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4 Tuesday May 9 2017
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SOUTHERN VIEW
McMaster & Heap
Veterinary practice
OUR VISIT TO UC
DAVIS, CALIFORNIA
Steve, Isaac and myself recently spent time
at UC Davis, the #1 Veterinary school in the
world. For 2 years running it has received
this huge accolade and when you are
there you can see why. It operates and is
the size of a mini CHCH Public hospital.
They are a teaching hospital as well as
seeing referral patients and first opinion
clients. Their specialities include 24/7
emergency and critical care, cardiology,
neurology, ophthalmology,
oncology and surgery. They
were originally set up to
see 5500 patients per year,
last year they saw 50,000
patients. Everyone was so
friendly and helpful and
enthusiastic about being
part of this college. It had a
wonderful vibe... Isaac was
hooked.
Approximately 140 students
get accepted yearly in to
Davis, with around 10% being
male. It cost about US$45,000
for tuition( $64000 NZL)
and then there is living costs on top of
that. Vet students on average come out
owing US $135,000. These students have
spent the previous 4 years obtaining an
excellent undergraduate degree just to
get accepted, majoring in science and
maths. There are 30 colleges of Veterinary
Medicine in the US and each year about
3000 students get accepted. About 40%
of students who apply get accepted
somewhere. In your 3rd year you start to
branch off in your area of interest – either
companion animal, equine, mixed practice
or production animals.
After their 4 year degree at Davis, most
will apply for 1-2 year internship at another
Veterinary College to further their skills
in an area they are interested in. Davis
don’t offer internships. Our freshman
(first year) guide loves dentistry so her
plans are to become a specialist in this
field. After her internship, she then needs
to apply for a residency at one of the 30
colleges, which could be anything from
3-5 years more study!! These are hard to
come by, and you have to be the best of
the bunch, although a Vet degree from
UC Davis stands you in good steed. So to
be a specialist in your field in the US takes
between 13-15 years, and the debt these
students accrue is massive, a few get
scholarships, but most have to pay. I met a
vet in her 40’s who still has a student loan.
Steve spent 2 days tagging along with
ophthalmology specialists, residents and
students on rotation. First and second
year students get at least 2 weeks of
ophthalmology per year ( 27 years ago
when I studied at Massey, 1 day was
dedicated to “eyes”). He really enjoyed the
collegial discussions on cases, sussing out
all the latest equipment, chatting to the
students and doing rounds with them.
Steve came away pleased with his skills
and
expertise in
ophthalmology,
although a
few pieces of
equipment caught
his eye.
Isaac and I
thoroughly
enjoyed our 3 hour tour of the
entire faculty. Isaac loved the exotics
hospital where they house and treat the
reptiles, birds, rabbits, turtles etc. We
also visited their raptor centre, home to
rescued birds of prey that can no longer
see or fly. He also enjoyed watching elbow
arthroscopy on a Golden Retriever from a
viewing room. He could see them cutting
and sucking out torn cartilage from the
video screen. What amazed me was the
amount of people in theatre – 9 in all,
including the chief surgeon, 2 residents,
3 anesthetists and 4th year students.
There were so many people milling
around keenly observing. They do MRI
and CT here and even have a massive
MRI machine that can fit a horse into.
The most expensive patient to date was
a spoodle who underwent dialysis for 18
months, visiting the hospital twice weekly
to have all the toxins removed from her
blood. Her final account was US$140,000!
The most expensive piece of equipment
is a linear accelerator used for radiation
treatment for cancer patients costing a
little over 1 million. Apparently one of the
only surgical procedures NOT performed
here at Davis is renal transplants as when
attempted on cats over 10 years ago,
the survival rate was poor. A handful of
colleges perform renal transplants in cats
including the Pennsylvania and Georgia
College of Vet medicine.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time spent
at Davis and I thought how amazing,
fun and expensive it would be to be a
student now studying vet medicine at
UC Davis. The students we met were just
so absorbed, very happy and grateful to
be at this world class faculty. I came out
thinking I am so in the right profession.
-Dr Michele McMaster
INTELLIGENCE: Edward Linscott (left) is endeavouring to fix the Earth’s fossil
fuel problem, Alex Paterson is computer modelling storm systems in the Pacific
and Samuel Hall-McMaster is using his neuroscience techniques to try and
figure out what drives people towards ambitious goals.
Trio of former Cashmere High
students now top academics
FORMER CASHMERE High School
pupils are excelling in their scientific
adventures.
The three ex-pupils are all studying at
universities in the United Kingdom in
their chosen field and have all secured
funding for their academic endeavours.
Edward Linscott graduated from the
school in 2009, Alex Paterson, 2010, and
Samuel Hall-McMaster, 2011, and are continuing
to make progress in their fields.
Mr Linscott is at the University of
Cambridge, where he completed a masters
degree in 2015, and is working towards a
PhD which focuses on photosynthesis and
trying to produce hydrogen from water in
an economic and sustainable way as part
of a global effort to eliminate problems
caused by fossil fuels.
Mr Paterson was awarded the Madame
Curie European Union Science Scholarship
in mathematical physics and is
researching towards his PhD at the University
of Exeter.
Mr Paterson’s research specialises on
modelling storm systems in the Pacific
in order to better understand their behaviour
and analysing how other planets’
atmospheres behave and comparing it to
Earth’s.
After he completed a degree in neuroscience
at the University of Otago,
Mr Hall-McMaster was offered the New
Zealand-Rutherford Foundation Trust
and William Georgetti Trust scholarships
to study his PhD at Oxford University.
Mr Hall-McMaster’s research centres
around his ambitions to understand the
underlying reasons that enable people to
work towards goals over a long period of
time.
He hopes from his research people will
be able to gain insight and be more successful
when chasing these goals.
Open 7 days
Cnr Hoon Hay & Coppell place
phone 338 2534, Fax 339 8624
e. mcmasterandheap@yahoo.co.nz
www.mcmasterheap.co.nz
McMaster & Heap
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