IMPORTANT CHANGES
Please read
note at the bottom of this page!!!
I approach retirement and the
closure of the practice with very mixed feelings. Running
a veterinary practice dealing only with avian and exotic
species has been a unique experience. I have journeyed from
experimental trial and error treatments in the early days to
much more sophisticated techniques in the 21st century. The
Association of Avian Veterinarians has played a big part in
my professional career. Since attending my first AAV
conference in Hawaii in 1987 and realising that other people
were doing what I was doing, I have watched the Association
grow and develop, together with the progression and change
of focus of avian medicine and surgery. I am proud to have
been a part of that group, to have served on its Board, and
to Chair its European Committee. I have been privileged to
visit cities and countries I might not otherwise have seen,
and I have met some good people along the way and remain
friends with many of them.
I am also still actively
serving the Parrot Society UK as its Vice-Chairman, having
previously been a long-term Council Member and past
Chairman. I have watched parrot keeping evolve and change
over the years: many of the large breeding collections are
gone, importation and quarantine have mostly ceased, and
gone are the days of travelling around the country with my
'surgical sexing' (endoscopy) equipment. We now deal much
more with pet companion parrots, but still encounter
problems relating to diet and mismanagement through lack of
correct information.
The Veterinary Profession
is a small group of diverse characters, and those that deal
with avian and exotic species are even more specialised. I
am pleased and proud to number these people as my friends
and colleagues. My early ventures in to avian medicine were
supported and stimulated by such people as Professor John
Cooper, Jamie Samour, and Brian Coles in the UK, and Dr Greg
Harrison in the USA.
I have always ploughed my
own furrow and 'done my own thing', but I could not have got
where I am without the love help and support of people close
to me on the way. My grandfather Frederick, who taught
me about birds and gardens. My parents Mary & Ken, who
gave my brother Keith and me a loving and supportive home
life and saw us both through school and college to our
chosen careers. The Whitgift School in Croydon that
educated me soundly, and the Royal Veterinary College in
London that finished the process. The group of
students graduating in 1970 was a very strong clan, and many
of its survivors still meet regularly to this day. My first
love and first wife Sue, with whom I had two wonderful
children Tiffany and Barnaby, and now of course Tilly and
Jacob, born to Tiffany and Duncan. Then there were
another Sue and Joni, who helped me take that first
dangerous step in to the big wide world of working for
myself. After them came Elaine, who always believed in
me and supported me in her own way.
People working with me and
for me include Brenda, who kept on top of my paperwork for
many years. Don, who still manages my website.
Andrew and Shelley my long-suffering accountant and bank
manager respectively who have given incredible support. And
finally of course the wonderful Gemma Claxton, reptile and
small mammal nurse extraordinaire, and the unique
Gail Masters, bird-keeper and handler of outstanding
ability. I thank them both for their hard work,
unswerving loyalty and support and wish them well in their
future careers, which inevitably will still involve animals.
Last but no means least are
the clients - interesting, varied, eccentric, loveable,
funny, irritating, annoying, exasperating, but always there
and without whom of course I would not have had a career!
I thank you
all, past and present, and look forward to remaining in
touch with many of those I have mentioned.