Date of release:  April 21st, 2009

2nd ANNUAL EXOTIC PET RESCUE GROUP AWARENESS DAY AT ARIZONA EXOTIC ANIMAL HOSPITAL’S OPEN HOUSE

Mesa, Ariz.—On Sunday, April 26th, 2009, from 1 to 5 pm, Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital is having an open house to promote awareness of rescue groups that work with exotic pets.  East Valley Bunny Rescue, Arizona Herpetological Association, Arizona Exotic Bird Rescue, Rascally Rabbit Rescue, Piggie Poo Rescue, and Valley of the Sun Koi Club will have educational materials and host pet adoptions at the open house. Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital is the Valley of the Sun’s largest hospital devoted exclusively to exotic pets such as parrots, ferrets, rabbits, snakes, lizards, tortoises, frogs, and fish.

“This event is a great chance for people to meet exotic pets and see what it takes to care for them.  Each rescue group shows tremendous dedication to finding the right home for their animals,” said Dr. Wright.  He adds, “If you have an interest in adding a rabbit, a parrot, a guinea pig, or a reptile to your household, this is the place to be on Sunday.”  Guests will have the chance to talk to people from the rescue groups about pets and meet some animals up for adoption.  Additionally, Dr. Johnson will be giving a talk on the care of desert tortoises at 2 pm and Dr. Wright will be talking about pet rabbits at 3 pm.

Drs. Kevin Wright and Jay Johnson have been providing health care to exotic pet rescue groups since the opening of Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital on December 17th, 2007.  In additional to caring for ill or injured rescued pets for all the groups, they perform several low-cost spays and neuters for rescues every week.  They also offer low-cost health exams for newly adopted pets to help new parents learn more about their pets. “Exotic pet rescue groups perform a valuable service for people who are unable to care for their pets anymore,” states Dr. Wright, “and we want to make sure that their pets are in good health when they go to their new parents.”   In 2008, over 200 patients from local exotic pet rescues were treated by Drs. Wright and Johnson.

Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital is located on 744 N. Center Street, Mesa, AZ 85201.  This hospital opened in 2007 in response to the tremendous growth in popularity of exotic pets in the past ten
years.  Between 1998 and 2000, the Humane Society of the United States reports that the number of households with pet reptiles increased by 44% to a total of 3.9 million households (http://files.hsus.org/web-files/PDF/reptile_trade_import.pdf).

The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (APPMA) tracks consumer trends and its 2005/2006 National Pet Owners Survey reports the following exotic pet populations in the approximately 109.7 million US households that keep any pets:
• Birds -- 6.4 million households with a total population of 16.6 million birds
• Reptiles – 4.4 million households with a total population of 11.0 million reptiles
• Small animals – 5.7 million households with a total population of 18.2 million ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas, and small rodents
• Saltwater Fish – 0.8 million households with a total population of 9.6 million fish
• Freshwater Fish – 13.9 million households with a total population of 139.0 million fish

Dr. Kevin Wright was named 2008 Exotic DVM of the Year, an international award given to veterinarians with outstanding skills in exotic pet medicine.  He was also named Exotic Medicine Speaker of the Year by the North American Veterinary Conference, the largest veterinary conference in the world.  Drs. Wright and Johnson are nationally known for their work with exotic pets. They are past presidents of the Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians, an international organization of 1,100 members, and both are serving on the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners Committee for Certification in Reptile and Amphibian Practice.

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Date of release:  April 21st, 2009

MESA VETERINARIAN TEACHES COURSE ON DESERT TORTOISE MEDICINE

Mesa, Ariz.— On March 30-31, 2009, Dr. Jay Johnson, Mesa veterinarian and co-founder of Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital, taught a course on veterinary care for wild desert tortoises at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.  This course provided training to about 50 field biologists from Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah that work with wild desert tortoises.  Dr. Johnson showed the biologists ways to reduce stress and disease transmission in wild desert tortoises during their field research and taught staff of the conservation center how to triage and care for sick and injured tortoises.  Dr. Johnson has helped at several of these training sessions organized by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) specifically to help biologists working with wild desert tortoises.

"Getting training from a veterinarian with such extensive knowledge of desert tortoises is a significant asset to our program" reported Roy Averill-Murray, Desert Tortoise Recovery Coordinator for the USFWS.  Training sessions are held regularly at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center. The Desert Tortoise Conservation Center, recently under new management by the San Diego Zoo, serves as a central location for biologist training, housing and relocating displaced desert tortoises in Nevada, and is a site of valuable research on these threatened desert reptiles.

Dr. Johnson's extensive experience with desert tortoise started 30 years ago when he had desert tortoises as childhood pets. As an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, he studied desert tortoises in the wild and captivity. While attending veterinary school at Colorado State University, Dr. Johnson established a colony of desert tortoises for teaching and research.  He was involved with studying the effects of antibiotics and gastrointestinal motility enhancers that are now used by many veterinarians to treat ill desert tortoises. He also was involved with developing new surgical procedures that decreased pain and yielded speedier recovery times, such as the prefemoral approach for the removal of a bladder stone without cutting through the shell. After veterinary school, Dr. Johnson was a veterinarian for projects conducted by the Arizona Game and Fish Department that assessed the health of populations of wild desert tortoises throughout Arizona. During this time he worked extensively with Roy Averill-Murray. Dr. Johnson consulted on a variety of other studies involving desert tortoises. He has routinely taught courses and published papers training other veterinarians on the proper care and treatment of desert tortoises and routinely answers calls and emails from veterinarians throughout the southwest with questions about their care. To learn more about Dr. Johnson you may visit his hospital website www.azeah.com.

