Avian veterinarians specialize in the care of birds, including companion birds, birds of prey, and domestic birds. There are no official university programs for avian medicine, but many veterinary organizations offer courses, mentoring, and internships. Certification is offered by organizations such as the American College of Avian Veterinarians and the Association of Avian Veterinaryians. Becoming an avian veterinarian requires rigorous training and experience, and some veterinary hospitals offer specialized courses in avian medicine.
An avian veterinarian is a common veterinarian who has training to specialize in the care of companion birds, birds of prey in nature reserves and zoos, and domestic birds. However, there are no official university programs to earn a degree in avian medicine. Many veterinary organizations offer extensive courses, mentoring and internships to specialize in the treatment and surgery of avian and exotic animals.
Avian veterinarian jobs often focus on the specific care of birds and the unique diseases that birds contract. Because birds have an anatomy and other characteristics such as breeding habits and digestive systems that are very different from the typical animals a veterinarian sees, an average veterinarian will often refuse to treat birds. The costs of taking a bird to an avian veterinarian are generally higher than what a typical veterinarian charges to treat pets. This is usually expected by bird pet owners who likely paid a large sum of money to acquire their birds in the first place. Avian veterinarians also perform surgeries on birds and have specialist knowledge of exotic species that are not easy to obtain elsewhere.
Certification is offered for some avian veterinary jobs by different organizations across the world. The American College of Avian Veterinarians (ACPV) in the United States is a certification board for veterinarians that requires an annual exam for certification and an avian residency to be completed after standard veterinary school. Another organization that supports avian veterinary medicine is the Association of Avian Veterinaryians (AAV). AAV services include continuing education courses, publication of scholarly articles in the Journal of the Association of Avin Veterinaryians, and periodic conferences for the interested avian veterinarian. The American College of Zoological Medicine (ACZM) is an international organization that is not an actual college but offers certification for an avian veterinarian and specializes in animals living in natural environments.
Because the duties of an avian veterinarian are highly specialized and expensive, training to become an avian veterinarian can be equally rigorous. AAV members are the most respected in the field. An avian veterinarian must practice avian medicine for six or more years before they can become members of the AAV.
Some veterinary hospitals also offer courses in avian medicine. One program offers a 54-week training course, open only to veterinarians with small animal experience and good recommendations. It trains veterinarians to become certified specialists in a wide variety of fields, from neurology and ophthalmology to radiation oncology. Radiology and cardiology are other training specialties for the treatment of birds that it includes. These programs certify an avian veterinarian in a wide variety of medical disciplines, from internal medicine, to emergency care, and specialties such as ultrasonography, echocardiography, and soft tissue and orthopedic surgery for poultry.
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