Adelaide Bird & Exotics Vet Centre offers the following services:
Consultations
Often small pets require veterinary attention for illness or injury. However, we also offer:
a. Annual wellness examinations. The idea is to ensure that your pet remains healthy so that it does not become unwell. By performing a physical exam and basic lab work to screen for disease and parasites, we can look at preventing problems, rather than just trying to fix a serious condition that has remained untreated for some time. In this consult we will review housing, diet and other preventative measures. For some species, this may coincide with a vaccination, but for other species, it is a stand-alone examination.
b. Behaviour consultations. These are scheduled for a longer time period than routine consultations, and thus have a higher fee. To maximise the value of these consultations, fill in the behaviour questionnaire and bring videos of the problem behaviour. Examples of situations of where behaviour consultations are performed include feather picking in birds and pair-bonding issues in rabbits.
Diagnostic testing
Just as with other pets, sometimes further testing is required to understand the disease that is affecting your pet.
a. Faecal testing for parasites, bacteria and yeast is commonly done for most pet species.
b. Blood tests to check for infection and organ disease can be performed for sick patients.
c. Tests for specific diseases such as Psittacosis, Psittacine beak and feather disease, Sunshine virus, or Encephalitozoon cuniculi in rabbits are also performed.
d. X-rays – detailed radiographs may assist in the diagnosis of both bone and soft tissue disease.
e. Water quality testing is offered for pets that live in an aquatic setting.
Surgery
A variety of surgical procedures are performed:
a. Routine neutering of rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, and ferrets.
b. Soft tissue surgery to remove an abscess or tumour.
c. Abdominal surgery to remove eggs, bladder stones or foreign bodies.
d. Orthopaedics – fracture repair of limbs
e. Dentals in small mammals, such as rabbit incisor extractions, dental abscess treatment and spur height reduction. Ferrets need dentals too to remove tartar and infected teeth.
Hospitalisation
Some small pets present very sick and benefit from 1 – 5 days in hospital. Temperature-controlled enclosures, nebulisation, assisted feeding and administration of medication are included in the hospitalisation fee.