Dr. Jay Johnson is co-founder of Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital, the Valley of the Sun’s largest hospital devoted exclusively to pets such as desert tortoises and other reptiles, parrots, ferrets, rabbits, rodents, sugar glider, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates.  Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital is located on 744 N. Center Street, Mesa, AZ 85201.

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Date of release:  February 26st, 2009

MESA VETERINARIAN ON INTERNATIONAL TEAM TO COMBAT AMPHIBIAN EXTINCTION CRISIS

Mesa, Ariz.—On February 16-17th, 2009, Dr. Kevin Wright of Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital participated in a major international conservation effort at the San Diego Zoo that addressed the decline of amphibians due to infectious diseases.  This “Amphibian Disease Workshop” was part of an Institute of Museum and Library Science grant received by Dr. Allan Pessier, a veterinary pathologist at the San Diego Zoo.  There is a global amphibian extinction crisis and often species of amphibians are rapidly disappearing before any corrective measures can be applied.  In response, the world's zoo and aquariums are developing "amphibian survival assurance colonies" that will maintain representatives of the most vulnerable species in captivity until it is safe to return them to the wild.  The 3 year long IMLS grant project will develop and refine important tools necessary to maintain healthy amphibian survival assurance colonies.  The amphibian disease workshop prepared a manual that will serve as a starting point for this effort and will impact amphibian conservation efforts throughout the world. The international team of authors included veterinarians and biologists from zoos, research laboratories, and frog breeders.

Dr. Pessier states, “It was essential to invite Dr. Wright to the amphibian disease workshop because of his long-term interest, insights, and publications in amphibian medicine.”  Dr. Wright is internationally known for his book, Amphibian Medicine and Captive Husbandry, and is currently at work on his second book, Current Topics in Amphibian Medicine, with a publication date of 2010.  Dr. Wright helped write the USFWS Chiricahua Leopard Frog Recovery Plan and has written over 150 articles and book chapters on exotic pet medicine.  He lectures widely on exotic pet medicine and most recently gave three lectures on amphibian medicine at the 2009 North American Veterinary Conference.

Dr. Wright was awarded Exotic DVM of the Year in 2008. He is currently part of the AVMA panel on euthanasia reviewing the guidelines for amphibians and reptiles.  He is past president of the Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians, an international organization of 1,100 members, and is serving on the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners Committee for  Certification in Reptile and Amphibian Practice.  He serves on the editorial board of The Journal of Herpetological Medicine and Surgery.  Dr. Wright worked for the Philadelphia and Phoenix Zoos for a total of 15 years before returning to private practice. 

Dr. Kevin Wright is co-founder of Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital, the Valley of the Sun’s first hospital devoted exclusively to exotic pets such as parrots, ferrets, rabbits, snakes, lizards, tortoises, frogs, fish, and invertebrates.  Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital is located on 744 N. Center Street, Mesa, AZ 85201.

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Date of release:  October 21st, 2008

MESA VETERINARIAN NAMED EXOTIC VETERINARIAN OF THE YEAR

Mesa, Ariz.—On Wednesday, October 15, 2008, Dr. Kevin Wright of Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital was acknowledged as the Exotic DVM of the Year and received the award at the annual conference of the Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians in Los Angeles, California. The honor is bestowed annually to an outstanding exotic animal practitioner selected from nominations made by the readers of Exotic DVM Veterinary Magazine.

The Exotic DVM of the Year award is an international honor presented to an individual who:
• Is extraordinarily competent with all species of exotic pets
• Is dedicated to advancing the exotic animal medicine profession through quality work by themselves and others
• Is deeply involved in the education of veterinary students and clinicians
• Serves as an ambassador of good will for the exotic animal profession
• Is committed to the future potential of this field
• Embodies the essence of stewardship of exotic pet species.

Dr. Kevin Wright is co-founder of Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital, the Valley of the Sun’s largest hospital devoted exclusively to exotic pets such as parrots, ferrets, rabbits, snakes, lizards, tortoises, frogs, and fish.  Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital is located on 744 N. Center Street, Mesa, AZ 85201.

Dr. Wright is internationally known for his work with exotic pets. He is past president of the Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians, an international organization of 1,100 members, and is serving on the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners Committee for Certification in Reptile and Amphibian Practice.  He is also on the editorial board of The Journal of Herpetological Medicine and Surgery.  Dr. Wright worked for the Philadelphia and Phoenix Zoos for a total of 15 years before returning to private practice.  He used to write the “Pet Doctor” column for the Arizona Republic and is the author of the major veterinary book, Amphibian Medicine and Captive Husbandry, as well as many book chapters and over 150 scientific papers.  He is a contributing author to an important paper on amphibian declines in Science and works with Arizona Game and Fish and US Fish and Wildlife Service on conservation of endangered native frogs.  Dr. Wright has lectured extensively at national and international conferences on topics in exotic pet medicine.  His hospital also provides training opportunities for veterinary students from around the world.

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