Surry Animal Hospital

January 29, 2013: First Blog from Dr. Mark Hauser at Surry Animal Hospital, PA

This is my first attempt at keeping up with civilization and writing a “blog” for our website. Having not done this before, I’m kind of open to suggestions! First, let me tell you a little about me and where I’ve been and where I hope to go. I am Mark Hauser, one of the veterinarians at Surry Animal Hospital. I, as many know, am the son of Dr. A. Renfrow and Karen Hauser. I have lived the majority of my life in Mt Airy and attended North Surry High School. After high school I attended North Carolina State University majoring in Biological Sciences. I graduated in 2000 with a BS in Biological Sciences and a minor in genetics.

Immediately after college I worked a few years then decided to return to school to pursue my doctorate in veterinary medicine. I chose Ross University to pursue my goal due to the school’s reputation as one of the top veterinary schools for producing future veterinary practitioners. Ross University is located on the tiny island of St. Kitts in the West Indies. St. Kitts has a population of approximately fifty thousand people. There were approximately 600 students from our school on the island. I spent two and a half of the most amazing years of my life on the island learning veterinary medicine as well as learning the way another country lives and meeting many amazing people of all nationalities I now call friends. The experience I had of living in a country much different than the United States was more than I could have ever dreamed. Life in St. Kitts was nothing similar to life in the United States. Gas then cost over $4.50 a gallon, a case of Diet Coke was over $25 and milk was only available on certain days of the week in St. Kitts. There were two chain restaurants, a Subway and a Kentucky Fried Chicken, neither of which were located in a safe part of the island. We also learned to adapt to frequent power outages that happened to coincide with final exams. During final exams of my fourth semester, the power was out the entire week of final exams! Air conditioning was also not a given even though average temperatures were about 83 to 84 F year round. It was much different than I was used to, and an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything. That experience has allowed me now to be able to touch any part of the United States and can find someone I know practicing veterinary medicine. That’s rare and not something you obtain by attending a stateside school.

Not only did I learn a lot about another culture and myself, but I was also allowed to learn from some of the top instructors in the world. The curriculum was very demanding and required nearly nonstop studying and review. I had the opportunity to perform over 15 surgeries before leaving the island on a variety of animals including dogs, cats, donkeys, sheep and other animals. I also had the opportunity to work in an emergency setting as the school provided a 24-hour emergency clinic. During our last semester we were required to rotate on call schedules approximately every 3-4 days during our emergency rotation. If someone had an emergency we were the first responders and were required to stay in the hospital all hours. Did I mention we were required to attend class the next day, even if we were up all night due to an emergency? It definitely tested our will and endurance but was so beneficial to learn to work in a fast paced emergency environment. We also performed clinical rotations including dentistry, internal medicine, imaging and surgery.

After my 7th semester on the island, or “the rock” as we called it, we were assigned a clinical school in the United States to attend for our final year of education. During that year we were expected to complete clinics by working in the university hospital. I was selected to attend Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. So after 2 ½ years on the island of St. Kitts our classmates said our goodbyes and headed to different parts of the country. I spent one year in Auburn learning from yet more top clinicians and had the opportunity to see hundreds of referral cases. On one rotation I had the opportunity to work in a dairy where we were expected to run the dairy and take care of the cows the university owned. I also had the opportunity to assist in the surgery of removing an extra hoof from a one month old foal. I had the chance to see and learn why Ligers (a mixture of a Lion and Tiger) aren’t good house pets! One patient I had while there had a rare clotting disorder called “Glanzmann’s Thrombasthenia” coincidently discovered by Dr. Pete Christopherson of Auburn, now a good friend of mine. At that time this mare was one of only a handful of horses in the world with this clotting disorder and I was in charge of keeping her alive! Lots of pressure for a fourth year veterinary student! But I was extremely grateful for the opportunity. I also had the opportunity to meet more great friends and future veterinarians while at Auburn. One of the clinicians I learned from there was a veterinarian by the name of Dr. Charles Hendrix. Dr. Hendrix is a parasitologist at Auburn that attended and graduated veterinary school at the University of Georgia in 1974. His surgery partner in veterinary school was a man by the name of A. Renfrow Hauser. Small world, huh? The experiences I gained there were invaluable as well and I will always remember my time there fondly. What a beautiful place Alabama was. But I had always thought of coming home to Mt Airy to practice veterinary medicine, so after my clinical year I loaded up my Uhaul one last time for the 6 ½ hour drive north to Mt Airy. On my way home I had the opportunity to perform externships in two great practices, Animal Ark Hospital in Surfside Beach, SC and Clemmons Veterinary Hospital in Clemmons, NC. Both places gave me insight into how non-referral veterinary practices in other cities operated. I learned a lot from both places and am extremely grateful to have been given those opportunities.

In 2009 I moved back to Mt Airy and began working at Surry Animal Hospital. I married Leah Taylor Hauser and we welcomed our first child, Marlee, in 2012. Leah now works here with me as the assistant office manager.

So now, here I am at Surry Animal Hospital, a place where I roamed the halls since the time I could walk. My first job consisted of cleaning the cages and walking the dogs in our hospital. I also worked as a horse trainer at my dad’s standard bred farm during college. The hospital looks a little different than from the time I was a boy in the early 80s but many principles remain the same. First, it’s still and forever will be owned by a member of our family. Secondly it’s more than a hospital or a business, it’s a way of life for my family. We take pride in not being outworked and although we may not be available every minute of every day, we will strive to do our best to be available as much as possible for our clients. We want to provide each and every client with a hospital to get quality care at an affordable price and to help meet all the animal owner’s needs. It is my goal to have Surry Animal Hospital operating in the next 37 years as it has the last 37 years and it all starts with you, the clients.

Many of you I’ve already had the pleasure to meet, and those that I haven’t yet met I hope to do so in the future. I look forward to the opportunity to help you and your pet live a long and healthy life. I believe in preventative medicine to help achieve lifelong health and strive to be a source of knowledge for you as an animal owner. My ear is always open to you if you have any questions or concerns and I will do my best to satisfy all your animal needs. No matter how big or small the problem may be, I will present you the options needed to best treat your pet. It is my goal as a veterinarian to be what you need me to be, so I’m here for you. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us so that we can help you. This blog thing is new to me. I want to use it as a way to teach you about important parts of veterinary medicine and happenings around our hospital including upcoming promotions, events, clinics, discounts and the like. If there is something you would like to see covered in my blog contact us via facebook at www.facebook.com/surryanimalhospital. Thank you for your confidence in us as your animal health care provider.

Until next time,
Dr. M.G. Hauser