Vet question: avian specialized unknown vs exotic known to be competent

[echocharlie]

Hi All

Vet question for folks: How important do you think it is to have a vet who has specialized in avian medicine for the care of your ramphastid (in our case, specifically a green aracari)or any other type of bird? I'd like to use our vet that currently cares for our dog. He works with all exotics and is comfortable with birds and I know he would be eager to brush up on whatever previous knowledge he has that pertains to our unique birds as well as to learn anything else that he can. It seems like blood work covers the main differences with the ramphastids and it seems like any intelligent and eager for continuous learning vet should be able to handle that, right? My inclination is to go with my vet that I know to be competent and always eager to learn more but to have an avian vet among my emergency numbers should we need them.

Thoughts anyone? I welcome anyone to come shoot holes in my thought process - that's why I've shared them

 

[Birdbabe]

Always good to have a regular vet and a backup vet, in case your regular is off somewhere banding hummingbirds, like mine does...ha.

 

[sunnysmom]

You can always test him out and see how he does. I took my tiel initially to a vet- non avian certified- who said he treated birds. He was horrible with my tiel. Way too rough with him and when I kept insisting that I did NOT want his wings clipped- the vet actually looked at me and said "you know he can fly" :x3: (We now go to an avian certified vet.) But if your vet is comfortable handling birds I think it would be okay to use him- just as you said, make sure there's a back up vet or someone he's willing to consult with if you would ever have a major medical issues (which hopefully you won't!).

 

[H110hawk]

If you trust your vet to tell you when they are at the limit of their knowledge I would keep going to them. Seeking the advice of peers is the sign of a highly intelligent person.

 

[sthiele]

My primary avian vet is board certified in avian medicine and is awesome. But I also have another vet I use who is not board certified, but very knowledgeable and works with several rescues in the area. Board certification is nice, but don't let that deter you from using a vet who is simply experienced and knowledgeable regarding avian medicine. Best way to judge that is to bring your bird in for a general exam and see what happens.

 

[sunnysmom]

Okay- I have one more thought. .... I guess the other question is how comfortable you are with your bird knowledge. Sunny is my first bird. So I had a lot of general questions about diet, probiotics, etc. So switching to the avian certified vet was very helpful to me just for learning basic care. That might be the other thing to think about- how much general knowledge does the vet have and if that's something you need.

 

[echocharlie]

Awesome input guys, thank you! Even though this will be my first bird in many years, I do feel fairly comfortable with the idea of him. Afterall, I've got you guys - I can scour through old posts or beg for help with new questions

As a side note: This is something of an intentional duplicate post. I also posed a similar question in the general health forum as I thought perhaps there might be a slightly different angle when dealing with our wonderfully goofy long-beaked friends and I didn't know how much overlap reading there was

 

[waterfaller1]

I would not risk taking Pico to my dog vet., although he does also see birds. After watching my certified avian vet who sees my birds, and watching how they need to take blood from the neck, I wouldn't trust someone without the experience. One slip and you can hit the jugular, and it's all over.

 

[H110hawk]

We got lucky with our vet. He was the vet for an animal attraction park and had lots of experience with Toucans.

 

[jmfleish]

I think there is a difference between a vet who sees birds on a regular basis but is not avian certified and a regular vet who spends most of his time around dogs and cats and sees the occasional bird. In your case, I don't know that I would want to put the care of my parrot in the hands of someone who just wants to brush up on his avian skills. That statement alone makes me very nervous. Avian medicine is in its infancy and I would be more comfortable with a vet who spends most of his/her days seeing avian patients as well as keeping up with avian medicine by doing research and attending conferences and such. There are many vets out there who may not be certified but who are very capable of taking care of birds. The vets I use at the UW Vet school are not avian certified but are very versed in the avian species and I trust them implicitly. They also specialize in exotics, including parrots and are very active in research as well as what's new in avian medicine.

 

[JAM]

I personally wouldn't be comfortable with a none certified vet. Birds are special creatures, that's why there is a specific course for vets wanting to specialise in them and like our lorikeets, your FID has a special diet compared to other parrots and specific problems related to them, do you really want to have someone researching what to do if something really goes wrong?
Carole's point is valid too. Even with my CAV who is based at a normal practice, he struggled to get blood from my passed Millow and I took him to our exotics CAV who's practice is solely for birds and exotics who was then able to.

It's nice to have a vet willing to learn, but I would make sure you are able to have a CAV for when your FID is sick and needs on the spot knowledge and treatment.

Just my opinion.

 

[echocharlie]

I may have not been clear, the knowledge of his that I'm sure is limited is in reference to toucans. I know he does see birds and other small exotics on a regular basis but I bet he's never treated a toucan. And to be honest I don't know that that makes much difference at all so long as I'm aware of the big health threats and can convey my concerns (which is why I did the two posts... once again, I probably could have been a lot clearer! )That said, the reason I picked our vet to begin with is that he's a very well respected holistic vet and I have a breed of dog that is sensitive to conventional medicine. In fact, I wonder if toucans might also be sensitive as the whole reason my dog is is due to the very short amount of time that they have been bred in the west. So we have to rely on titers instead of regular vaccinations and we have to be very careful about what medications he's even given (luckily he hasn't needed any thus far). So I'm still terribly on the fence as to which vet to use. I'd love to stick with the holistic approach (he also uses conventional medicine, he just errs on the side of holistic first) but I'm trying to make sure this isn't about me and my preferences... I just want this unique little bird to have the best chance at a long and healthy life.

And sheesh, the avian board certified vet is 10 minutes away from our holistic vet... I can't even factor in distance as a pro or con!

 

[echocharlie]

I'm loving all of the opinions - thanks guys for taking the time to share them!

 

[echocharlie]

And I guess I'm not really on the fence anymore. Everyone's arguments are compelling, but JAM and Waterfaller you guys pretty much pushed me to the CAV side. In particular, to the side of those that concentrate their practice solely on birds. If anyone is going to do extra studying for my weird little bird then I'd rather they were doing that extra studying on top of a solid avian foundation.