Something to think about.

[Kevin]

Questions to think about:

How many patients per day should an avian practitioner see to evoke your confidence?

How many veterinary practices in the United States treat ONLY birds?









































Answer = Less than SIX !

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[jamieo]

Where did you come up with an answer of 6 for those questions? That's absurdly low. I don't see how most vets could exclusively focus on birds, only see 6 per day and make enough money to stay in business.

[mamalovesrico]

The last one I expected. The first one, I agree, how could someone stay in business if that's the amount of patients seen a day. Guess it kinda answers why there are only 6 practices that see only birds.

[jamieo]

Originally Posted by mamalovesrico

The last one I expected. The first one, I agree, how could someone stay in business if that's the amount of patients seen a day. Guess it kinda answers why there are only 6 practices that see only birds.

True... I would imagine those 6 are in the largest cities in the US or in an area with an above average number of bird owners (or perhaps in areas with a large number of poultry farms?). In a typical US city I doubt the population of bird owners (with the subset that regularly takes their companion birds to the vet) could support an avian only vet. The vet I take my birds to is a "regular" vet who is certified to see exotic animals of all sorts... birds, reptiles, sugargliders, etc.

[FeathersNFur8]

Originally Posted by keev

Questions to think about:
How many patients per day should an avian practitioner see to evoke your confidence?
How many veterinary practices in the United States treat ONLY birds?

Answer = Less than SIX !
==========================

Question #1 - Using my AV as an example, my answer would have been 6 also. I have visited my AV on average, every 3 weeks for the past six months. Each appointment has taken at least 1 1/2 hours. They will spend at least 10 - 15 minutes just talking to me, so that Kady gets used to them before they even ask him to step up. Toweling him is done slow so as to train him, that it will not hurt him, etc. Other bird appointments that I have seen while there, are given equally long amounts of time.

Question #2 - I had no idea to the answer. The office I go to has 2 avian practitioners and 1, what I would call a regular Vet. They do treat all animals, but are best known for treating exotics.

[jimpierce7]

The local aviary vet here sees only birds but I do believe she shares her office with somebody.

[Tiki]

My AV doesn't work every day, but he does make housecalls to large aviaries/breeders on his days off. On days I have gone in during the after work hours time period, I have seen 3 or 4 birds waiting for appointments, not to mention how many he sees during the day. He writes for local bird mags and gives several lectures a year at bird club meetings and is considered one of the top AV's in Australia. He does see other animals, There probably aren't enough bird patients to support a whole practice.

[Alyce Johnson]

My AV sees only birds. I'm surprised there arent more exclusive AVs, esp given the size of the poultry industry.

Mine actually employs a full time partner in the practice, too. He's got breeders and private owners coming to him from an hour or more away (each way) so he's serving a rather large area. But there is also a bird hospital (which implies it is avian only) in San Francisco, too.

I see Dr Brian Speer, who also writes books, talks to bird clubs & does all kinds of industry stuff - veternary type stuff. I assume given where he is located (Oakley CA in our Central Valley, where there is lots of poultry farming) that he also does industrial veternary work, for the poultry farming concerns. If you do a google search on him you'll see that he's involved in an amazing array of other projects - all avian related - such as journal articles and professional speaking engagements for other vets. I'm sure all of that boosts income, but even so, he's not driving a Mercedes, I can tell you that.

But I'm betting they see way more than 6 patients a day - even in low rent Oakley I dont think you could possibly stay in business - much less pay a partner, and office staff and your vet techs - without doing significantly more business than that! On the one hand, they have always worked me in, whenever i thought I had an emergency. But I have sometimes had to wait a fair while. However, when they do see us, they take as much time as they need. It's never rushed, no matter how many others are waiting. They are very thorough with each patient.

Are you positive there's only 6?? That doesnt seem right given that CA's poultry industry is billions of $$ a year. And also, since I can point to 2 avian only practices right here in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, that would only leave 4 more for the entire US. How is that possible??

Maybe most see other exotics too? I do know Dr Speer caused quite a stir when he switched to birds and flatly refused to continue seeing his former non-feathered patients. One family is reported to have taped some feathers to their dog, in a humorous effort to get him to keep treating the animal...LOL