How much to take a bird to the vet?

[Monica]

If doing our own testing, I would use Zoogen before I'd even use Avian Biotech! It's closer to me, I don't have to order a DNA testing kit, a breeder in California has had better results from Zoogen (using the egg DNA tests) than from AB, and my a-vet also uses this place!


There is CareCredit, which can help with vet fees if you are approved and your vet accepts CareCredit. If your vet doesn't accept CareCredit, you can always contact CareCredit and see if they can work something out with your vet!
CareCredit® Veterinary Financing for Pet Care, Pet Surgery, Vaccinations & Other Veterinary Medicine Procedures



There is also the option of pet insurance, however, this can be tricky because many wont cover pre-existing health issues nor older pets.... and at that point, I feel as if it's a safer bet to open up a savings account for your birds and have x-amount transferred into the account every paycheck or at least once a month... and these typically tend to be pretty cheap or free.

 

[rockybird]

My birds have seen two different avian vets multiple times and they have never had a fecal gram stain. I am not sure of the point of this exam if your bird is not ill. There are false positives. I had a friend who saw a different avian vet, who ran all kinds of tests, including a fecal gram stain. They were chasing down all kinds of zebras, including a false positive on a fecal gram stain, for an ear infection no less (she brought the bird in for discharge from an ear). I believe she spent easily over $1000 chasing this down (including serum electrophoresis!). She took the bird to an another avian vet, who took care of the ear infection with antibiotics and the bird is healthy to this day.

I did have the blood work done (chem panel, wbc), which was $400 for both birds. It is good to have this done at some point so that you have a baseline to compare to in case your bird should ever get ill. According to my vet, it does not need to be done yearly. After taking care of a bird who eventually died of liver and kidney disease, I wanted to know that my birds did not have any early trends in their lab values that could be rectified before too late. Everything was normal, thank goodness!

 

[Mrcrowley]

A check up once a year is a good thing I thing a blood test for liver every two but it is a good thing to be honest to keep a eye on there ppop for any liver problems there are a bunch of posts on examining poop and they say you can see if your bird is sick or unhealthy from that . I believe having a scale and weighing them keeping track of that . Once you learn your bird better you can tell if something is up also . SO I would say a general exam every year and blood every two . So Exam @$75 and blood $150 to $200 .

 

[Monica]

A fecal gram stain is much cheaper than doing blood work. Blood work can tell you if your bird is sick or not, and tell you deficiencies and organ function... however, it can't tell you what the bird is sick with. A gram stain can tell you if there is an infection in the digestive track, and a crop swab can tell you if there is an infection up there that's not showing in the fecals.

So yes, it's possible to have false positives or false negatives, but it's just one extra step used to ensuring your birds are healthy. Not all bacteria and fungi can be dealt with using any generic drug, so it greatly helps knowing what the bird is ill with so that it can be treated appropriately... case in point, a bird is sick with a fungal infection but is treated for a bacterial infection. This might end up killing the bird because antibiotics destroy both the good and bad bacteria. And I lost a bird in this way. He went septic because he was misdiagnosed (*NOT* by an avian certified vet), and when I took him in for a second opinion, the result was a false negative. He had a crop flush, although before we could get that tested, he ended up passing away. Blood work would have never been able to tell me what he was sick with, only that he was sick, and he died due to a fungal infection. (free budgie turned into a $300 bird, including necropsy, and getting necropsy double checked) I blame myself for not taking him to an avian vet, and I blame the first vet that looked at him for not even determining why he was sick, only prescribing antibiotics because he was "off"... and it's not the first time this vet gave me an incorrect diagnostic on a bird - hence, I no longer go to him!

 

[carolyn17603]

wow that is really expensive and was not expecting that at all. I cant believe bloodwork costs that much. I figured with the vet fee and blood work it would be around 100? I was way off. I did not know birds could be so expensive. They are more then a dog in vet fees. I definitly thought I was getting a deal when i found the senegal for 45 and the bh for 30. I definitly should of done more research but that is my fault not theirs and I will have to make it work by saving and taking them one at a time. Also i only recently found out about the health effects of having them on an all seed diet can do so i am in the process of trying to switch them to pellets. right now im doing half seed half pellet. i usually just get seed from walmart and right now im using zzupreem fruity. But a friend sent me a box of all different kinds of pellets she couldnt use so im not sure how i should use them. if someone can give me advice I can write a list of what she gave me and how much of it. I just dont want it to go to waste and its saving me money so any advice helps

 

[carolyn17603]

sorry what I was saying was it makes sense to have their diet straightened out and on pellets and just one kind before I spend the money on the blood work. that way i also know its accurate and the foods arent making a difference and i can work on whats wrong from there

 

[waterfaller1]

Anytime I go near my avian vet I can count on $200.-$500. Getting Yuna well cost me nearly $1500.00. We just came from the vet today, and it was over $200.00 for Elf's first visit. My vet is on the higher end,pricewise. The other issue is actually finding a certified avian vet in your area. There are not many who actually are certified.

 

[Milo]

While I would choose certified over not certified every time, it is not the end all factor in whether or not a vet is knowledgeable. For instance, I am very fortunate to live in the same city as the only certified avian vet in IL, but if I were to live in northern IL I know there are 2-3 wonderful vets whom I could trust with my fids' care but are not certified.

