The Parrot Lodge

05/04/2026

Great Western Exotics hospital is now closed.

Following a thorough review, including a possible sale of the business, we can confirm Great Western Exotics closed on Thursday 2 April 2026.

Despite extensive efforts to secure the long term future of the hospital, consumer need for specialist exotic and avian veterinary services is rare and demand has impacted our ability to sustain a dedicated centre long term. This has been a very difficult decision, made only after careful consideration.

In line with the national model of care, first opinion veterinary practices can provide day-to-day and ongoing care of all small animal and exotic species in the Swindon area, supported by appropriate referral when clinically required.

Your local vet will be able to advise on the most appropriate next steps based on your pet’s individual needs.

To help support this transition, below are alternative veterinary practices who provide exotic and avian services within approximately a 60-minute drive:

• Chipping Norton Veterinary Hospital, Banbury Road, Chipping Norton
• Castle Vets, 1 Tilehurst Road, Reading

We are incredibly grateful for the trust you have placed in Great Western Exotics.

If you have any questions please email [email protected]

The Great Western Exotics Team

24/03/2026

Well done folks keep signing the petition, keep sharing the word and keep writing to IVC - it is making a difference!

The alternative exotics practices that you have been notified about in your letters do not necessarily have the qualifications and knowledge of the practitioners at GWE - particularly when it comes to birds. Not all of them have capacity to take you on either. Highcroft in Bristol has recently announced they are not taking any more referrals at this time.

IVC Evidensia and Vets Now are trying to pull the wool over our eyes and not declaring this reality to the press.

The 24-hour referral centre was due to close on 27 March, but it is now due to shut on 2 April.

23/03/2026

GWE Closure makes the National News!

Thanks to everyone who has signed the petition so far, if you haven't done so yet, it's not too late, in fact it remains a crucial piece of the jigsaw to demonstrate the impact of GWE's closure upon the Exotic community. Please do take a moment to sign and to share amongst your network.

https://www.change.org/p/urgent-save-great-western-exotics-thousands-of-animals-at-risk-with-proposed-closure?signed=true&fbclid=IwdGRjcAQuoPpjbGNrBC6g7mV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHkm6WDmsNdJ_c7cE26A9t_hMpYopfM3DCd_yIqMi_erdRyJP405AO9GwsIA2_aem_3QPSJL5MDNiY60tv2n5sjQ

Thanks in advance.

Ginny

‘Profit prioritised over welfare’: UK’s premier exotic animal hospital to close

Pet owners fear there is no viable alternative service after Great Western Exotics owner deems business unviable

01/03/2026

Hi Everyone - regarding the proposed closure of Great Western Exotics, your help is urgently needed! Please take a moment to read the information below and let Roo Hems know of any examples where GWE provided essential care to your bird (or other exotic species) that is not available locally to you. Please also consider and comment on the potential outcome if that care weren't available at that time or if you had needed to travel further.

Your stories are critical in making a strong case to the CMA. Please also take a moment to share this message with any other Facebook and Instagram groups that you know off. The corporate company IVC Evidentia that is responsible for the proposed closure is trying to keep things under the radar and we don't want to let that happen.

Thanks everyone in advance of your help.

Ginny

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60,000+ animals at risk - Campaign Update – Avian Emergency Evidence Needed

Quick context: This relates to the proposed closure of Great Western Exotics (GWE), the 24/7 specialist avian and exotic referral hospital in Swindon.

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported the petition (link in previous post) so far — we now have over 870 signatures.

With IVC expected to formally contact clients on Monday regarding the closure of Great Western Exotics, I am now compiling structured evidence for submission to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and veterinary media.

For parrot owners in particular, specialist access is everything.

If you have:

• Experienced emergency respiratory cases
• Required crop procedures or advanced imaging
• Managed chronic cardiac, renal or hepatic disease
• Travelled significant distances for avian specialist care
• Faced limited alternative provision if GWE closes

Please message me privately.

Anonymised case details are absolutely fine. I can send a short template.

Parrots mask illness and deteriorate quickly. Access to experienced avian clinicians is not interchangeable.

If specialist infrastructure is reduced, it affects long-term outcomes — and future training of avian vets.

Thank you for standing up for exotic care.

26/02/2026

*UPDATE*
Alternative practices to consider are:

RVC Beaumont Sainsbury in Camden London
Valley Exotics in Cardiff
Highcroft in Bristol
Chipping Norton
The Exotic Amimal Vets in Manchester

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ATTENTION ALL PARROT & EXOTICS COMMUNITY - RE CLOSURE OF GREAT WESTERN EXOTICS

We are shocked and deeply alarmed by the proposed closure of Great Western Exotics (GWE). For so many of us who care for parrots and other exotic species, this isn’t just a vet practice — it’s a lifeline.

This proposal feels shockingly arbitrary, with little visible understanding of the scale of the avian and exotic community, how many of us depend on GWE, or how vital specialist exotic care is. For exotics, delays don’t mean inconvenience — they mean suffering, and sometimes death.

