We keep an account with money just for vet bills to help with this problem with rescued and surrendered birds. We also try to have a $0 balance credit card as well for extreme circumstances but sometimes it just pays to have the right vet.
When the rescue first started out we kept money for vet bills but more for the blood work, wellbird checkups etc so when we had a serious emergency there was never any question as to whether we would pay for their care but sometimes a question of what we could get a loan on. With Gypsy, (B&G macaw) she came to us with tumors and a prolapsed cloaca. She was bleeding constantly and needed immediate surgery. Our usual vet does a good job with checkups but wasn't set for the surgery Gypsy needed. We started contacting vets that worked with birds and was able to do laser surgery. I began getting more and more worried when the first vet told us she couldn't get us in for at least a week we could try the clinic through the animal shelter and it would probably run us around $2000 either way. I kept calling more vets because I wanted to get her in immediately with someone who knew bird health. On my third phone call I struck gold. I was told to bring her immediately he would see her between his other appointments no matter what, not to worry about the cost just get her to the office and we would work something out. I was still worried about the bill but again there was no question about it we would pay it and she would get the care she needed and I took her straight there which was about an hour away. He took her in checked her over and said she needed immediate laser surgery. since it was for a rescue he would cut the price down to $500. That eased my mind a bit then he told me not to worry about coming up with the money all at once if we would just pay 10% he would be happy to take payments. Well while she was waiting to get into surgery she chewed the side out of her carrier. He gave us a carrier that had been given to the clinic and donated a bag of zupreem. I went ahead and paid half the bill up front wanting it paid off as soon as possible. We received a statement two weeks later telling us of our $0 balance. Assuming there must be a mistake I called the office and was told that the rest of the bill had been donated.
Because of her emergency is why we started our larger vet checking account LOL, we deposit into it monthly and sometimes have donations that are for that purpose which are also deposited so we have the cash when needed both for checkups and for emergencies and the credit card option is open in case too many emergencies pop up all at once, but at least we know there are some kind people out there that help when needed.
Sorry to say this vet no longer takes in new avian patients but still continues to see his past patients (luckily for us!!) and we are so happy to have found him.
We have found that many of your good vets will take payments in emergency circumstances or will at least work with you in finding a way to help out. We have even heard of cases where the vet will "adopt" the animal and give it the care it needs when there are emergencies that can't be handled by the owner.
Also there is a new pet insurance (not so new but new to birds) if I can find the name of it I will post it. They have recently began insuring birds for health insurance and have had it available for cats and dogs for several years. I am not sure of the monthly rate but it might be an idea for those of you worried about future bills but able to make smaller payments monthly.
