Follow Simon Clark’s round trip in veterinary practice

A round trip satisfying. It had the advantage of being IN VETERINARY PRACTICE but remains positive. He’ll tell clients with gravely ill pets, “This is what’s going to happen, and this is what we can do environmentalism and Japanese food) indoors out of the rain and mud, and when you recommended diagnostic tests Eleanor Black speaks to Simon Clark, a Kiwi veterinarian people were more open to that. Medical whose qualification has taken him around the world and mysteries could be explored and treated”. He’d been in practice for five years into and out of clinical practice. when he applied for an internship and moved to Los Angeles to work for a SIMON CLARK HAS followed his to help spread the word. “A realistic “It was an amazing experience; I diverse interests from rural West pessimist would look at climate change learned a lot and developed a renewed Auckland to Levin, Los Angeles and Las and say, ‘The world is ruined and excitement for veterinary medicine,” he Vegas. He has worked with companion there’s no point in doing anything.’ says. “I saw so much more that could be animals in practice and for a major An unrealistic optimist would say, ‘It’s done than I’d realised. On the surgery pharmaceuticals company, as well as fine, we don’t need to do anything.’ side they were doing lots of total hips, squeezed in writing a master’s thesis on A realistic optimist says, ‘Yes, it’s a cruciate surgeries and surgeries for why people seek alternative treatments problem and we need to do something joint deformities. On the medical side for their animals. now.’ I want more people to know that’s they were taking extraordinarily unwell

This winding career path has recently a perspective they can have.” animals whom clients assumed would brought him to a clinical practice in After graduating from Massey need to be euthanased, and giving them Hamilton, where he is happily working University in 2001, Simon worked options. It was wonderful to watch.” with companion animals again, and a for a two-person practice in Taupaki, One of the surgeons had invented a team of “lovely, lovely people”. West Auckland. He intended to focus procedure for treating big cats who’d

A proponent of ‘realistic optimism’, on production animals, but “after a been declawed – lions, pumas and tigers Simon says he’s the kind of veterinarian couple of calving seasons I realised that were often brought into the clinic. While who never shies away from the truth, companion animal work could be really declawing was banned in California, to relieve discomfort. Life expectancy is this, but that means 50% of animals ONLY ONCE DID HE ENCOUNTER ANY NEGATIVITY in this situation will live longer. Enjoy ABOUT HIS MOVE FROM CLINICAL PRACTICE every day you have.” Simon applies that philosophy to TO CORPORATE WORK… “I BRUSHED IT OFF, all aspects of his life, and even cites REPLYING THAT I WAS HELPING ANIMALS, JUST IN it on his LinkedIn profile (alongside his interest in running, sci-fi, A DIFFERENT WAY.” private specialty practice for 13 months.

Simon sees many dog breeds as a companion animal veterinarian but recalls Chihuahuas were particularly popular in Las Vegas, where he previously worked.

it was still legal in Nevada and illegal declawings were also a problem. A large cat would wear through their pads because, when their last phalanx had been removed with the claw, the tendons were also severed and the remaining bone was left to flop around. “The surgeon would reattach the ligaments and give the cats back digital control, so they could point their toes.”

Simon followed up his internship working for Banfield, a mega-chain of veterinary clinics, in Las Vegas. The pets who came in for treatment included snakes, tarantulas, Jackson’s chameleons and blue-tongued lizards.

Then came a stint with the Las Vegas Animal Emergency Hospital, which served a population of 2.5 million people.

“It was nothing this New Zealander had ever seen. There were two veterinarians and eight veterinary nurses, another 12 support staff on site, and computed tomography and SIMON… PREDICTS GREATER SPECIALISATION AMONG VETERINARIANS AND AN INCREASE IN

THE RATIO OF VETERINARY NURSES TO OTHER VETERINARY PROFESSIONALS.

magnetic resonance imaging machines on site.”

Despite the availability of snakes and other exotic animals, Simon says emergency care centred on dogs and cats, although that too had a foreign flavour for a Kiwi, as common complaints included snake bites, scorpion stings and heat stroke from being in the desert.

Simon noticed that pet insurance was far more commonly used in the US than in New Zealand, but believes it will continue to increase in popularity here. He also predicts greater specialisation among veterinarians and an increase in the ratio of veterinary nurses to veterinarians, plus a greater reliance on online pharmacies, removing the income veterinarians get from dispensing medication.

Simon returned to New Zealand in 2009 and worked as a companion animal veterinarian in a mixed practice in Levin. While at the practice he completed a Master of Veterinary Medicine at Massey University, writing his thesis

on the appeal of alternative treatments for animals, a subject about which he remains passionate. “The biggest reason for people seeking alternative therapy is frustration,” he says.

“It can be unavoidable frustration with an incurable or untreatable disease, or it can be avoidable frustration because of unclear communication from veterinarians, poor customer service, unsympathetic listening, or misunderstanding. Veterinarians and other veterinary professionals need to be careful to always listen sympathetically, discuss with an open mind and advise clearly, explaining the reasoning for their recommendations.”

After Levin came a move to Hamilton and a product manager’s role at Virbac, where Simon was able to use his clinical background when training the sales team and visiting clinics to provide technical information on products. The biggest change for him was timeframes: in clinical practice he was accustomed to encountering, assessing and providing

solutions to problems in 15-minute increments. At Virbac he spent many months on a project.

“For any particular campaign we’d be supplying the area representatives with printed material six weeks before it was planned to start, training the reps 12 weeks before, finalising designs of the website and printed material 18 weeks before, briefing the designers 24 weeks before and planning the campaign 36 weeks before.”

Only once did he encounter any negativity about his move from clinical practice to corporate work. “I was lucky enough to have only one person make a backhanded comment: ‘Don’t you care about animals anymore?’ I brushed it off, replying that I was helping animals, just in a different way. Veterinary clinics need medications to treat animals and pharmaceutical companies provide those medications.

“However, it did hurt me a lot to think people may feel that way about my move. Mostly I had other general practitioner veterinarians ask me about it because they were looking for ways to get out of the pressure of clinical practice without having to retrain.”

Simon had been at Virbac for four years when he came across an advertisement for a job at the Hamilton Small Animal Veterinary Centre, a practice he’d long admired. “I knew it to be an exceptionally good clinic, and when people asked me to recommend a veterinarian I’d always send them there. It was in my mind that if an opportunity came up I’d jump at it.”

When asked whether he enjoys corporate work or clinical practice more, Simon says the two jobs are incomparable. “They are very different jobs. Different pace, different expectations… Neither is better than the other, just very different.”

Now, less than six months into the job, he says he thinks the magic lies in the practice’s collaborative culture. “Everyone gets along, everyone communicates clearly. People point out when you’re doing something wrong and no-one ever takes it badly. They are lovely, lovely people, with great customers and a great facility.”

It’s been a strange time to start a new job, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect work practices. As someone who has clinical depression, Simon says he’s been careful to take his medication and worries for colleagues who’ve been put under extreme pressure. “Even when things are going really well my brain will find some way to make them bad.

“When lockdown first came in I joked, ‘I’m a germaphobic introvert. I’ve been preparing for this my whole life; this is my time.’”

Having recently bought a house, Simon’s spare time is consumed by DIY, gardening and caring for his elderly cat Phoenix, the last of three siblings. As is typical for someone in the veterinary industry, his animal companions have usually been rehomed through the clinic, which he reckons is “part of the fun”.