Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

1480 Olive Branch Parke Lane, Suite 600

Greenwood, IN 46143

(317)-887-8387

www.olivebranchvet.com

Like the name suggests, Psitticine Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD) affects psittacines, which are parrots (this includes Macaws, parakeets/budgies, and love birds.) PBFD is a viral disease that can cause various…

Avian Polyomavirus

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

www.olivebranchvet.com

Avian polyomavirus (APV) can cause disease in most psittacine birds. Many pet owned birds are psittacines, such as parrots, budgies or canaries, macaws, cockatiels, cockatoos, lories, lorikeets, conures and lovebirds. APV is also known as Budgerigar Fledgling Disease. It does not cause disease in humans. APV mostly effects…

Life on the Wild Side

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

www.olivebranchvet.com

A wildlife rehabilitator sounds like someone who would help a squirrel get over his addiction to fermented acorns.

Have you ever wanted to raise an abandoned litter of bunnies or care for an injured raccoon until the animals could be released back into the wild? Indiana state law requires that you have a state…

You Caught What From Your Bird?

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

1480 Olive Branch Parke Lane, Suite 600

Greenwood, IN 46143

(317) 887-8387

Olivebranchvet@gmail.com

www.Olivebranchvet.com

Chlamydia.

Not the sexually transmitted disease that is spread between humans. That is Chlamydia trachomatis. Avian (bird) chlamydia is a related, but different disease caused by the…

Suburban Veterinarian Searches for Downtown Bathroom

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

www.OliveBranchVet.com

olivebranchvet@gmail.com

I don't know why I've always been intimidated by downtown Indianapolis. I'm an over-educated professional who has lived in Greenwood for a few decades now. But I've never lost that fear of the city traffic and unpredictable appearance of one-way streets and the…

You are not a Good Squirrel Mama

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

www.olivebranchvet.com

Help! My dog uncovered a nest of bunnies! When many people see a baby squirrel out of a tree or a nest of rabbits, their first instinct is to swoop in and rescue the babies.

Just don't do something, stand there! Why?

1. Wild animal mothers often spend a lot of time away from the nest foraging for…

A Dog's Bucket List

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

Olivebranchvet.com

Olivebranchvet@gmail.com

Twelve years ago Andy Bowersox came home and surprised his wife, Jamie, with a six week old puppy of uncertain heritage that a co-worker had found. So Malcolm became the first furry member of the Bowersox family.

This summer Malcolm was diagnosed with advanced multicentric lymphoma. That is a malignant cancer of the lymph nodes. The Bowersoxes…

A Prostate Exam in the Parking Lot

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

olivebranchvet.com

I need to set the stage--my veterinary clinic is in a strip mall with a martial arts school, dry cleaners, kitchen and bath store, health food store and a hair salon. You'll want to keep that in mind for later.

On days when my job gets a little intense, sometimes I'll regress into a well worn, unrealistic daydream of me working a desk job. I'd come to…

Vet Speaks to Students about Pets

10/10/12

Greenwood, Indiana

Dr. Anndrea Hatcher, veterinarian at Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic, spoke to elementary students at the Saints Francis and Clair Catholic School. The students were…

I have an ebook for Kindle for sale on Amazon.com. It is a collection of my articles/blogs. $3

Real Life Tribbles

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

www.olivebranchvet@gmail.com

Do you remember the old Star Trek episode, “The Trouble with Tribbles?” Chinchillas look a lot like tribbles. Chinchillas are rodents about the size of a ground squirrel, originally from Chili. They look like gray cotton balls with ears and tails. Their fur is as soft as a breeze. This is why they are endangered in…

"You be good. I love you."

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

www.olivebanchvet.com

I met an African Grey Parrot for the first time when I was 17. I was cleaning an exam room in a veterinary clinic where the bird lived. It was after business hours and I was alone in the silent building. My back was to the bird cage. Suddenly I heard my voice say, “Hello.” I nearly jumped out of my skin!

African…

Geckos-Not Just for Selling Car Insurance

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

www.olivebranchvet.com

Luckily for the car insurance company Geico, geckos are one of the few lizards that can communicate verbally. (Although not with a cute Cockney accent) Go to gekkota.com/html/sounds_s_petrii.html to hear gecko conversation.

There are hundreds of different types of geckos. The Geico gecko is a Gold…

Are Turtles Good Pets?

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

www.olivebranchvet.com

“Then the Queen left off, quite out of breath, and said to Alice, “Have you seen the Mock Turtle yet?”

'No,' said Alice. 'I don't even know what a Mock Turtle is.”

'It's the same thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from,' said the Queen” Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

The word “turtle” is often used to refer…

Sugar Gliders Can be Sweet Pets

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Park Veterinary Clinic

www.olivebranchvet.com

Sugar gliders live in the wild in Australia, Tasmania, Indonesia, and New Guinea. They are like a nocturnal flying squirrel that is about the size of a large hamster. Unlike Rocky the Flying Squirrel, the sugar glider is a marsupial (keeps their young in a pouch), like a kangaroo or our own American opossum.…

What is the “L” in DHLPPC?

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

www.olivebranchvet.com

You know that string of letters that represents one of the shots that your dog needs to get? The “L” stands for leptospirosis. Sometimes biology and medicine create such lovely words. My dad, an aquatic biologist, wanted to name me Spirogyra after a filamentous green algae. Wow. I wonder if then everyone would have to…

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

www.olivebranchvet.com

Cocker spaniels are adorable, long haired, floppy eared, medium sized dogs. There are two types: the American cocker spaniel and the English cocker spaniel. Not surprisingly, the American version is more popular on this side of the pond and the English cocker spaniel is more common in England. Both dogs look pretty similar, but the American is a…

Getting to the Point

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

www.olivebranchvet.com

Siamese cats have always reminded me of elegant ladies who have smoked for decades with a cigarette holder artfully dangled between slender fingers. Siamese have a distinctive smokey meow and they are quite talkative: something to keep in mind when considering this breed for a pet. Their personalities are almost more dog-like…

Am I Smarter than an Eel?

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

www.olivebranchvet.com

olivebranchvet@gmail.com

Apparently not.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Last month I wrote about setting up a 90 gallon salt water aquarium. I put live rock and live sand in the tank and let things percolate for a couple of weeks while I learned basic salt water tank maintenance. Once a week, using a salt…

Getting my Toes Wet

By Dr. Anndrea Hatcher

Olive Branch Parke Veterinary Clinic

www.olivebranchvet.com

olivebranchvet@gmail.com

For years I’ve wanted to try my hand at a saltwater aquarium. But student loans, babies, and a slanting 200 year old floor prevented me from attempting this challenge until now. My new veterinary clinic has a level concrete slab floor, ideal for a heavy aquarium. I’m at work so much anyway,…