We are further dismayed by the contemptuous way in which GWE clients are being treated, with no timely or transparent communication about an intended closure that has such serious consequences.

GWE has delivered outstanding, specialist care for decades. The comfort of knowing your bird or other exotic is in the hands of people who treat these species every single day is beyond words. Their expertise is simply not interchangeable with that of non‑specialist vets.

We have written a formal letter of complaint asking for a clear explanation and for this decision to be urgently reconsidered (I’ve shared it below). At the same time, spare a real thought for the incredible staff at GWE, who are facing huge uncertainty, the loss of a practice they care deeply about, and the reality of all having to find new jobs. They are devastated.

Please share this news with everyone affected. Also, I urge you to add your voice by writing to both vets-now and to ivcevidensia - email addresses below. Additionally, please sign and share the petition to save the practice.

• Email [email protected]
• Email [email protected]
• Sign and share this petition:
👉 https://www.change.org/p/urgent-save-great-western-exotics-thousands-of-animals-at-risk-amid-silence-from-ivc?signed=true

Even a short message expressing your concern, frustration, or horror truly matters. Silence here puts our feathery, fur and scaly babies at risk.

Thank you most sincerely everyone! 💚🦜🦎🐍🐰
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To Whom it May Concern

I am writing to formally express my shock, dismay, and deep concern regarding the apparent intention to close Great Western Exotics (GWE) in Swindon. This decision, and the manner in which it appears to be progressing, has caused significant distress to myself and to a wide community of exotic animal caregivers and professionals.

I have been a client of Great Western Exotics for almost 26 years, having first attended the practice when it was owned by Neil Forbes, and subsequently remaining with the practice following his retirement under the care of Tom Dutton. Since Tom’s departure, I have continued to place my trust in the practice under the care of Ashton and Sara, supported by the exceptional wider nursing and administrative team, whose professionalism, dedication, and compassion have been consistently outstanding.

In addition to my long‑standing personal reliance on GWE, I am the co‑owner of The Parrot Lodge, a parrot boarding business that has been thriving for over 10 years. Great Western Exotics has been absolutely instrumental in supporting our business providing advice, disease testing, pre‑boarding health screening, and ongoing veterinary care for both our own birds and those entrusted to us by clients.

Over the last decade, we have referred a significant volume of business to GWE, and many of our clients have chosen to register their own parrots with the practice for their continuing healthcare needs. Furthermore, a colleague who has since established a parrot boarding business in Salisbury, similarly refers a high percentage of her clients to GWE for disease testing and ongoing health checks, and has also registered her own parrots with the practice. The reach and influence of GWE therefore extends far beyond Swindon alone.

While the practice is approximately one hour away from my home, like all responsible caregivers of exotic species, I have always accepted that specialist care requires travel. What is not acceptable is the removal of that care altogether. The proposed closure of GWE Swindon leaves caregivers with extremely limited options for specialist veterinary care within a viable and commutable distance, particularly when emergency situations are taken into account.

For parrots and other exotic species, time and distance can mean the difference between life and death. The loss of this practice places animals at direct risk and caregivers in an impossible position.

Equally troubling is the lack of transparent communication surrounding the intent to close the practice. This absence of consultation or clear dialogue is neither professional nor ethical. It conveys a distressing lack of empathy, care, and compassion, and projects the image that profit has been prioritised over animal welfare, professional integrity, and long‑standing client relationships.

I ask quite plainly: what are caregivers supposed to do?

I write not only as a caregiver to three parrots, but as someone deeply embedded in the avian community. The strength of feeling I express here is echoed unanimously by clients, colleagues, and acquaintances within that community. It is also echoed by those within the veterinary profession itself—veterinary surgeons, nurses, and administrative staff—many of whom entered this profession out of genuine care and commitment to animal welfare. Crucially, many veterinary practices rely on being able to refer clients to Great Western Exotics when they do not have the necessary specialist knowledge or facilities in‑house. The loss of GWE therefore impacts not only clients directly, but also undermines the wider veterinary referral network that exists to ensure exotic species receive appropriate, specialist care.

The behaviour surrounding this proposed closure is perceived as contemptuous, and the impact on the exotic‑keeping community is widespread and profoundly negative. I strongly urge you to reconsider the decision to close Great Western Exotics in Swindon, or at the very least to engage openly and honestly with the community that depends on it. This practice is not merely a business unit; it is a critical lifeline for animals and the people responsible for their care.

I look forward to your response and to an explanation that reflects the seriousness of this matter.

Yours faithfully

Virginia Trott
Co‑Owner, The Parrot Lodge

Urgent: Save Great Western Exotics – Thousands of Animals at Risk Amid Silence from IVC

20/10/2025

Dear Friends and Followers

As you all know, we have taken a huge step back from parrot boarding to support a better work life balance and enjoy more quality time together and time with our own fur and feather family. This does not mean we are any less passionate about parrot related things and, of course, about parrot boarding.

We are aware that there have been several newcomers to the parrot boarding world and we genuinely, and enthusiastically, applaud this as more are so desperately needed. What we are both deeply concerned about however is where there is a lack of any form of disease testing and the fact that this is sometimes 'alarmingly' declared a positive thing.

