Remembering John Holt

Dr John Holt graduationThe profession is mourning the loss of John Holt, an Australian veterinarian credited by many as the man who put small animal practice on the map.

John graduated from Sydney University in 1954. After a brief stint as a cattle vet and a brief career in industry, John purchased St George Animal Hospital (SGAH) from Richard Boon in 1959 and developed it into a showpiece companion animal practice. He married Mary, a pharmacist, in 1960.

Colleague Graeme Allan said that John became a passionate advocate for small animal practice “at a time when you could go to the Australian Veterinary Association conference and the word dog or cat would not be mentioned.”

Allan recalls a Sydney practitioner’s branch meeting, attended mostly by meat inspectors and Government employees, when the conversation turned to treating squamous cell carcinoma in cats.

“This person [John] popped up and asked why weren’t people using colchicine because it’s an anti-mitotic agent,” Allan said. “I’d never heard of it and neither had anyone else. We thought it was pretty sophisticated.”

John’s practice became known for setting the standard.

The business expanded, incorporating six practices in Sydney and employing 11 veterinarians and 56 para-veterinary staff. The practice produced eight University professors.

According to former colleague Lindsay Hay, one of John’s biggest drivers was the need for the profession to recognize small animal practice as “a legitimate endeavor”.

“Whilst it is hard to imagine, in the 1970s when I graduated the predominant view was that real vets saw real animals – which didn’t include dogs and cats,” Hay said. “Our lecturers were very dismissive of anyone who didn’t want to treat a horse or cow – the idea that you might set up a small animal practice in the suburbs was looked down on.”

At its peak in the 1980s SGAH employed seven veterinarians, had its own fully equipped lab and radiology suite – including a fluoroscopy unit.

“There were times in the 1970s and 1980s when up to 80 animals a day were treated in hospital and 15 surgical procedures were performed a day,” Hay said. “It was not unusual to do ten speys before lunch and three orthopedics after lunch.”

Hay said that John could be impatient at times, because he was a real doer.

“He knew what he wanted and he would just get in and do it.”

Hay said this made the practice a very exciting place to work.

“Surgeries were all performed with mask, gowns and gloves, and all animals were premedicated with an opioid and maintained on halothane anesthesia many years before such procedures were regarded as standard best practice. This was at a time when some vets were still doing speys on the back of toilet doors.”

John was inspired by small animal practice overseas, and wanted to share its developments with Australian colleagues. He travelled to North America on multiple occasions, acting as a visiting guest lecturer at numerous institutions including Canada’s Guelph University and Washington State Veterinary School. Friendships he struck up there lead to numerous eminent veterinarians – including Steve Ettinger, Carl Osborne, Joe Bojrab and others – visiting Australia.

“John used his extensive contacts in North America to bring many speakers to Australia for conferences and workshops and made a huge contribution to veterinary education and practice standards by showing the profession what was possible at a time when small animal practice was much less sophisticated than now.”

Together with like-minded practitioners, including Keith Baker, Noel Freeman and Neville Japp, Holt co-founded a group which later became the Australian Small Animal Veterinary Association.

John financed and edited the organisation’s journal, the Australian Veterinary Practitioner (AVP), and provided administrative support for the organization for many years. The first committee provided personal guarantees to support the Association’s first office in Hurstville.

“It is difficult to see how the ASAVA would exist without John’s vision and support,” said Hay.

Friend Henry Hirschhorn feels that John’s contribution was “greatly unappreciated for the work he did for the profession in general and for small animal practice in particular.”

The AVP was established following a series of rejections of articles by the Australian Veterinary Journal (AVJ).

“We had submitted a set of articles to the AVJ on the grounds that they added nothing new to veterinary knowledge,” Hirschhorn said. “In fact, John’s article on the diagnosis and surgical correction of misplaced ureters in the dog was to my knowledge the first recorded case of its kind diagnosed and successfully corrected.”

It – together with an article by Hirschhorn on the correction of anterior cruciate ligament rupture by use of the anterior tibial tendon transfer – was published in the first edition of the AVP.

John was president of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) from 1986 to 88.

John had a rich life outside practice, travelling the world extensively (visiting at least 65 countries), collecting art and representing Australia in the shooting team at the 1960 Rome Olympics.

“John was passionate about small animal practice,” Mary said. “He loved the animals and also really enjoyed working with young people – both nurses and veterinarians.”

John received multiple awards throughout his career, including an award for meritorious service to the ASAVA, the Waltham Award for International Service to the Profession and a string of honorary memberships across a range of organizations including the American Animal Hospital Association.

According to Mary, John’s care of animals continued until his death, as he donated to numerous animal welfare groups. In later years John was a very passionate supporter of the campaign against live animal export.

He also shared his life with Rosie, adopted from the Cat Protection at seven years old with chronic renal insufficiency.

“Only John would have adopted Rosie,” Mary said. “The staff told us that we had to be very patient and it would take many weeks for her to settle in – they were correct. At one stage we thought she would never let us touch her but remarkably she is now the most cuddly cat you can imagine. This was due to John’s patience and persistence.”

WSAVA President Jolle Kirpensteijn said that he had always listened to John’s “wise consults” and that John was “a pioneer who opened my heart to the global veterinary community.”

John passed away on June 24 at the age of 82 years.

ANNE FAWCETT

Pictures Mary Holt

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