I have mixed thoughts about CA&E. Our pigeons have been going there since we have had them. They have been seen by Dr. Pesek, Dr. Wilson and Dr. Starkey, each of whom has brought a range of skills and knowledge to the job, each of which has had a unique and talented approach to the practice.



Extraordinary care, especially hospital stays, are an entirely different matter. One of our birds ate the wrong thing, and was committed to care surgery &c. at CA&E. The surgery was difficult, and not entirely successful; I am unqualified to assess this. But a couple days later, when I went to see our baby, she had developed pneumonia. This had apparently escaped the attention of the CA&E staffer bringing the bird to the visit though the gasping and wheezing and rales were audible and obvious.



Clearly no one had reported it to her attending vet, who was visibly surprised when I pointed this out to him. Yet CA&E staff and management adamantly asserted that they had not been negligent, and no one had been "blind-sided".



My darling companion died of this hospital-acquired pneumonia (always considered a medical mistake) and care that was clearly inept. Her poor little body was wasted away; starvation and consequent weakness was clearly no small part of her lonely and painful death.



So: While the veterinarian employees seem fine, the management, nursing and hospital staff appear inept, at best. It is clear that the veterinarian who owns the practice was not at all involved in the management of the practice.



My greatest regret is that I did not immediately remove my companion from the inhumane care at the hands of these olent, stultissimous "vet-care merchants", and at least bring her home to die in some comfort. That course of action, so obvious in retrospect, was not something CA&E management would suggest; it would have curtailed their billing by half.



CA&E was at the time the only show in town for our companion birds. That is no longer the case, and I have found other, equally competent veterinary care -- from the same veterinarians who have since left CA&E.



I certainly do not recommend the Center for Avian & Exotic Medicine, Other veterinary practices now have suitably experienced and qualified small-animal/avian/exotic veterinary staff and are as accessible as CA&E.