make it. The iguana who has been on the wrong diet for the past 5 years may be too damaged to make a comeback. Birds on seed-only diets are nutritionally compromised. The rat suffering with respiratory disease for several months has end-stage lungs and will not survive.
Exotics vets try to save the lost causes. They face a losing battle.
7. Money
And then there is the perennial problem of exotics pets and what their veterinary care may cost. We do our best to encourage people to treat their exotics and work within a budget. But in reality, treating exotics is often more expensive and requires specialized training, skill, equipment and a qualified staff.
If you have an exotic pet, our facility is a great option for routine care and small medical issues. However, if you have a true emergency, our facility may not be able to accommodate you in a timely manner. For a true emergency where time is of the essence (which is almost always with an exotic pet, especially in regard to injury, inappetance, lethargy, and respiratory issues, don't forget they hide illness until they can't anymore!) we recommend an emergency facility that takes walk-ins.
If you know what your special friend needs to stay happy and healthy, caring for an exotic pet can be enriching and rewarding. When these well-cared for buddies need additional help, they are a happy challenge to treat. Hats off to all the dedicated, knowledgeable people out there with exotics who are experts in their own right.