As the owner of Rose City Veterinary Hospital, I am proud to be part of the rich traditions it represents. Like the Columbia and Willamette rivers meeting west of Sauvie Island, Rose City Veterinary Hospital is part of two streaming histories: veterinary medicine and the City of Portland.

In both cases, the differences between the past and present are remarkable. When Dr. Gus Huthman founded this practice in 1911, the veterinary profession stood poised on the edge of monumental changes and progress. In 1900, only a few veterinary schools even offered classes in small animal medicine and surgery. Prior to the early 1900s there weren’t even any decent American textbooks on small animal care. Even Dr. Huthman himself concentrated primarily on horses and only started to treat family pets a few years after establishing his practice.

Treatment modalities at the turn of the century were crude and even seem cruel by modern standards. Before dependable anesthetics were readily available, there was no way to limit an animal’s exposure to painful surgery and invasive procedures. Infection from a lack of sterile rooms and equipment was a major and common consequence of surgery. These conditions were not the result of veterinarians who were not dedicated to their work, but rather a symptom of an age which did not have the knowledge and equipment we have in medicine today.

Dr. Huthman, however, took a visionary approach to the advancement of veterinary medicine. In 1936, he and six other veterinarians met to lay the groundwork for the Portland Veterinary Medical Association to enhance the exchange of scientific knowledge within the veterinary community and promote the humane care and treatment of animals. Only three years earlier, in 1933, a similar group of high-minded and accomplished veterinarians founded the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), dedicated to promoting the highest possible standards of veterinary medicine. To this day, less than 18% of veterinary hospitals meet AAHA’s strict and stringent standards.

Portland’s first veterinary practice is proud to be AAHA accredited. Today at RCVH we use the safest anesthetic protocols possible. Surgeries are performed with a state-of-the-art surgical CO2 laser, and often followed with the use of a therapeutic laser to reduce swelling and inflammation at the incision site. The same diagnostic tools that you find in the best human medical facilities are available to our patients: complete blood analysis, digital radiography, endoscopy, ultrasound –– even MRIs if needed. Thanks to modern medications, we can now manage pain much more effectively than in the past.

I would like to honor all those dedicated veterinarians who helped make the profession what it is today and to thank all of you whose trust makes it possible for us to practice veterinary medicine the way we think it should be practiced, with compassion and excellence. It is my sincere hope that Rose City continues to advance and thrive in the next 100 years as it has this past century, and for Portland to thrive along with it.

Sincerely,
Craig Quirk, DVM