Avian & Exotic Animal Clinic

ATTENTION: Anyone who loves his or her pets or animals in general: reasons to NOT take you pet to Avian & Exotic Animal Clinic in Indianapolis. I took my class pet; a 3 yr. old bearded dragon, to be treated there and they killed her. Several reasons are highlighted below. Read on for her full story with more details/explanation: 1. Arrogant/ money driven staff. 2. Snapped her tail off with their hands. 3. Would not schedule an appointment for a dying lizard until $40 was received. 4. Would not speak to the owners personally. 5. No empathy of the emotional strain. 6. Did not recognize her illness but instead unnecessarily removed part of her tail, caused multiple appointments, and caused her to endure being given injections during the last week of her life. 7. Withheld her from her family and would not let them see her until the fees for her euthanasia were fully paid. 8. Ultimately caused her premature death. Do NOT go to the Avian & Exotic Animal Clinic on Waldemar Road in Indianapolis! I am a teacher and took my class pet, a bearded dragon, to them. After months and hundreds of dollars, they ended up killing her. She was only 3 years old. Here is her story: When I got her for my class we looked for a vet that would see a bearded dragon as our dog’s vet did not. We took her to their office for her 1st check up, just to make sure everything was healthy before I took her to school and exposed her to my students. They charged a $60 check up fee. Next, the tip of her tail started looking very dark and becoming very hard. (This is common in bearded dragons. It is called tail rot and can be caused by many different scenarios.) We took her back to the vet where they said she would have to have surgery to remove part of her tail. They charged another check-up fee and scheduled a surgery. She went back for her surgery, we were charged $200, and the tip of her tail was stitched. A week later we noticed that the tip of her tail was looking dark and hard again. Concerned I called the vet’s office and they told me to bring her back in. When I got there, the vet saw her and joked about how she was going to do a very technical procedure…then proceeded to snap the end of her tail off with her hands. That was all. They then charged me another service fee of $45. I asked if they should remove more of her tail to make sure it wouldn’t spread and the vet ASSURED me that this sickness does not spread up the tail like that. A couple months later her tail became hard and dark again. It got much worse very quickly. I called to tell them and ask what to do. They said they would do nothing because my previous $45 payment was never processed. I said I did not understand why that would be and they said they would not schedule her a visit until I pay. I asked if I could just pay when I come in. After much unprofessionalism and rudeness by the woman on the phone, (being treated like trashy criminals who do not deserve care if they cannot afford it) we spoke to a manager. The manager said that we could pay when we came in however if we didn’t have the money then, we would be “turned away.” They scheduled her an appointment to be seen. I sent them pictures of her tail (which had now split open and was bleeding) and said I thought she needed to be seen sooner. They said it was not an emergency unless she was profusely bleeding. I soaked her tail in betadine water and put Neosporin on it. They saw her and said that she would need another surgery. They scheduled it for a week later. Another exam fee. The next week when she was taken in for her surgery they said that she was too sick and would have to be taken home and given injectable antibiotics. They would have to wait another week. Exam fee and antibiotic fee. During this time her tail gets extremely worse. We try to convey it to the vet’s office but they say they will see her for her surgery the next week. We take her for her surgery and ask to speak to the vet. She will NOT come speak to us. They say that she will call us. We said we want to speak to her before any procedures. She sends her assistant to message her our comments and read us her replies. They say that if we want to, they can do blood work before her surgery to see what is going on. It will be an extra $100. We do the blood work and find out that the infection has spread and she now has kidney failure. They admit that it had probably been like that all along and removing the tail wasn’t helping. They inform us that it is best to put her to sleep. They said that the euthanasia would be $50. We discuss it and do what’s best for her. (Her surgery was going to be over $200 originally.) They hand us the statement and we notice that they still found a way to make the money anyway. The blood work was actually $150 and the euthanasia was $65 plus another exam fee. We tell them that is not what we agreed to and they tell us that we can NOT see her to say goodbye until we pay. It was a horrifying and disheartening experience. To some, they may say “Well it’s just a lizard” but it was a pet and loved by many children. Imagine telling 6 classes of children, ages 8-11, that their class pet won’t be coming back and then having to explain why. This clinic sees all types of pets and animals. They pressure you by telling you that they are the only ones capable to treat these types of animals in all of Indiana. They pressure you by using your love for your pet against you for money. They were more concerned over $40 then my lizard’s life. They are rude, unprofessional, and crooks. If you care about your pet, please, please do NOT take them here or you may never get to take them back home.

