Pocket & Exotic Pets

Our Pocket & Exotic Pet Services at a Quick Glance:

Our Vets care for a large variety of companions, including small mammals, birds, and lizards. Whether your pet is visiting us for a routine health check, urgent care or for treatment of an ongoing illness, we have an experienced team ready to help.

We are able to cater for medical and surgical needs of:

If you are concerned about your pet please get in touch with us.

Rabbits & Guinea Pigs

Vaccinations 

Rabbits are given a vaccination to protect them against rabbit calicivirus disease.

Microchipping

Microchipping is available for your pocket pets. A vet will inject a small identification ‘chip’ under the skin on the back of the neck area where it remains for life. The animal owner details are registered to your pet’s unique chip number which can easily be detected with a scanner if your pet is found wandering, lost or injured and brought in to an animal shelter, the council, or a vet clinic.

Dentistry

Rabbits and guinea pigs have teeth that continually grow hence overgrown incisors (front teeth) and molars (cheek teeth) can occur. We often see rabbits with overgrown teeth due to poor diet or hereditary factors.

Speys/Neuters

We recommend desexing of both male and female rabbits. This makes them much easier to keep in pairs without the risk of unwanted offspring and reduces aggressive behaviour, and some cancers developing. 

The optimum time for speying female rabbits is around 5-6 months of age – before this age the surgery can be more difficult as the uterus and ovaries are very small and easily damaged. 

Male rabbits should be castrated at around 4-5 months but they can still be done at an older age if you’ve missed this ideal age. Also keep in mind that males can remain fertile for up to 6 weeks after being castrated so they should ideally be kept separate from any unspeyed females during this time.

Guinea pigs may be desexed at 5-6 months of age. It should be remembered that a female guinea pig shouldn’t have her first litter after 6 months of age, as pelvic bones become fused and can cause problems with labour.

Birds

Birds can make great pets, they are very intelligent and sociable, and easy to train from a young age. 

Budgies have a lifespan of anywhere from 5-12 years, cockatiels 10-15 years, and larger parrots can sometimes live for over 50 years.

We recommend that your bird has regular veterinary health check-ups. The Vet Services team will give them a physical examination, can trim and groom them if necessary, and run some in-house lab tests to check for any underlying health issues.

Lizards & Turtles

Preventative vet care is important for our exotic pets like dragons and terrapins. Reptiles don’t show signs of disease and illness the same way other companions do and often by the time we notice a reptile is unwell, the illness is advanced.

Regular health examinations to check for parasites, illness and disease will make for earlier diagnoses and better changes of recovery.

Rats & Mice

Rats & mice make for wonderful companion pets. They are social, clean and inquisitive with great personalities. We recommend that owners bring their pet rats & mice in for regular vet consultations and keep a close eye out for any changes in behaviour which could indicate illness. Rats & mice can be prone to respiratory issues, tumours, abscesses, mites and lice.  With an average lifespan of these pets is 2-3 years, they may start to show signs of ageing from 12 months and need a little extra attention to ensure they are comfortable.

OUR COMMUNITY, OUR ANIMALS.

PROVIDING EXCELLENT AND TRUSTED CARE

Pocket & Exotic Pets