So, I just wanted to share that, before we launched the Parrot Lodge in 2014, our primary concern was how to do it as safely as possible. To do this we consulted with two of the UK's leading avian vets of the time, about how to provide the safest possible environment for birds, one that would keep the risk of introducing infectious disease to our own flock to a minimum whilst also minimising the risk to any boarding birds.

The advice came back that, in an ideal world, each bird would have its own partitioned and sealed area within a room with a cage, a flight area and with its own air supply and air extraction/purifying unit. We should wear separate gowns while handling each bird and should regularly fog the rooms (and ourselves) using F10 disinfectant. For outside aviaries, these should be covered and have a safety door.

If this 'kennel /clinical style' set-up was not an option (which it was not given the space available to us) then both vets emphatically advised that we should put in place a robust disease testing protocol, explaining that multiple diseases could be tested through just one blood and feather sample. They also advised that we should house our own flock separately to boarding birds and strive to create as calm an environment as possible with plenty of space between cages, supervised out time and not too many birds at any one time as inevitably, the higher the number of boarders, the higher the risk. Cage content and covers need to be cleaned/disinfected between boarders and we should regularly fog the boarding room, and our house, to neutralise feather dust and any dried faecal particles.

This is the advice we chose to follow and we invested a lot of time, effort and money preparing and equipping ourselves, not just with cages, perches and toys etc., but with other things like a fogger, nebuliser, house alarm, webcams, night lights, specialised home and liability insurance etc. Critically, we also spent time researching and agreeing disease screening profiles and costs with laboratories and a process with the veterinary practices to keep costs as low as possible for our clients.

Even now when we only board a few parrots that we have known for many years and know that they do not mix with other birds, we continue to strip out and disinfect cages, perches, toys and covers between visitors and we continue to fog the room and our house at regular intervals.

Both avian vets that we initially consulted with have since retired but we have continued to consult with two other leading avian specialists, Dr Tom Dutton at Great Western Exotics in Swindon, and Dr Tariq Abou-Zahr of Valley Vets in Cardiff. My last boarding discussion with them was specifically to review our test protocol and to ask if we might reduce the number of diseases being screened for. Both vets were 'independently' of the opinion that we were right to continue screening for all of the diseases and actually recommended we add a disease to the screening protocol for new clients given the rising number of cases being presented in clinic. In other words, the number of infectious diseases being seen in companion parrots is on the rise and not on the decline!

In the 11 years that we have boarded we have had to decline to board a number of parrots due to a failed disease screen, the last one being early this year due to a positive PBFD test.

Yes, I would agree that the ratio of boarding birds compared to failed disease screens is low but, oh my goodness, how relieved we have been to know that we did not invite disease into the home under a deadly 'cloak of invisibility!

Remember, many diseases lay dormant until there is a stress trigger - such as a boarding situation - and some diseases, like PBFD, which is transmitted through feather dander and faecal dust can live as long as two years in an environment. Hence the need to regularly fog.

We have always said that we cannot guarantee to eliminate EVERY risk when multiple parrots are in an environment together. It is however possible to reduce the odds dramatically.

To our fellow boarders who are enjoying the exhausting but rich rewards of caring for these complex, wonderful characters, but do not have any test protocols in place, I would urge you to please re-think. It need not be a barrier to the success of your boarding business - in fact , it might save it! We have enjoyed 11 years of boarding frenzy at The Parrot Lodge and, if we were starting over with the same size room available to us, we would do exactly the same.

I am happy to talk through this with anyone if they have questions, just PM me.

Best wishes

Ginny

05/10/2025

Dad!

Got to admit I'm a bit disgruntled at having to share my lodgings with a goblin. I'm staring him out though so he'll be gone soon I'm sure! 👹

Yours with evil intentions...

Sergeant Errol

29/09/2025

Bald, beautiful and unabashed.

'Smokey' is living it large and entirely unapologetic for the remarkable dusty mess she makes despite her lack of feathers.

The happiest and kindest of souls. 🥰

12/09/2025

Mum

Stick said when there's a clubcard offer on, one must take advantage of it.
No coffee = no workee. Personally I think they need to reduce their intake! ☕☕☕☕☕

See you soon Mum

Your Mojo
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10/09/2025

🎶 Oh girls just wanna have fun 🎶

07/09/2025

Mum!

Stick offered drinks of blood today, casually stating that she had amassed several barrels of the stuff, extracted from all the naughty lodgers from before.

It took some time to comprehend the full meaning of her words but, when they eventually sank in, I chucked the offering all over the floor and gave her a death stare while Mojo whistled and bobbed in appreciation.

Stick's eyes rolled around to the back of her head somewhere and I could hear her counting numbers ... as many as 10 I think ... before she poured me another.

The second one was presented with a steely stare and iron fingers so I was compelled to dip. Who knew blood tasted so good! Totally get where Dracula's coming from!

Your Shinda xx
🦜 🦜🦜