Everything went well. They were able to get me in the same day (for a fee). They treated my animal with care and worked within my budget. They were able to give me some care recommendations and provided some medication for him to take at home.

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They called for permission before completing any new steps in her treatment, since everything done is expensive.  There are two good exotic pet clinics in Indianapolis, and this one is more expensive--but their treatment of the animals is better.  My rabbits always love visiting the staff here.  I adopted my most recent rabbit, a two year-old mini Rex, from here--they rescued him from the middle of 71st street.  They also are the best resource for wild animal rehabilitation. They have an emergency line that goes straight to a veterinarian at all hours and they give real advice over the phone for free.

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Dr. Lennox top notch! She's one of the few specialists of her kind in Indiana. She's widely recognized and has a wide range of experience.

They were able to come in after closing to care for my rabbit. We've switched over to using them as our primary vet. We've had annual exams and nail trims with them. There's never a long wait, and they provide tremendous care.

I reached out to them by email through their website and never heard anything back from them so I decided to call them a few days later. Once I spoke with the technician she advised me that it would be $65 for the annual check up and anywhere between $350 and $400 dollars to have my rabbit spayed. I had heard great things about them and had been recommended to them, but since I had to make a second contact from never hearing back and because of the price I will not be using them.

Ovarian cyst removal surgery went fantastically well! Cannot thank Dr. Woods, Dr. Lennox and team enough for their extreme kindness and vast knowledge of how to handle these little guinea pigs in crisis.

She's very professional. She will personally take care of my birds since she knows them. She is very friendly and her staff is great. However, they do not identify themselves when they answer the phone at the clinic. The clinic is extremely clean.

She is excellent with the animals. She treats my three birds, and knows what she's doing. She's very through with testing and vaccinations. I am very pleased with her services, and will continue to use her in the future.

Dr. Lennox is great, she is very professional.

They really love the pet. It has a good website. I see Dr. Linnett. She is good. I would use them in the future.

We've taken our house rabbits to Dr. Lennox for fourteen years. She's the only local vet we trust to treat them. She's very knowledgable about rabbit care and health (suprisingly, rabbit vet care is very specialized). Her techs and office staff are all friendly and wonderful with the animals.

They are pretty knowledgeable and are very experienced. I do not have any complaints. They were thorough. They are really good and their prices are very reasonable.

The staff were willing to see my guinea pig immediately when they learned he wasn't eating. They assessed his problem quickly, hand fed him and one of the vets called me at home to explain the situation. The entire staff was very helpful and considerate. They definitely care about animals and I found them to be very responsive.

On the day we were to pick up the bird, we contacted Avian & Exotic Animal Clinic to arrange to pick-up our bird. To our surprise, we learned that the exam fee was not $55.00 as we were quoted, but $106.00. It seems that without our knowledge, they had not only done a Comprehensive Exam, but three other separate tests. When we confronted them about this, they had a very negative attitude and reluctantly billed us the $55.00 fee as was originally quoted. They returned all the paperwork that we originally completed along with the test results and appeared not to keep anything on file - almost as to say we don't want your business. We did not meet any of the veterinarian staff and all of our negative dealings were with the office administrator. We will try them one more time because their simply are not many avian vets in the area and will decide based on the experience if they merit our future business.

I had my parrot checked up never had parrot before I didn't know what kind of shots or food it needed, Vet was very good with the parrot clipped the parrots wings so it wouldn't fly high or far.

Great experiences from top to bottom. Our pets have received good care every time we've visited.

We had less than a five minute wait. The exam room had a large Bearded Dragon in a tank for us to view. My little ones loved it! It's a very warm and friendly little office. There was no charge for the exam, since we adopted from the Humane Society of Indianapolis on Michigan Road.

Bird owning is new to me, so I was a little disoriented on what goes on in this type of vet office. Birds are also more costly than caring for your typical pet dog or cat. Might have helped if the staff had realized I was new to this experience and given me a little more direction during my visit; but they were very friendly and personable, none-the-less. Bird was later found to have a fatal and contagious virus and they were supportive of me during the decision-making and process of putting my new pet to sleep (an additional $35).

VERY KIND STAFF, WORKS HARD TO FIND THE PROBLEM, YET KEEP THE ANIMAL COMFORTABLE. GREAT PRICE - WOULD HAVE COST TWICE AS MUCH ON MY CAT.

SHE IS VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE. HAS PERFORMED SURGERY IN THE PAST.

THEY GIVE A VERY THOROUGH EXAM (BLOOD, FECAL, AND X-RAY), BUT ARE A LITTLE ON THE PRICEY SIDE.