Chicago Magazine Article

November 2001

[Susan Horton Chicago Exotics]

IN THE WARM ICU ROOM AT CHICAGO EXOTICS AN Argentina horned frog grumpily sits in an aquarium. Surrounded by the kind of small china buildings usually found in fish tanks, he looks like a baby Godzilla ready to conquer his world. Nearby, in an avian incubator, a beautiful turquoise parakeet hobbles around with a tiny cast on one leg. "Poor guy," says Susan Horton. "He encountered a bigger bird."

At Chicago Exotics unusual pets are the everyday patients. When Horton opened the clinic in November 2000, she wanted a place that could treat many kinds of exotic pets, from a dwarf rabbit to a six-foot-long iguana. Given that the definition of "exotic pets" covers ferrets, reptiles, birds, fish, hedgehogs, and guinea pigs, and that their needs can vary widely, she had set herself an ambitious task. The final result, though, is all-encompassing, with reptilian incubators, avian nebulizers, and fish tanks that serve as intensive care units. Thanks to her aquatic anesthetic flow-through system, Horton can even perform surgery on fish and amphibians. Still, she has set some limits: Horton, 38, will treat neither primates ("The idea of them being pets is awful") nor poisonous animals and snakes.

Growing up in Arlington Heights, Horton kept birds and reptiles, but when her pets got sick, there were no exotic veterinary practices to treat them. While attending the University of Illinois, she saw that exotic animals were often shoehorned in for a day of class work here or there. To compensate, Horton took electives at other universities, including a comprehensive class in fish diseases at Texas A&M. She also worked for four years with Dr. Kenneth Welle, the only board-certified avian specialist in Illinois.

According to Horton, there can be two kinds of problems with exotic pet owners. "Some people want to do the right thing, but they don't have good information," she says. "Then there is another kind of owner, who thinks of these pets as things to be kept in a cage, like an ornament. Exotics are no less important than any other pet. No living being should be kept as a trophy on a shelf."

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