Veteran Hastings veterinarian finishes after 37 years

Hastings man Roger McKinley has treated animals great and small in his more than 40 year career as a veterinarian. Photo / File

From being part of New Zealand's pioneer deer industry, to grappling with pythons and aggressive swans, Hastings veterinarian Roger McKinley has seen it all in his more than 40-year career.

Most people say they became a veterinarian because of a love of animals, but McKinley – who only had a cat growing up – said an interest in science and nature drew him to the job.

After graduating in 1978, he started working with large animals in the Bay of Plenty, including helping with New Zealand's burgeoning deer industry, now considered "world class".

"It was a wild west back then," he said.

"I was a young man and attracted to working with those wild animals.

"We were learning as we went."

Hastings man Roger McKinley has treated animals great and small in his more than 40 year career as a veterinarian. Photo / File

McKinley has done a range of things in his career, but said vets today tended to specialise a lot more.

"I'm one of those dinosaurs.

"Vets of my age are a dying breed."

He switched to working with small - and not so small - animals when he moved to the UK briefly and began work at the RSPCA in London.

The most exotic animal he'd worked with was a 2.4m Indian python abandoned on someone's front lawn in London - a shock for someone from New Zealand.

Treating the Queen's "scary", large mute swans was also an experience after they got lead poisoning from fishing sinkers.

He was not surprised to learn the birds can break a man's arm using their powerful necks.

Equally difficult to handle were short-haired chihuahuas, which McKinley said "had a reputation".

"It's difficult to examine little dogs with an aggressive nature."

He said the cases he struggled with were the ones where people refused to acknowledge it was best to end the suffering.

It was always important to act in the animal's best interests, he said.

Roger McKinley has been a veterinarian at Vet Services Hastings for 37 years and seen the clinic through a number of changes. Photo / Supplied

McKinley has handled a range of interesting surgeries, including a cat that swallowed a meat skewer, which had gone out its back, and removing 28 tights from a goat's stomach.

For the past 37 years, he's operated out of Vet Services Hastings and watched as the clinic has grown from just two veterinarians to 12.

The centre also garnered an "expert" reputation during the ostrich boom.

"I've seen that with a lot of species."

He was proud to have developed a relationship with dog breeders, discovering a genetic disease in border collies which they had developed a test for.

Roger McKinley said he was "very envious" of veterinary students these days. Photo / Supplied

McKinley said he would miss working with the staff and clients, some of whom he had been working with for many years.

"I've been around for such a long time.

"I've started seeing the grandchildren now."

With no pets of his own at home, he will also miss regular contact with the dogs and cats at the clinic but is planning to make up for this by babysitting his daughter's retrodoodle.

He said he was "very envious" of future veterinary students, having witnessed a massive improvement in animal welfare, technology and diagnostics for early disease detection in his career.