VETERINARIANS TREAT MORE THAN DOGS AND CATS

Peter Gordon, left, discussed the health of his female cat, Pokey, with veterinary assistant Melissa Stokes and Dr. Wanda Pipkin.

Dr. Wanda Pipkin, left, attended to a goat that was brought in by its owner, Jami Steeg.

Around Cape Girardeau, it's raining more than cats and dogs. In fact, according to local veterinarians, it's raining iguanas and hedgehogs and cockatiels.

Local vets say that, while Cape Girardeans still own scads of dogs and cats, they own some very exotic pets as well. Though exotic pets don't always mean trouble, vets say they're often more difficult to care for than cats and dogs. Some exotics, they say, shouldn't even be pets at all.

Dr. Wanda Pipkin, a veterinarian at Merry Lea Animal Clinic in Jackson, said she's treated everything from small lizards to pythons, and from cockatiels to ostriches. Though she primarily takes care of cats and dogs, Pipkin said her clients' pets run the gamut.

Tom and Virgie Brown of Farmington have a pet cockatiel named Trevor, which they take to Pipkin every three months for a nail-trimming. Virgie said Trevor was given to her seven years ago as a retirement gift, and spends most of his time flitting around their house freely.

Trevor has a large vocabulary, Virgie said, and regularly announces that "Trevor is a pretty bird, baby." Tom said Trevor also says things like "Gimme a kiss" and "Hi, baby."

Virgie said Trevor has grown quite attached to the couple over the years. When Tom had hip-replacement surgery and was gone for two weeks, she said, Trevor moped around in his cage and refused to speak at all.

Besides the fact that Trevor likes to bite -- "hard," she added with a chuckle -- she and Tom have enjoyed their seven years with the little bird.

But some exotic pets, warned Pipkin, aren't as rewarding to own or as easy to care for as Trevor.

Pipkin said animals like the larger breeds of pythons can be very aggressive and hard to feed in captivity. Though pet stores "sell them left and right," she said, the snakes are often finicky about eating and sometimes starve themselves to death when they're kept in homes.

Dr. Ann Seabaugh, a veterinarian at Cape Small Animal Clinic in Cape Girardeau, said she too has seen some exotic animals that simply shouldn't be pets.

Seabaugh said iguanas, which seem to be a "trendy" pet these days, aren't suited for Southeast Missouri's climate. Their natural habitat, she said, averages 90 degrees and has very high humidity. They also require large amounts of calcium and phosphorous in their diets.

"People in this area just generally don't have much luck with iguanas," she said. "They're not a great pet choice, but for some reason, people keep choosing them anyway."

Seabaugh said she has treated iguanas and other exotics, but feels strongly about owners getting proper care for their pets.

"In my opinion, to practice on an animal that's a species you know nothing about is malpractice," she said. "Sometimes these pets are things we've never seen before, and it's best if we refer them to specialists in St. Louis."

Seabaugh said she offers that option to her clients, but will attempt to help an exotic animal if the owner still desires her care for their pet.

Both vets, however, say treating exotic pets can be problematic in itself.

The American Veterinary Medicine Association, she said, recently won a battle with the Food and Drug Administration that allows vets to prescribe drugs without specifically following the instruction on the drug's FDA-approved label.

Seabaugh and Pipkin said labeling and testing in veterinary medicine is essentially a financial issue.

"It's never cost-efficient for the FDA to test drugs on more animals than dogs and cats," said Pipkin. "Because of that, following strict label laws would really limit us in the types of pets we could prescribe medicine for."

Seabaugh said it is critical for vets to maintain the ability to step outside of FDA labeling, especially for exotic pets.

"We feel like providing that service to the client is very valuable, as long as the client knows what's going on," she said. "We have to make sure they're aware that the drug is not federally approved for their animal but has been used with success on other cases like theirs."

Seabaugh said finding out which drugs have been used successfully on which exotic animals requires a lot of time and careful research, which makes exotic pets even more challenging.

Pipkin said treating exotic pets, as well as cats and dogs, requires a certain intuition that vets develop after years of practice. Pipkin said veterinary medicine -- especially on exotic animals -- is something akin to pediatrics.

"A pediatrician's patients can't always tell them exactly where it hurts," she said. "Sometimes, you just have to use your best instincts."