Delivered/Delivered
Sashenka underwent many MRI scans when she developed a brain tumor and cost her guardian $75,000 in treatment.
New Zealand’s first dedicated animal MRI clinic has opened in Christchurch as a growing number of Kiwis are willing to invest in caring for their pets, including a man who spent $75,000 to fly his cat to Auckland to nurse. are operated on by a top animal surgeon.
Pacific Radiology has partnered with McMaster & Heap veterinary practice in Hoon Hay to offer the service using the same technology currently used to treat human patients.
The wide-bore MRI technology can scan animals with a circumference of less than 180 centimeters and can be used on pets, farm animals and some zoo animals, including tigers.
MRIs cost over $3,500 and are considered the gold standard of veterinary diagnostic treatment, according to McMaster & Heap vet Michelle McMaster, but they have not been widely used in animals.
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Magnetic Resonance Imaging is used to look inside a body and uses magnetic fields and radio waves to create a three-dimensional image, with accurate high-resolution images of an animal’s brain, spine, limbs and joints.
For the past four years, McMaster has brought pets that have needed MRIs for Forté Health, but the scans had to be placed around human patients and often performed at night.
Delivered/Delivered
Pacific Radiology staff and friends review the new animal MRI before welcoming our first patients. From left to right Lucia Leeper with Humphrey; Gareth Leeper MRI Animal Imaging Lead; Kerri McShane MRI technology with Scout; Kerry Henderson MRI technology with Hester; Libby and Neve exaggerate with Milo.
With customers willing to spend more on their pets, McMasters, who has been a veterinarian for more than 30 years, has helped scan up to nine animals a month alongside Gareth Leeper, the leader of Pacific Radiology MRI Animal Imaging with Forte Health.
Now she hopes that the new clinic will be accessible to all vets.
Christchurch pet owner Justin, who didn’t want his last name used, knows all too well the importance of having an MRI facility nearby after Sashenka, his 14-year-old Norwegian Forest Cat got sick in 2019.
After much testing and no diagnosis, a CT scan finally showed that Sashenka had a meningioma tumor.
Considered his fur daughter, Justin, whose partner is expecting their first child, didn’t hesitate to make an appointment and fly her to Auckland to be operated on by a top animal surgeon.
There, Sashenka could get an MRI scan that would make the surgery possible – without it she wouldn’t have survived.
“It was critical,” Justin says.
Sashenka miraculously recovered from the surgery, but needed five more scans, two CT scans, and three rounds of chemotherapy before dying two years later.
MARTIN DE RUYTER/STUFF
Town and Country vet Roger Bay and his team euthanize a growing number of animals at home, where the pet’s last memory of his happy place is.
Although Justin estimates that he spent about $75,000 on Sashenka’s care, he has no regrets and is part of a growing number of Kiwis willing to invest in caring for their pet.
“She was my everything… my fur daughter and my best friend.”
McMaster said most pet owners who come to her clinic will try to fix “everything.”
“We rarely put anything down.”
PD Insurance NZ chief operating officer Michelle Le Long said: year over year they have seen growth in the pet insurance marketalthough she believes the market is still underinsured with less than 25% of the estimated 1.7 companion animals uninsured.
Le Long said it was not uncommon for pet owners in their early twenties to sign up, as the value of pets has increased.
Many insurers covered diagnostic MRI scans, she said.