Testimonials
Check out why people choose us!
Why we’re the hospital of choice for exotic animals
Native Animal Rescue has had the good fortune of having Dr. Hilary Stern treat many of the sick and injured wild animals that we have rescued. Her knowledge of and ability to handle so many different kinds of animals is amazing. Over the years, we have brought her owls, hawks, turtles, snakes, salamanders, foxes, raccoons, opossums, rabbits, squirrels, and more. Dr. Stern’s skilled and compassionate care has helped us to save the lives of countless animals. She has wired cracked shells of turtles, sutured cuts on snakes, splinted broken wings, performed various surgeries, treated infections, diseases, and other injuries. She has also helped in emergency cases, fitting animals into her busy schedule.
We are so happy that Dr. Stern is continuing her veterinarian practice on birds and other exotic pets at her new office in Scotts Valley, and we encourage all exotic pet owners to seek her expert treatment for their pets.
Dr. Hilary Stern is a legendary vet. She’s been caring for our hens for years. She’s helped us deal with everything from small problems to life-threatening illnesses and everything in between.
She’s a consummate professional who is deeply caring and principled. She cares for our girls with love, and we trust her judgment completely. We are grateful she’s in our lives, and we recommend her to our family and friends.
Having interacted with numerous avian vets throughout my years, Dr. Stern has my highest recommendation. She’s smart, experienced, easy–to–speak–with, and obviously motivated by a love for birds. She helped my baby macaw quickly (despite being booked, and hampered by COVID restrictions). He responded quickly and she called regularly to check on his progress. Though not one’s first concern—her prices are also reasonable. We’re lucky to have such an awesome bird vet just a few miles away.
Dr. Stern first treated one of our rabbits 17 years ago. Even then, her knowledge, skill, and kindness with rabbits and other exotic animals was impressive, and she has only gotten better since then, keeping up with and contributing to the vast growth in this field of veterinary medicine over that period. Her extensive volunteer work with various animal rescue and welfare organizations is a testament to her devotion to our special pets.
For routine care, she is very thorough and has frequently identified conditions that were just starting and that could be treated before they became serious. We have also been through some tough cases, and it was impressive to see how she diagnosed and treated the patient. Even when we couldn’t have a happy outcome, we had confidence that the bunny had received the best possible care. She is kind and articulate at every step, carefully explaining what she is doing and why and giving us enough information that we could make good decisions along the way.
She surrounds herself with the best technicians and other support staff because she is fun, treats them well, and freely shares her knowledge so that they can grow in their knowledge and feel like their contributions are appreciated. We are very excited that she is starting her own practice that is totally devoted to exotic medicine!
It was one week ago today that we almost lost our Leo. We got up in the morning and saw that he was lethargic and would not eat his greens. When we took his temperature it was 97.5 F, which is much too low for a rabbit.
Dr. Stern saw Leo on emergency. She took an x-ray and started treating Leo for gastrointestinal stasis. He was given fluids, pain medications, and mobility drugs while she waited for the blood results. The blood work indicated that the cause of the stasis was an infection. He was then given antibiotics. Leo stayed overnight. When we picked him up the next day he looked like nothing had happened.
It is important to understand the signs of gastrointestinal stasis and to have a rabbit vet. Dr. Stern’s experience allowed her to have the right treatment plan for Leo based on the x-rays and lab results.