PRACTISING veterinarian Dr Elva Borja says she’s had to overcome a lot of misconception and misunderstanding about her work. From the fees she charges as an animal doctor to her advice on how to look after pets, it’s often on how well her clients accept the verdict, that she is judged.
“People are shocked when I tell them they have to feed their dog three times a day when they’re young or that they have to bathe their dogs,” said the Filipino national.
“They say ‘oh that’s a lot of work’. Then I tell them that if you thought it was a lot of work then maybe you don’t deserve to keep a pet and that kind of offends them so some people are not ready for that,” she said matter of factly.
“The challenge is people feel that having a pet is just like planting something. Rather than people treating animals just as they would like to be treated, they treat pets like plants; they get it then just leave it there. But they’re slowly getting around to what we tell them.”
Dr Borja is the owner of Vet Essentials Fiji (VET), one of the very few local private vet clinics in the country. Based in Lami Town, the clinic provides veterinary consultancy, training, pharmaceutical and clinic services.
“Pets such as dogs and cats are to be treated as children. They need attention, doctors for check-ups, they need worm treatment because the pets do carry worms which can be transferred to humans and other diseases. Basically, it’s not only for the health of the animals but also for the health of the family that is living with the pet,” she said with a smile.
Vet Essentials has four staff members looking after the many animals that come through their door. According to Dr Borja, they have treated mongooses, snakes, birds, guinea pigs, cats and dogs.
“I’ve been in Fiji since 2007. I initially worked with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community for a project in influenza,” she says.
“I stayed there for four years and in between consultancy I did part-time teaching at the Fiji National University (FNU) for diploma in animal and health course to teach aspiring vet nurses.
“Then in 2014, I started this private veterinary clinic when Dr Asha Reddy of Vet Care Fiji closed her clinic at Sports City, and migrated in 2013. I officially opened my clinic in June 2014 and we’ve been in Lami ever since.”
While she has seen an improvement in pet care among locals, the veterinarian said there was a need to understand what they did.
Fiji universities, she said, had yet to establish a course to train veterinarians professionally. If graduates want to become a fully-fledged vet, they have to go overseas to get certified.
“There is a lot of potential in the diploma and health course, there’s a lot of interest in terms of vet nursing, vet technologist and vet assistants and if we can strengthen these courses, the opportunity to register into introductory vet course can be a stepping stone for aspiring vets for the big world in studying overseas,” said Dr Borja.
“If we compare that with universities overseas; they have all the facilities required to develop competent veterinarians.”
For now, Dr Borja deals with the everyday challenges of treating animals. In the two and a half years of operation, she has noticed the change in customers. Where only expatriates used to make up her clientele, she said the number of local customers had increased making up nearly half of her clients.
“It’s quite expensive to study veterinary medicine because it takes six years and you have to go overseas to study. Studying veterinary medicine is not easy. Just like the dentist or a doctor would spend on their education and practical skills, the same goes for veterinarians, people are starting to understand the work we do now and they keep coming back.”
