My twin brother Doug (the handsome lad on the far right) is over from Toowoomba, Queensland to participate in the Source to Sea cycle race from Lake Rotoiti to Carters Beach, Westport, 160km. The day of the race, Saturday November 3rd was cold and wet, nothing like his normal riding conditions. Never the less, he came third in his age grade. In fact, our team: Team Squeeze sponsored by Villa 10, luxury accomodation in Nelson - had 5 podium places out of the six riders entered. Even I achieved a podium finish (ssssh, in the 35 km section, very embarrassing). That's me next to Nathan Fa'avae with my mouth hanging open in excitement. It was a fun day despite the rain and cold, especially for me since 1. i didnt do the 160 km and 2. the 35 km ride from Berlins to Carters Beach was dry, but with a nasty head wind. Next year I am going to train, that's a promise, and improve my time by 10 minutes. You read that promise on the blog
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The September and October report
The two months since the world congress have flown by: in addition to getting this website up and running (with most of the work being done by Web designs), my 17 year old daughter headed off to Ecuador for six months of volunteer work before she goes to Victoria University and I wrote a report on the congress for the Companion Animal Society newsletter. The 7th world congress of veterinary dermatology in Vancouver was as jam packed as ever with information, new developments in dermatology and dermatologists from all over the world. Vancouver makes a beautiful venue for a conference and the convention centre is right on sea. During the breaks if you were feeling overwhelmed by information, you could wander along the wharf, watch super yachts, towering over the convention centre, pull in and dock or gaze at snow covered mountain over the sea. There is a great deal of change in the world of animal dermatology, most obviously in the field of allergy, especially in canine atopic disease. If recent research lives up to its promise, we are going to see some very exciting developments that may lead to radically new treatments. In the meantime, veterinarians benefited from a series of presentations on canine atopic dermatitis (CAD) by Didier Carlotti, Richard Halliwell, Mona Boord and Crag Griffin that dealt with the clinical signs of CAD, current opinions on the diagnosis of CAD, and strategies for the management of CAD. In September I used this information in a presentation on My approach to the Pruritic Dog. The evening was hosted by Vet Specs, the veterinary referral centre in Christchurch, and sponsored by Hills and SVS. The 30 plus veterinarians were very willing to enter into the discussion of how to make sense of the itchy canine. It was a great evening. I took the opportunity to ask them what dog I should give my 12 year old daughter for her 13th birthday. The resounding answer was… a Border terrier. By coincidence a good friend broke her leg badly on a walk on a local Nelson land mark called the Centre of New Zealand. The frenzied barking of her Border terrier alerted other walkers and she was helicoptered out, avoiding a cold miserable night out. Her story was featured in a recent NZ Woman’s Weekly. Sadly I was not mentioned as the dermatologist to this canine hero. On the whole Border terriers seem to have pretty good skin and unlike most terriers, aren’t prone to allergies. Despite so much to recommend Borders for my daughter, I think we will stick with a Border collie. For one thing, our old Border collie Jimmy is very fond of other members of his breed but finds young active dogs of other breeds very tiresome. Duncan Graham BVSc BSc (Hons) takes dermatology referrals for both dogs and cats with a wide variety of skin problems. After graduating from Massey University, he worked in general practice in Auckland and Nelson for 10 years. An inspirational conference on dermatology in 1987 showed him the holy grail of companion animal skin. After gaining US and California licensing, he trained at several well known US universities, seeing cases at both UC Davis and Cornell. His training culminated in a five month residency in a very busy dermatology clinic in Southern California, working under Wayne Rosenkrantz. On returning to New Zealand, Duncan combined general practice in Nelson with seeing dermatology cases in major centres. In 2001 Duncan took the plunge, and started practicing solely in companion animal skin cases, working under the name of Animal Dermatology NZ. Animal Dermatology NZ has grown steadily and he now regularly visits Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
Duncan’s particular interests in dermatology are allergy and hypersensitivity conditions in all companion animal breeds, dermatological conditions of the feline and canine nose and ear, and immune mediated diseases. He was a joint author of one of the early articles on mosquito bite hypersensitivity in cats. He is a joint author of an article on Canine Leproid granuloma appearing in Veterinary Dermatology. He has an ongoing interest in continuing education, and presented two case studies and a topic entitled Cats are not small dogs at the 2010 New Zealand Veterinary Association meeting. He has lectured widely in New Zealand on a range of dermatological topics. Most recently, in 2012, he presented a workshop on dermatological issues for veterinary nurses in Auckland and Christchurch. He tries to attend at least one international conference a year, and in July 2012, attended the World Dermatology Congress in Vancouver, British Columbia. |
AuthorDuncan Graham, Animal Dermatology NZ's Vet Categories
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