THE Far North's longest serving mobile veterinarian is marking 21 years in business. Jo Squire of Mobile Vet Services said it had been a wild and wonderful time.

She has treated animals as dangerous as crocodiles and as docile as domestic cats.

Her path to the Far North started in Kenya before migrating with family to New Zealand where she obtained a Bachelor in Veterinary Science from Massey University at Palmerston North.

"My first job was working on a New South Wales program dealing with zoonoses – diseases people can catch from animals," she said.

"This involved both research and public education about prevention of zoonoses."

Dr Squire arrived in Cairns in 1986 and worked in local clinics for four years before establishing the mobile clinic.

"This is my 21st year running Mobile Vet Services in Cairns," she said.

"I provide a comprehensive service which includes surgery with full clinical back up as well as routine preventative medicine."

Dr Squire does the surgery at Vet Diagnostic Services Clinic owned by Dorothy Mclauchlan who provides a high level of vet diagnostic service.

"This includes X-rays, ultrasound, blood tests and even stem cell technology," she said.

Dr Squire said she provided an out of hours service and mainly surgeries on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

"My most challenging case was where a piece of bone had managed to penetrate through a dog’s intestine then into the kidney," she said.

"It turned the kidney into a massive abscessed organ that we had to remove. Just to make surgery doubly hard it was a huge great dane so it took two of us to deal with the surgery of removing the kidney."

Dr Squire said her most unusual animals were treating crocodiles and other wildlife when Cairns Tropical Zoo was Wild World.

"The most satisfying was rescuing a starving, almost hairless dog that also had such bad entropion, a disease where eyelids rub constantly on the cornea, that she could hardly see," she said. "Three months later after plastic surgery on her eyelids, skin treatment and good nutrition she looked fantastic having grown a good mane of hair and doubling her body weight.

"It is a very rewarding profession because the animals ask for so little to keep them happy. Their world revolves around their owners.

"Life as a vet is good as it is interesting as well as rewarding. It’s great to see pets return to good health."

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