Post by Scratchpost on Jul 23, 2022 10:29:42 GMT -7
Hi all,
Some of you might know that I took Aka to the vet last week for an infection he had in his intestines. This is the same vet who helped us with his feather cyst last year and is really thorough. When I asked the vet about Aka's health when he gave me Aka's medicine, he said something that I wasn't sure of. He said "I will have to remove your bird's old flight feathers under anesthetic or he will pluck the new ones that have formed." His flight feathers on his left wing have grown back completely and the vet wants to surgically remove the old ones instead of leaving them to fall out during the moulting process. I said that that operation would be extremely painful for him and he would need a lot of recovery time, and his response was "Yes, but it must be done." I didn't know this was a thing? I have asked a contact of mine who deals with Grey's a lot and she said she has never heard of this practice nor does she do that when she clips wings, because of my reasoning above.
I contacted another avian vet in my area and they said they haven't heard of that being done either. Could I have misunderstood what the vet meant by this? I plan to ask him about this when I settle my account with him, but if he's adamant that this operation should be done, should I find another vet? I can say no and keep him as my vet, but the fact that he asked to do this procedure that would cause a lot of pain and stress (possibly unnecessarily) makes me worried about this business ethics. This operation is extremely expensive and isn't covered by any pet insurances so I would have to fork out of my own pocket, and my first instinct was that he asked for the operation to make a bit of extra cash. Other than that, he is really good with Aka and seems really knowledgeable when I ask questions (which is often).
Any thoughts? What would you do in my position?
Thanks
Some of you might know that I took Aka to the vet last week for an infection he had in his intestines. This is the same vet who helped us with his feather cyst last year and is really thorough. When I asked the vet about Aka's health when he gave me Aka's medicine, he said something that I wasn't sure of. He said "I will have to remove your bird's old flight feathers under anesthetic or he will pluck the new ones that have formed." His flight feathers on his left wing have grown back completely and the vet wants to surgically remove the old ones instead of leaving them to fall out during the moulting process. I said that that operation would be extremely painful for him and he would need a lot of recovery time, and his response was "Yes, but it must be done." I didn't know this was a thing? I have asked a contact of mine who deals with Grey's a lot and she said she has never heard of this practice nor does she do that when she clips wings, because of my reasoning above.
I contacted another avian vet in my area and they said they haven't heard of that being done either. Could I have misunderstood what the vet meant by this? I plan to ask him about this when I settle my account with him, but if he's adamant that this operation should be done, should I find another vet? I can say no and keep him as my vet, but the fact that he asked to do this procedure that would cause a lot of pain and stress (possibly unnecessarily) makes me worried about this business ethics. This operation is extremely expensive and isn't covered by any pet insurances so I would have to fork out of my own pocket, and my first instinct was that he asked for the operation to make a bit of extra cash. Other than that, he is really good with Aka and seems really knowledgeable when I ask questions (which is often).
Any thoughts? What would you do in my position?
Thanks
