Caring for unusual pets requires special care and equipment. That’s where we come in.
The Unusual Pet Vets are the trusted experts when it comes to caring for pet birds, reptiles, ferrets, mice and rats, guinea pigs, amphibians and even fish.
Exotic pets are very good at hiding signs of illness. Therefore, regular health checks are essential for your unusual pet’s health and happiness. While it is interesting and exciting, it can also be difficult to know whether your pet is healthy and that their husbandry requirements are being met.
When it comes to exotic pet health, there is a large amount of misinformation out there. But our knowledge and experience extend past the norm. We are the trusted experts when it comes to the health and wellbeing of extraordinary animals.
Ensuring your pet is up to date with their vaccinations is very important to prevent deadly diseases. Vaccinations involve your pet having a small injection under their skin that allows their body to become familiar with the inactivated disease particles. That way if they are ever exposed to the real disease, they are ready to fight it.
Currently, in Australia, there are no commercially available vaccines for parrots, reptiles, amphibians, guinea pigs, rats, or mice. However, we routinely vaccinate rabbits and ferrets, and recommend it an important part of their preventative health program.
All exotic pets can be microchipped. We routinely microchip snakes, lizards, birds, rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs, rats and even turtles.
As part of the microchipping procedure, we register the unique code with a national registry so that when a lost or displaced animal presents to our clinic, or any clinic for that matter, the first thing we do is scan them using our microchip scanner. The lucky pets are reunited with their rightful owner, but those that are not microchipped often never find their way back home and are re-homed.
Are your pet’s nails getting a little sharp? Many pet’s, particularly those kept indoors, often don’t wear down their nails as they naturally would if they were out in the wild. Over time this leads to them becoming sharp and overgrown. Some nails will even curl back on themselves and start to dig into your pets foot which can be very painful.
We recommend regularly nail clipping for rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets, many birds, some reptiles as well as some rats.
We offer free nail clipping with any consultation as well as a service on its own (without a consultation) for a small fee. To book your pet in just give us a call.
We can perform wing clipping on some feathered friends. However, it is a service that requires consideration. We recommend that you think about and discuss with your veterinarian the reasons you are clipping them and what you hope to achieve.
It is important to consider your bird’s environment and how not having the same level of flight might impact them. If you would like to have a more detailed discussion about the pros and cons with one of our vets, make an appointment with your local Unusual Pet Vets team.
Surgery is often necessary for a range of problems that occur in unusual pets. While any surgery or anaesthetic has risks, exotic species often have a higher anaesthetic risk than dogs and cats. We minimise the risks of anaesthesia as much as possible to ensure a comfortable, safe, and smooth procedure for your pet.
All our practices have specialised exotic animal anaesthesia and surgical equipment to treat animals as small as 20g. Weather your pet requires a routine surgical procedure or emergency surgery, you can trust that your exotic pet is in safe hands.
Sterilisation (otherwise known as desexing or neutering) is recommended for many exotic pets. There are many health and behavioural benefits from sterilising your exotic pet. It is an important preventative health care measure and prevents any unwanted and unexpected pregnancies.
We recommend that rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs and rats should all be routinely desexed to prevent a range of issues. In some cases, sterilising your reptile or bird is also indicated for the prevention of some diseases.
For more information, please contact your local Unusual Pet Vets team.
Dental disease is commonly seen in exotic pets. Unlike dogs and cats, the signs can vary species to species, and they can be subtle. If left untreated, it can cause discomfort and severe health issues.
For this reason, regular dental checks are recommended for rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets and dragons. Regular cleanings for the likes of ferrets and bearded dragons is also recommended to prevent and remove plaque and tartar build-up.
At The Unusual Pet Vets, we have specialised equipment that allows us to perform a range of dental procedures on exotic pets to prevent dental disease development and treat impacted, overgrown, infected and abscessed teeth.
A bird’s outer beak is made of keratin and grows continuously much like our fingernails. Birds generally wear down their beak naturally and do not usually require regular beak trimming. However, there are some cases where birds develop an abnormal beak, or their beak becomes overgrown, and correction is necessary to prevent health conditions.
If not corrected, an overgrown beak can prevent birds from performing daily tasks such as climbing, preening, and eating, as well as developmental problems, nutritional deficiency, illness, or it can also be due to trauma or injury.
If you are concerned about your bird’s beak, please get in touch with us.
There are many infectious diseases that our unusual pets can carry, some of these are zoonotic which means they may be transferrable to humans.
Many exotic animals are good at hiding signs of illness. While they may outwardly appear healthy, they can harbour subclinical infections that can be transmitted to other pets in a collection or in the home. Disease screening is especially important for new pets being introduced.
We offer a range of disease screening test options for all species of exotic pets. For more information, please contact your local Unusual Pet Vets team.
Faecal testing is a great way to screen your pet for internal parasites such as worms and coccidia, which, left untreated, can be life-threatening to many species. It can also be beneficial if your pet has diarrhoea or other gastrointestinal signs (including weight loss), as faecal tests can help determine what may be causing your pet to be unwell.
In most cases, we perform faecal testing on the spot, and you will have the results within 10-15 minutes of the sample being taken.
Early detection and intervention are essential for your exotic pet’s health. Faecal testing can provide a lot of information about the status of your pet’s gastrointestinal health.
It is often necessary for people with multiple animals to know the sex of their animals, either to avoid breeding or to allow breeding to occur. We recommend the use of DNA sexing for avian species as it is a safe method that provides accurate results.
For reptilian species there is a range of different techniques that can be used to sex your animals. These include probing, ‘popping’, sexual dimorphism, endoscopy, radiography and ultrasonography.
We offer all of these services and the type of sexing method used depends entirely on the age and species. For further information on which method would be most appropriate for your pet, contact us.
Our clinics are very well equipped, and we have access to a fantastic range of laboratory and imaging equipment that make diagnosing what is going wrong with your exotic pet much easier.
Our laboratory equipment allows us to run various tests to evaluate how your pet’s organs are functioning. These tests can all be performed in-house, providing quick and accurate results.
Diagnostic imaging involves the use of radiographs, ultrasound endoscopy, CT or sometimes MRI to assess inside your pet’s body. Imaging is taken of internal structures such as bone, soft tissue and major organs as well as look for foreign objects, obstructions, and lesions.
