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 started a goal to develop a formal teaching program at a veterinary college in Clinical Avian Medicine and Surgery and hopes it can be accomplished in the next few years. In 2020, this program was approved by the cirriculum committee at Purdue Veterinary College and the long development process began with the first presentation to occur in Sept 2022.
Dr. Nemetz had bred meyer's parrots for many years and shares his life with his beloved avian pets; "Gigi", "Slushy", "Bailey", "Zazu" 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"
(revised 06/2022)