Care for exotics in general is going to cost more than a cat or a dog because of the specialization needed. There are very, very few actual programs that have instruction in their treatment which leaves vets to find internships, conferences, and do an immense amount of self-study in order to get these specializations. It also costs more to train their staff properly. Having a CVT/LVT/RVT on staff to read the CBCs rather than sending them to an outside lab and having the ability to treat hospitalized patients will cost more, but result in better quality of care for the animals.

If your birds have never had pellets, it may take weeks to months to get them to accept the pellets as food. Finding a pellet that they'll actually eat can also be a challenge. I was very lucky with Josie, but Milo was a pain in the rear to convert.

 

[waterfaller1]

Oh, and, hello, I'm new here.

Hello Snow Owl, welcome to Avian Avenue! Please introduce and tell us a little about yourself in our welcome forum.

 

[Stevo]

wow that is really expensive and was not expecting that at all. I cant believe bloodwork costs that much. I figured with the vet fee and blood work it would be around 100? I was way off. I did not know birds could be so expensive. They are more then a dog in vet fees. I definitly thought I was getting a deal when i found the senegal for 45 and the bh for 30. I definitly should of done more research but that is my fault not theirs and I will have to make it work by saving and taking them one at a time. Also i only recently found out about the health effects of having them on an all seed diet can do so i am in the process of trying to switch them to pellets. right now im doing half seed half pellet. i usually just get seed from walmart and right now im using zzupreem fruity. But a friend sent me a box of all different kinds of pellets she couldnt use so im not sure how i should use them. if someone can give me advice I can write a list of what she gave me and how much of it. I just dont want it to go to waste and its saving me money so any advice helps

Over their lifespan they work out much cheaper than dogs

 

[JAM]

Birds are certainly expensive vet wise and in our first year of parrot FID ownership I've spent around $1000 covering three of them including the one that passed away. If I'd known what I do now then maybe the fees and trips would have been lower, one might have been alive still, but hindsight is a truly annoying thing! I need a time machine as I am sure a few of us would like!

Mstar's last trip was just a visit fee which was $50 but the previous visit topped $350 for the PBFD test among other tests. I've used two avian vets and have been happy with both of them on knowledge and the upfront costs they have given and allowed me to consider options rather than just going ahead with anything and surprising me with the $$$$'s!!!

 

[cute_lil_fiend]

My current avian certified vet charges about $50 for a basic checkup, sans bloodwork, which looks to be on the low side. She did not suggest any tests for my bird based on his current state of healthiness. Bloodwork in the past has cost me hundreds easily for each sickness.

Parrots can easily be the most costly pet to have in the event of major, or even multiple minor instances of illness due to the small number of knowledgeable vets, difficulty of proper diagnosis, and lack of insurance. That's why I'll never have more than one.

 

[waterfaller1]

Parrots can easily be the most costly pet to have

Horses are extremely expensive if they need serious health care. Even routine care...

 

[cute_lil_fiend]

Should have been more specific and said small-mid sized pets. But I know what you mean... 10 k+ for colic surgery? *faints* And that's why I lease.

 

[dolldid]

when i took mango visite was $85.00 then blood test when i left was over $300.00 cant remembe tok to get nails done they filed in a week they were back as bad $118.00 they wanted to do gram thing first visite and something else would have cost over $500 but i said when blood work comes back ill decide blood work came back good so did nothing now i have some one come to apt do nails ,,lol $35.00 and nails are cut then filed

now did i miss somerhin g you say she hasnt laid an egg are you breeding if so you need moneys for vets , if not breeding why should sh ebe laying eggs just a question sorry

i havent had Mango to a vets sents

 

[Ziggymon]

With parrots, once they are old enough to have all of their adult features (feather coloring, eye color, etc.), even a highly experienced vet will only be able to guess at their age until they are old enough to have developed geriatric conditions.

 

[Margaret]

I pay $80 basic checkup for single bird + additional costs for whatever needs to be done(x-ray, blood, medicine etc.)

Last visit with Chico(cockatiel) was something over $400
Mango(budgie) emergency (night hours) was close to $500

 

[tozie12]

twiggy's emergency (tho not night time hours) visit yesterday was $200. that was with me telling the vet upfront that i'm sorry but its a bad time of year, i already spent most of my extra money this month and unfortunately money IS a concern. They didnt skimp on what they thought needed doing for her, but that set the idea that unnecessary, or irrelevant tests should be skipped. such as xrays. we could've done 'em but what's the point? it wouldnt have altered the treatment plan one bit. it just would've told us what was underneath the surface. instead, they used deductive reasoning to decide what was happening inside. since she was a first time patient (tho i'm an established client from caleb) i paid the higher first visit fee. since it was an emergency, they had to call in the clinician (basically head of the dept) so i had to pay extra for that, too.

 

[Bokkapooh]

With parrots, once they are old enough to have all of their adult features (feather coloring, eye color, etc.), even a highly experienced vet will only be able to guess at their age until they are old enough to have developed geriatric conditions.

And many birds that have had a rough poor life that causes poor health can develope "geriatric" conditions. So even then it's hard to say with parrots.

 

[sukh]

Rio my DYH Amazon just broke his leg a few days ago, i walked out of the vet with a $660 vet bill, and will most likely pay around another $300 for his follow up appt. That was no blood work, just exrays, splinting his leg and medecine.