Cross Breeds

Can a veterinarian specialize in exotic animals and in dogs/cats?

I was wondering if a veterinarian can treat both exotic animals (ex. guinea pigs, chinchillas, ferrets, etc.) as well as dogs and cats? Obviously, a vet must take other courses to obtain the license to treat exotic animals. Let's say a small animal veterinarian (treats dogs/cats) decides to specialize in exotic animals. Once the vet obtains the license, can they treat BOTH dogs, cats and exotics? Thanks for your help :)

Public Comments

1. Of course! I have a lot of reptiles, and my vet sees cats, dogs, rabbits, ferrets, parrots, turtles, iguanas, snakes, etc, etc.
2. Yea :) we just whatched a video on it in school
3. You can decide to treat pretty much whatever you want. You will need to take the right courses and get licenced to treat the species, but you can do it. There are some clinics that do offer treatment to petty much all pet species (other than livestock or farm animals). However, there are multiple vets working at these clinics and one vet will probably not be treating all the species that the clinic sees. There are some smaller clinics as well, but there is usually a vet for the cats and dogs and one for the other species. It's not that you can't do it, just that is will be hard to do and talk a lot of time and work.
4. When vets decide to specialize in 'pocket pets' or 'exotics' they take courses that have an emphasis on those types of animals, They continue to 'practice' on dogs and cats because those animals supply the bulk of the income, and most people with the exotic pets don't take them to vets, due to the cost. The cost of taking exotics to a vet is much higher because the tools used are specialized, and many exotics, like rabbits, are sensitive to the medications used on most animals. It costs me 50 dollars to park at the vet when I take my dog in, but if I take a rabbits- I have yet to come away spending less than 150 dollars--