How I knew I was at the wrong vet...

[CrystalinNC]

The first time I took one of my birds to a vet...I thought as long as they were considered an avian vet, then I was fine. So when the receptionist said that the avian vet wasn't in that day, but would be in the next...I thought I had struck gold!
UnTIL...
the tech walked in and wanted to look under my cockatiel's "skirt" to see if it was male or female...because I had listed ? under gender.
I replied that if she could tell that by looking, then I wanted to know that trick...
Let's just say, I didn't go back there. :susp:

So have any of you had that moment where you were thinking....
Oh NOOOOO, I can't trust these folks with my babies?

[Don]

What - you didn't give the Vet tech time to get her steel washer and string out so she could determine gender by aurel energy ?? Probably would only have added $65 to the bill....

Sometimes I think Vets want us dumbed down so they can get away with crap like that !! Hope you find a competent Vet close by.

[MaryG1959]

a sign of a good vet is one who encourages our knowledge....

I'm always talking to my vet about studies I find.....if she tells me something, I look it up and do my own research.:rolleyes:

She likes it that way!!:o

[CrystalinNC]

What - you didn't give the Vet tech time to get her steel washer and string out so she could determine gender by aurel energy ?? Probably would only have added $65 to the bill....

Sometimes I think Vets want us dumbed down so they can get away with crap like that !! Hope you find a competent Vet close by.


Oh yes, I have found a wonderful vet! I did some research and asked questions after that first fiasco...
they amost killed my bird too....
the new vet couldn't get over the antibiotic "cocktail" they had prescribed...he said it appeared that he was using the old method of "if it doesn't kill em it will cure em".
Buddy actually had seizures after a few doses of the antibiotics they gave him...I guess it was wayyyyy overdosing him.
He's been treated at a competent vet though...so he's all better now, and trying to look up the new babies' skirts to see if I brought him some girls! :rofl::rofl:

[FoxersArtist]

OH, I SO have had someone do this before. The only difference is that it was TO ME while I was pregnant with Katie. I looked at her like she had a third eyeball but she continued and gleefully exclaimed that it was a girl for certain. This could possibly give credibility to her magical washer-on-a-string-trick but I had just told her 5 minutes previous to the act that the Drs. told me it was a girl.
-Anna

What - you didn't give the Vet tech time to get her steel washer and string out so she could determine gender by aurel energy ?? Probably would only have added $65 to the bill....

Sometimes I think Vets want us dumbed down so they can get away with crap like that !! Hope you find a competent Vet close by.

[CrystalinNC]

Well Anna...she had to do the washer on a string thing to make SURE! :rofl:

[bonnie]

When I first got Chicken, and was very new to birds, I took him to a vet to have his wings and nails trimmed. They put him under for this proceedure!!! I was shocked at the time, but I thought it was normal. Once I knew otherwise, I never went back!

[Don]

""They put him under for this proceedure!!!""

"Vets" that are afraid of birds do that........

[Anne-Samantha's Mom]

eeek...looking under a cockatiels skirt to determine gender....eek had that done told she was a boy

[The Nest Gang]

When I first got Chicken, and was very new to birds, I took him to a vet to have his wings and nails trimmed. They put him under for this proceedure!!! I was shocked at the time, but I thought it was normal. Once I knew otherwise, I never went back!

OMG!!!!! Now that is scarey!!! What idiots!! :mad:

[too&me]

What a risk to take with Chickens well being just for a trim. -That was more frightening to me than the string trick, it is possible they were just playing about the skirt?

[CrystalinNC]

No, she was serious, because when I made the comment about letting me in on the secret, she became confused, and asked the vet to show her how to check.This let me know that she had no experiences with birds whatsoever...should have been a red flag. I wanted to see if anyone else had red flags, maybe if we went over them, then newcomers here would kind of know what to look for. Also, if you see a red flag, don't stay like I did and think that everything will be OK...because it almost wasn't.

[Sashagirl]

I was recently talking to a bird friend who took her bird to an avian vet who refused to see certain birds.Like Cockatoos,Macaws and any of the larger birds.I thought the whole point of being an avian vet was just that to treat them all.Whoever heard of picking and choosing?


I recently switched AV due to the fact I had been using my old AV for 12-13 years.They were well aware that I did rescue and took in rehomes.Well they sold the business and in all the years I always paid my bills.One time I asked to be billed and was only for about $200 they refused it was a bird that needed to be seen.I couldn't believe it after all the business I brought in I found out it wasn't about my animals but the money.My current AV used to work for them but she started her own practice and she makes house calls.My bills are half of what they used to be and she cares about my birds and me and she works with me and bills us.She saw that bird without a problem.The tests that she performs are what's necessary and not to just run up the bill.

[phonelady61]

Yes I have run into the same thing before when i had my bigger birds and knew so when the receptionist asked if this was a big bird and I said yes she is a scarlet macaw ,oh no dr does not see big birds ! Well anybody that know me knows I am italian and I pretty much speak my mind . I asked her if he was an avian vet and she said yes he is . I politely said oh no he is not cause avian vets see all birds no matter what size plain and simple . I knew I was at the wrong vet then too .