I'm not saying that all vets will not see exotics. I am also not saying that people not familiar with certain species can't do a good job. But there are a lot of vets who will not see certain species of animals for various reasons. I have a friend who's a horse vet who absolutely loathes cats. I know people who love dog and cat medicine, but wouldn't touch a bird to save their soul. I know exotics vets who are so out of touch with dog medicine that if it's anything more complicated than vaccines, they would rather refer. You all seem to be saying that even if there's a choice to take an animal to a vet experienced in that species, you should just go with any vet, because all vets should be able to treat all species. Yeah, true in theory, but definitely not true in practice. Yes, we can look things up, call people who know more, but that doesn't mean that we're going to have a good outcome. You don't always have a good outcome if you call a specialist for a phone consult with a particular problem in a species you are familiar with. You wouldn't take your horse to a bird vet. You wouldn't take your rabbit to a pig vet. But you are suggesting that dog-and-cat vets should "know it all" and deal with all species, regardless of whether they know anything about that species or not. Sometimes you have little choice (e.g., overnights/weekends). If someone walked in with an obviously ill exotic, we would probably try to at least stabilize it before sending them to someone with more experience, as long as the owner was aware that it's not a species we see normally.
I would certainly be willing to see exotic pets, and it's one of the few things I don't like about the job I have now that we don't see them. However, we have a board-certified, well-known bird vet less than a mile away, and we have three or four vets that see reptiles and small mammals on a regular basis within a 15 minute drive, and several within an hour's drive (two of which do emergency). The staff I work with are not comfortable handling exotic pets - a couple of them have dealt with them at past jobs, 10 or more years ago, the rest have minimal to no experience. We do not have the equipment (or modified equipment) to handle the differences in anatomy (including size) and physiology of exotic pets. The owner of the practice where I work has made the decision that, with several other good options for exotics pets in this immediate area, our clients and their pets are better served by taking their pets to those vets who are equipped and more up to date on the peculiarities of their species; we have a lot of clients who would bring us their birds, bunnies, and lizards if we saw them, because they like us. But we don't see the exotics frequently enough to get comfortable with them, because we try to send them to vets who are.
Even if I were to make an exception and see an exotic, then I would have no staff to safely restrain the pet (both for the staff and the pet's safety - I wouldn't want a budgie to die due to incorrect handling, wouldn't want someone bit by a snake, or get a rabbit broken because someone didn't know what they were doing), I would have to be working with information that is at best second or third hand (even if I were to call an exotics vet for help by phone, maybe I'm not seeing something that is important). I may have minimal ability to perform certain diagnostics (pulling blood on a small bird or a rat isn't all that much fun, and can be difficult if they're not restrained properly, or very ill... lung x-rays on a turtle require that you be able to turn your xray tube head sideways... getting good x-rays on many species require anesthesia, and we don't have the drugs that are helpful for a smooth, safe anesthetic event for some of these species (we could *do* anesthesia and it would probably come out ok, but there are things you can do to make it safer, which we don't have)... there's dozens of examples). Some treatments may be difficult (intubating a bird isn't hard... but requires tubes of the right size. Intubating a rabbit is difficult, and also requires tubes of the right size. Giving fluids to an angry iguana isn't fun, especially if whoever's holding the iguana isn't comfortable doing so. Dosing meds for a rat can be kind of interesting if the smallest you've got is cat-sized.) I have the ability to perform good quality dog and cat medicine, with staff who can handle and restrain dogs and cats with (in most circumstances) fairly minimal stress and fuss. I do not have the facilities or staff to perform good quality exotics medicine.
This isn't to say that I haven't or wouldn't treat exotics... but at this point, it is not in the pet's best interest. There will always be circumstances when trying, even if one's not comfortable, is going to be the best option a particular pet has. I should hope that in this circumstance, most vets would try. But whenever there is an option, I think most vets would much rather that people take their pets to someone who is more comfortable with a particular species, if they themselves are not. We try to get our dog and cat patients to go to a specialist if a particular problem is beyond our capability to diagnose or treat optimally. We try to practice best medicine, which includes referring to specialists whenever necessary. But if someone can't go to the specialist for whatever reason (and there are a lot of reasons), we get the specialist on the phone, and do the best we can.
I don't get asked to see exotics very often, because I'm not answering the phone when people first call. The receptionists answer the phone, and give people the phone numbers of hospitals that do. It's a pretty uncommon circumstance (like, maybe 3-4 times in the last year) when I am directly asked if, just this one, I will see a _____. If there's a semi-legitimate reason that a patient can't be seen by someone with more experience, I would do it, but the owner is made aware that it's not a species we regularly work with. However, pretty much the only exotics I've seen have been been very sick pets for euthanasia, which is pretty depressing.
I want to eventually leave my current practice to go to a practice where I will be able to learn and practice exotics medicine as well as dog and cat medicine. In the meantime, I read journals, follow the online veterinary message boards, and try to do the best I can for the species our practice does see.
It would seem we've gotten rather off topic. Perhaps a mod should take all these posts and make a new thread, because the turn of conversation probably isn't helping the OP much...
