Exotic pets are popular, but there's a problem:

Finding a hospital for a sick animal can be difficult

Leilani Gallardo, USA TODAY

July 25, 2005, NEW YORK --

Felicia Holden knew something was not right. Her pet lorikeet, a brightly colored parrot named Otto, used to call for her to come by his cage for a kiss.

"He's funny," she says. "He would say things like, 'Come here, I'm a good bird.'"

But late last year, Otto stopped talking and began to fluff up his feathers more often, a sign that the bird was ill.

For months, Holden e-mailed other lorikeet owners from as far away as Germany and spoke with other parrot owners in New York, but they were clueless on Otto's condition.

A local pet store referred her to the newly opened Center for Avian and Exotic Medicine near her Upper West Side neighborhood. The center's veterinarian, Anthony Pilny, ran a battery of tests on Otto.

Holden later found out that the veterinarian forgot to turn on the heating pad to keep the iguana warm during the night.

The blood work revealed the culprit -- the parrot's sugar level was way beyond normal. Otto was diagnosed a diabetic bird.

Who knew parrots could become diabetic? But such is the work of the growing ranks of veterinarians who specialize in so-called exotic pets (basically anything other than a dog or cat) as more Americans welcome the creatures into their homes.

There are no available data on the total number of clinics or hospitals specializing in exotic animals in the USA, but it is one of the fastest-growing branches in veterinary medicine, says Jorg Mayer of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in North Grafton, Mass.

"We see a lot of our students, about 80%, taking advantage of our courses on exotics," he says.

Need for care is rising The increasing popularity of exotic animals as pets has boosted demand for the best health care available, prompting a lot of veterinarians to expand their practice from cats and dogs to birds, ferrets, rabbits and iguanas.

"The growth (in ownership of exotic pets) is likely because of the change in lifestyle," Mayer says.

He says that as more people live in buildings that don't have enough room for traditional pets, smaller animals and exotics have become an alternative.

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) lists exotic animals as fish, ferrets, rabbits, hamsters, birds, gerbils, rodents, turtles, snakes, lizards and livestock, among others.

According to a National Pet Owners Survey by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, Americans own about 73 million dogs and 90 million cats, and ownership of exotic pets jumped to 18.2 million in 2004 from 16.8 million in 2002.

But despite the popularity, pet owners have a hard time finding proper care for their exotic friends.

Before Holden took Otto, she had an iguana that she regularly took to a vet in New York. But when she moved to Wilmington, Ind., her iguana suddenly became weak, and its skin turned a strange pale brown. She took him to a veterinarian who said he was an expert on reptiles.

"He said he knew how to fix her, so I took her there, but when I picked her up the following day, she was white. And a couple of hours later she was dead," she says.

Holden later found out that the veterinarian forgot to turn on the heating pad to keep the iguana warm during the night.

Skip Nelson, a veterinarian based in Kirkland, Wash., says he sees a lot of "dabblers" among veterinarians who see exotic pets. "The concern is great, since a lot have stepped out of line and have risked losing their license for stepping over something they don't know," says Nelson, who specializes in exotics.

Such veterinarians usually perform procedures on exotic animals without proper training and end up harming the animals and violating general veterinary rules.

Despite an estimated 1.5 million exotic pets in New York City, Pilny's Center for Avian and Exotic Medicine is one of the few animal clinics in the city that specializes in them.

The clinic has equipment to perform ultrasound, remove tumors and do biopsies, and it has an isolation area for animals with contagious diseases. The clinic charges $350 to $400 for a routine physical exam that includes blood work and fecal analysis, almost double the $190 to $220 charged by other pet clinics in New York for a routine physical exam on dogs and cats.

Across town in Manhattan's Upper East Side is the Animal Medical Center, which has a unit specializing in exotics.

Laurie Hess, the medical center's board-certified avian specialist, says the hospital regularly treats animal tumors with radiation and chemotherapy. But she acknowledges that there are few places in New York, and even in the USA, that have enough facilities to operate on exotic animals.

Although no state laws prevent non-specialists from treating exotics, Hess says, general veterinarians need intensive training to properly care for the animals.

The Humane Society advises a prospective pet owner to find out whether veterinary care is available before buying an exotic animal.

The society's Richard Farinato says there are a lot of reports about exotic pets harming their owners because the animals were not placed in a proper environment or given the right kind of food.

After taking care of Otto and her pet iguana, Holden realizes having an exotic pet takes a lot more work than taking care of cats and dogs.

"I just have a lot of respect for doctors who treat birds in particular, because so many times when a bird gets sick, you lose them."

[Illustration] GRAPHIC, Color, Robert W. Ahrens, Source: National Pet Owners Survey by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (BAR GRAPH); PHOTOS, Color, Todd Plitt, USA TODAY (3)