UK's Premier Parrot Hospital Threatened With Closure After Corporate Buyout

Great Western Exotics was founded by internationally renowned avian vet Dr Neil Forbes in 2004. Now, Vets Now, part of IVC Evidensia, has announced a proposal to close the Swindon hospital, with a proposed closure date of 27 March 2026. For parrot owners across the UK, the news has landed like a gut punch.

On a nondescript industrial estate on the outskirts of Swindon, bird lovers from Exeter to Edinburgh bring their brightly coloured budgies and macaws to the exotic animal hospital. Inside, the clinic has a checkup room on the ground floor and a state-of-the-art avian hospital upstairs. When reporters visited on a Tuesday morning, the scene told the whole story: the reception desk was covered in gifts and cards from clients, receptionists were fielding calls from referring vets and breaking the news of the imminent closure, and a pair of rabbits sat on the front desk sleepily munching hay. "We are bunny-sitting," one receptionist explained. The staff, who did not want to be named, were devastated. "There is no other job like this," one said. "It was a huge shock to find out we are being closed down."

GWE is a Tier 3 RCVS-accredited, 24/7, specialist-led hospital dedicated exclusively to avian and exotic animal medicine. It also carries a training role that cannot simply be relocated. The hospital hosts the UK's only European College of Zoological Medicine avian residency programme, the pathway through which veterinary surgeons train to become European specialists in avian medicine. Dr Forbes, who ran the practice until 2017, described the facility as "a postgraduate training site par excellence, producing 11 [veterinary] diplomates in avian medicine," and said he felt "great sadness" at its planned closure.

Vets Now stated that specialist avian and exotic hospitals are rare in the UK, and that there is not "sufficient, consistent demand" to sustain the Swindon centre long-term, adding that "ongoing challenges around fluctuating demand in this specialist area have made it increasingly difficult for the service to remain viable." The Financial Times reported that IVC Evidensia, which was valued at £11 billion in 2021, is preparing for a stock market valuation, a corporate backdrop that critics say makes the closure difficult to separate from financial restructuring ahead of a listing.

The Parrot Society UK (PSUK), which first posted about the threatened closure on Sunday 1 March after the story began circulating, received a formal email from GWE on 2 March confirming the proposal. PSUK described the potential loss as "devastating," warning it would result in "the loss of a major first opinion and referral centre, totally dedicated to treating birds, small mammals and reptiles" and leave "veterinary practices without avian expertise with one less choice of where to refer their bird patients." The society noted that GWE remains listed in its Avian Vets directory until the closure is formally confirmed.

Dr Forbes, the hospital's founder, described the proposed closure as "extremely sad" and said he hopes "some knight in shining armour can charge in there and pick up the smouldering wreckage, and give it a good shake and turn it back into the organisation that it once was."

The proposed timeframe leaves fewer than four weeks for tens of thousands of owners, including those managing chronic disease, complex surgical recovery, and specialist treatment plans, to secure appropriate alternative provision, with continuity of care clinically significant for patients requiring 24/7 specialist-led exotic care. IVC Evidensia has pointed to three alternative treatment centres for exotics within 60 minutes' drive, two operated by IVC Evidensia and one by CVS. For parrot owners who have driven from Edinburgh or Exeter specifically because nowhere closer has the expertise, that argument is unlikely to settle the matter.

British Veterinary Zoological Society president Elliott Simpson-Brown described the proposed closure as "an incredible loss," though he added he was "confident there will be a number of BVZS members willing to do what they can to take on these clients across the UK." PSUK notes there is "considerable protest against this action, and support for the practice," and has pledged to keep the community informed as the 27 March date approaches.