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Bristol Zoo offers exotic pet support to local vet surgery

Bristol Zoo Gardens' vet department has launched a weekly exotic pet consultancy at a local vet practice.

The new service is a referral only facility for vets wishing to send their furry, feathery or scaly patients to the Zoo's team of highly specialised exotic animal experts for further care.

Held at Highcroft Veterinary Surgery in Whitchurch, Bristol, the clinic will accept referred cases from all over the country.

Bristol Zoo's head of veterinary services, Sharon Redrobe, is an RCVS Recognised Specialist in Zoo & Wildife Medicine and has guest lectured at vet conferences all over the world.

Sharon has seen plenty of unusual patients during her career - from checking a tarantula or operating on a parrot, to vaccinating tortoises, x-raying a lizard or carrying out dental surgery on a ferret - no two days are ever the same.

She said: "This is the first time Bristol Zoo has been involved with an exotic pet veterinary outreach service and it is a great opportunity to use the knowledge and skills we have developed here at the Zoo and apply them to the birds, reptiles and other exotic animals that people keep as pets at home.

"It is also a great way of raising the welfare of pet exotic animals as well as sharing our skills and training with other veterinary professionals. We are pleased to be working with Highcroft Veterinary Surgery which is a fantastic practice and has the highest possible standards for a veterinary hospital to achieve."

Sharon established Bristol Zoo's vet service in 1999 and the department gained Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons(RCVS) Centre of Excellence in Zoo Medicine status in 2005, which it has since retained.

If you are a veterinary surgeon wishing to refer animals to Sharon for treatment please telephone
Highcroft Veterinary Surgery on referral number: 01275 838 473
or email enquiries@highcroftvet.co.uk.

For more information please visit the website at www.highcroftvet.co.uk