Moving to NZ

Re: Moving to NZ

jennifer reekie — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 22:15:10 GMT

Hi Fable, you will have an awesome time! I locumed in small animal posts for about 5 months out of 10 in 2006. My general perception is that everyone including the animals are less stressed. The natives are very friendly and I was made to feel very welcome. The difference in drug availability made treatment choices interesting or limiting as they have no where near the number of licensed drugs, however they do have pharmacists that can formulate things for you. The ski fields are great and it's not that far to drive anywhere really. As per previous posts if your dog is vaccinated for lepto then that can throw up a problem but a resolvable one. Lots of lab fees but hopefully you can get them at costs if you're going for long enough the it will be worth it Have a great time

Re: Moving to NZ

Lucy Fleming — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 20:14:20 GMT

VetEnt, VetLife, VetSouth, Oamaru Vets? ;-) I studied at Massey (born and bred UK) and spent a couple of years working in NZ before coming home in 2010. What a lot of other people have said - very seasonal large animal work (you do one thing until you are thoroughly sick of it, then do something else until you are thoroughly sick of that...). Much less individual animal medicine than in the UK, depending on the value of cows. Pet stuff is probably fairly similar, though my experience was a little skewed by being in a very low income very rural area with no referral clinic within reach. Unless things have changed dramatically over the past few years then the percentage of pets insured is much lower, so budgets may come into play more. I hope you are good at patching up horribly contaminated wounds in pig dogs! Re: the dogs, it is arduous, and as others have said, best to get info from MAF (via DEFRA I guess). IIRC blood smears to look for babesia are required, rabies and I would expect probably still titre and 6m wait before travelling, and lepto is the one that sometimes trips up - positive titre requires either proof of no rising titre, or a suitable ab treatment (or maybe both!) Depending on how long you are going, and how long you can bear to be parted from your dogs you may or may not want to pursue it. Feel free to PM me for more info or possible contacts. You'll love it!

Re: Moving to NZ

Fable — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 13:17:16 GMT

Thanks for all your replies! My job is on the South Island, south of Timaru, and the practice has numerous branches so I will probably end up working in a number of places in the Otago/South Canterbury region. I am prepared for the seasonality of the large animal work and am hoping to get involved in more herd health work as this is something I haven't had the opportunity to do much of since graduating.

Fortunately I am quite keen on the outdoors and various sports (looking forward to being near a ski field!) so I am hoping that the loneliness won't be too bad. I already have some friends out there, but it will be tough being so far from family.

[quote user="Yantha Smyth"]

Not sure how salaries and cost of living would compare these days

[/quote]

Interesting that you should mention this, the salary that I have been offered is considerably more than I am on in my current position, although I'm not sure whether this is just due to a favourable exchange rate at the moment or, as you mentioned, the large demand for vets. I have heard many different stories about the cost of living, but things such as rent and petrol seem much cheaper, though that's not difficult to find when currently living south of London!

I have spoken to AHVLA and various export companies about the necessary requirements for taking my dog, but I guess my main concern is just how he will cope with the travel itself and I was wondering if anyone had taken their own pets anywhere like that.

Re: Moving to NZ

Fable — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 13:04:59 GMT

[quote user="Braden Collins"]

A few less drugs available but no cascade.

[/quote]

Thanks for your reply! This was one of my main questions actually. Does this mean that there is no restriction on using unlicensed products?

As for learning the rules of rugby, I have a rough grasp, and find it infinitely more interesting than football!

Re: Moving to NZ

Yantha Smyth — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 17:51:26 GMT

Hi, I am a kiwi vet now living and working in UK. I worked in SA only in NZ for about 4 years, but it was 1996 to 2000, so a lot has probably changed since then. As far as I remember, large animal practice if compared to UK would be much more extensive rather than intensive except pigs eg pasture vs concentrates, not housed indoors or brought in for lambing etc. i have heard NZ is desperate for vets that will do large animals, so I imagine there is a lot of work available! Not sure how salaries and cost of living would compare these days, but in 2000 I was just starting to get the same take-home pay per month then as I had been getting as a grill cook in 1990 before starting vet school!! The paperwork for pets can be long and detailed. I have had friends take dogs and cats back, but remember them saying it was about 12 pages long!

Re: Moving to NZ

Tracey Kernaghan — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 17:00:51 GMT

Hi, I'm a kiwi vet living in the UK. I have worked for a couple of years in NZ too. Where in NZ are you going to work? If you are doing Farm Animal work then you will find that it's all very seasonal so that for example, you will be doing nothing but Pregancy diagnoses for a few weeks of the year. Calving season in August is the busiest time of the year. My small animal work was similar to the UK but the thing I found hardest when working away from the city was the isolation. I was young and single and didn't realise how much I had adjusted to living in the UK. I suddenly found myself an hour's drive from the nearest cinema with very little to do in my evenings off. If you like an outdoor lifestyle and make friends easily, you'll be fine.

Re: Moving to NZ

Marie Kubiak — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 16:45:51 GMT

[quote user="Fable"]I am also curious to know whether anyone has any experience of exporting their pets overseas, as I am looking to bring my dog over eventually as well. So far my research into the whole process has given me a bit of a headache!

[/quote]

One of my colleagues has just done an export of two dogs to NZ - it did involve much paperwork and blood testing (and some stress and delay when one dog had a positive lepto titre...) but the NZ end were very reasonable and approachable. Perhaps talk to AHVLA first and also get contact details for NZ import end to discuss further.

Marie

Re: Moving to NZ

Juno Olsen — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 16:14:05 GMT

Hi there,

I am from NZ, went to uni there and worked in mixed practice before coming over to the UK. Which area of NZ will you be based in? There may be a few differences depending on where you are. And what else do you specifically want to know? Happy to help.

Re: Moving to NZ

Hannah Wynne Richards — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 16:17:39 GMT

Not worked there, but mid 80s I worked with a veterinary surgeon from NZ who'd come to this country. Now I accept what he said is now over 25 years out of date, and he might have been unlucky, but he much prefered our business strucuture, veterinary surgeons owning practices (there were no corporates then) to theirs. There farming co-operatives employed veterinary surgeons,who were paid salaries to do the veterinary work for all the co-operative members. It was far harder to withstand requests for unethical behaviour when these requests came from 1 (among many ) of your bosses. Add far less animal prorection legislation, and the co-operatives were run by committees. Some worked, others in which the committee were warring amongst themselves could make life very difficult for the poor employees.

Wynne

Re: Moving to NZ

Braden Collins — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 13:59:53 GMT

I did a few months locum there a few years ago.

Similar to the UK but a lot more relaxed. I managed to register with the VEt Council there with just phone calls and letters, so no visit to HQ needed. I reckon it was a lot harder to come from Australia to the UK than it was to go to NZ, so you'll be fine.

A few less drugs available but no cascade.

Clients were great where I worked. Mixed practice so lots of preg testing and Lepto injections.

Loved working there and would recommend it. If you don't know the rules yet you will need to learn about rugby.