Dr. Nemetz always loved birds as a child, conceived the idea of an avian practice while in veterinary school and founded The BIRD Clinic in Santa Ana, CA in 1987. He opened a second clinic in Orange in 1990, merged them to a third location in 1991 and then in 2007 built from the ground up an avian purpose-built facility in Orange, CA where it stands today.
There was very limited medical information to help the avian patient in the seventies, but over the years Dr. Nemetz became interested in veterinary medicine and specifically the medical conditions of birds. When Dr. Nemetz entered Purdue University Veterinary School, he took advantage of the knowledge certain clinicians had in treating exotic birds. In 1986 he became the recipient of the FIRST scholarship awarded by the Association of Avian Veterinarians (AAV) .
Once Dr. Nemetz graduated veterinary school, he returned to his hometown and built the first The BIRD Clinic . He enjoys teaching and has given numerous lectures to veterinary organizations. The BIRD Clinic offered an externship program for senior veterinary students for over 30 years to get a better exposure along with practical experience in the world of avian medicine BEFORE they graduated veterinary school. Dr. Nemetz in 2006 began teaching some of the veterinary students at the veterinary college (Western University) in Pomona, California. In more recent years Dr. Nemetz has been lecturing out of the United States and offers an internship program to veterinarians from anywhere in the world that have a desire to improve their own knowledge of avian medicine. Dr. Nemetz has hosted veterinarians from Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Australia, England, Japan, Germany, Spain, and Dubai (2022). In 2019 Dr Nemetz developed a formal teaching program at a veterinary college in Clinical Avian Medicine and Surgery and delivered it for the first time in Sept 2022 to students from Purdue University Veterinary College.
Dr. Nemetz had bred meyer's parrots for many years and shares his life with his beloved avian pets; "Gigi" and "Bailey" and his adopted children "Birdy" and "Merlin". With great sadness he lost "Saffron", a swainson toucan, in 2011. She was a very unique and special soul that touched the life of many people as well as the veterinary medical community and will always be remembered. "Slushy" passed away in 2021, but lived an extremely long life for a lovebird and had a rare form of testicular cancer for this species, a Sertoli cell tumor". "Zazu" our rescued ivory-billed aracaris passed away in 2023 after a very long extended life.
(revised 06/2023)