Valley Exotics, which is based at Valley Veterinary Hospital in Gwaelod y Garth, Cardiff, has been endorsed by the European College of Zoological Medicine (ECZM) as a training site.
This means that the practice will be able to offer a three-year residency for up to two qualified vets who want to specialise in avian medicine.
Valley Exotics is the only veterinary hospital in Wales to have become an approved ECZM training site and is one of two such sites in the UK.
Training will be supervised by Dr Tariq Abou-Zahr, a vet at Valley Exotics with a special interest in avian medicine, and a European and Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons-recognised veterinary specialist in Zoological Medicine (Avian Medicine and Surgery).
The accreditation was awarded after Valley Exotics submitted evidence to the ECZM education committee to show it meets the college’s criteria for being able to provide the knowledge, facilities and equipment required to train the vets of the future.
Valley Exotics has state-of-the-art facilities designed to provide the highest levels of care to its patients, including separate waiting rooms for birds, small mammals and reptiles, and heated wards for species who prefer a warmer climate, as well as a separate ward for wildlife patients.
It also benefits from an endoscopy suite, CT scanner and in-house laboratory, plus it has post-mortem facilities.
Tariq said the hospital is very proud to have met the high standards demanded by the ECZM assessors.
He said: “We are delighted to have been awarded the training accreditation and I am looking forward to helping vets who want to specialise in avian medicine achieve their career goals.
“It’s great to be able to offer vets this opportunity and without training hospitals like ours, we wouldn’t be able to have more specialists.
“This is very important because there is an increasing demand from clients for specialist veterinary care for their pets.”
As well as treating exotic pets, Valley Veterinary Hospital provides care to small animals across Cardiff and The Valleys. Valley Vets also has veterinary practices in Cardiff, Caerphilly, Ystrad Mynach and Pentyrch.
