Scooter's checkup

[entrancedbymyGCC]

He's been pronounced a healthy bird. He does have a degree of polyuria but his fecal gram stain was pronounced normal (90% positive, 4% negative, <2% yeast that was considered a normal finding). Because he appears to be very healthy in all other respects and his diet is notably high in fresh foods, the vet did not recommend any more intrusive diagnostics. So that's all good.

I find I'm having mixed feelings about our vet, though. I'm in kind of a grumpy mood these days which may have something to do with it. I seem to hear most vets taking blood even when the clinical signs are all normal -- I don't want the expense or risk, but I also don't want to miss something that could have been cured. She keeps birds herself, and she appears to see mostly exotics including parrots , but she is at a general pet practice and she's not a credentialed specialist or a member of AAV. She did mention AAV publications to me, however, but her name isn't in the member list. She is much closer to home than any dedicated avian practices I've identified, so I'm constantly fretting over it being the right choice. Since I'm in the Los Angeles area, I do have more than one "real" avian vet "in the city" but while this kind of puts me in fat city compared to some locations, traffic can render 20 miles a lot less reachable than it would be if it were the next town over in a less populated area.

In this case, I'm a little disappointed by the visit, but mostly for non-medical reasons except the question of "don't do unnecessary diagnostics" vs. "thorough". Her manner was a little talking-down which I don't take well, although she was very open to discussion, and I asked them to go ahead and clean up his wing trim. On the positive side, they were happy to do it to my specifications -- on the negative, he was VERY unhappy with the restraint, he fought their handling of his wings, and when I got home I found they'd missed a couple of feathers... all that for $25. I talked to her on the phone today about the fecal gram stain results and she was very pleasant -- I chose not to bitch about the wing trim.

Am I just being a PITA?

[patdbunny]

I feel it's important to shop around. Also, how did you find her and what's her reputation?

Way back when it was pretty important for a vet to be avian certified as the regular ol' vets just knew NOTHING about birds. Now, I think not so much depending on the vet's reputation.

While I never ever hope any of my birds get sick, I am waiting for the opportunity to check out a vet in No. San Diego county that I've heard super things about - and he's not avian certified.

One of the avian certified vets here in San Diego I stopped going to, not because I had any issues w/ him, but his office practices. I liked him very much, but sometimes he'd be out of town and his staff wouldn't tell you; they'd take in your bird, it'd die, you get charged and he never even saw the bird. It didn't actually happen to me, but it happened to several people I knew. I did get some inconsistant info and rudeness from his staff which ultimately caused me to stop using him.

Doesn't really hurt to shop around and feel comfortable with whoever you're using. It's your valuable earned money; and your valued bird's life.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

She was recommended by one of the local bird-oriented pet stores, the one closest to our location. I checked as much as I could about her online and she was raved about by several small bird owners. I called around to all the more local vets I'd identified as even seeing birds, and she was the one that sounded most confident and knowledgeable. She does keep birds herself, and she'd even seen a Cape parrot before. She's only in the office 3 days a week, but she's sometimes at the local emergency clinic when she isn't and she's the only vet there that treats birds at all. The nearest "true" avain vets are in "the valley" and down in Santa monica -- we're near Pasadena.

That anecdote about the office staff is just scary. I don't think I'd see a vet that I didn't actually SEE at least during the initial admit. This vet's office staff is a bit idiosyncratic. This was only the third visit and it does take time to build a rapport.

I think I'm suspecting we both had a bit of an off day. I've not been in a good mood lately and as much as I try not to take it out on people, it does color things.

[patdbunny]

"Annoyed" is putting it mildly for how these people I knew felt. They weren't novice bird keepers. They said if they had known all that was going to be done for the bird was for the techs to put them on heat pads in the back room, they would have taken the birds home and done what they could for them - which would have been more than just putting the animal on heat.

They had a rapport with the vet's office. They really weren't expecting what happened.