Background of Our Hospital

After graduation in 1978 with a degree of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) from Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Dr.Pongpao Hosathitam started his career as a practicing veterinarian in commercial pig and poultry farms belong to the commercial animal feed manufacturing company in Bangkok. At this company he was responsible for management of the health and productivity as a whole of those animals in the farms. However, in 1983 with the passion of small animal veterinary medicine he has decided to move to Chiang Mai and begun his new journey in small animal veterinary medicine since then.

A small animal clinic named Chotana Veterinarain was first established here in Chiang Mai at soi Pongsuwan, Chotana road and later on moved to the present site and upgraded to Chiang Mai Chotana Animal Hospital located at  250/17 Chiang Mai-Lampang Superhighway near Tesco Lotus, Kamthieng Market. Also he has used his knowledge, skill and experience for the benefit of pig farmers as a consultant for many commercial pig farms both large and medium size in Chiang Mai and Lamphun.

World Tour …In Search of  International Pig Veterinary Knowledge

In order to update the knowledge in pig veterinary medicine to an international level, Dr.Pongpao Hosathitam has gone to attend the 12^th International Pig Veterinary Society Congress (12^th IPVS Congress) held at The Hague, The Netherlands during 17^th-20^th August 1992. All up to date knowledge about pig health and productivity has been applied for the benefit of large and medium size of commercial pig farms in this region of Thailand.

He also has ever been elected president of Lanna Veterinary Society, a society where all members who are both private and government veterinarians working in the northern part of Thailand come to join force and provide their veterinary knowledge and skill to the public both pig farmers and pet owners in Chiang Mai and nearby provinces.

Additionally, he has lectured in a dog raising education program for dog breeders and owners held at Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University on June 13, 1993. Since the inception of Chiang Mai Chotana Animal Hospital, in addition to pet health care in particular for your beloved pets we have been continuously improving our service in every aspect such as:

reminding system for pet health program to ensure that your pets vaccination program are always current and follow up checkup and treatment for geriatric diseases.

We always update our team’s veterinary knowledge and skill through continuing education program from internet, seminar and conference. Equipment and instrument required for effective diagnosis, treatment and surgery (both soft and bone surgery) for your pets are fully available such as autoclave, radiography machine, gas anesthetic machine with ventilator, pulse oximeter, infusion pump etc. Skill and up to date knowledge for making diagnosis and surgery are also current and ready for making your pets healthy and happy.

World Tour …In search of  Worldly Small Animal Veterinary Knowledge

In 1997, Dr.Pongpao Hosathitam has been to United Kingdom in order to attend the international conference for small animal called World Congress of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) on 3^rd-6^th April 1997 held at the International Convention Center (the ICC), Birmingham, United Kingdom and WSAVA 24^th-27^th October 2003 held at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, Bangkok, Thailand and many other seminars organized by Thai and International Veterinary Institutes.

All those events are the gathering of the international experts and specialists in every branches of small animal medicine who willingly lecture and provide hand-on knowledge and experience on topics of their in depth knowledge for all participating attendants.

By the time we started our veterinary clinic in Chiang Mai in 1984, pet orthopedic (bone surgery) service was not yet available, so when such serious orthopedic cases were brought to any veterinary clinics in town the answers to pet owners would mostly be referring to veterinary schools in Bangkok (700 plus kilometer away from Chiang Mai). The best that could be done at the time was just for a simple orthopedic case such as bandaging, while any complicated orthopedics case which needed orthopedic specialist and specific instruments were obviously absence. That kind of situation was absolutely embarrassing to both pet owners and attending veterinarians.

In 1999, in response to Dr.Richard Eaton-Wells’ invitation, Dr.Pongpao Hosathitam has taken this precious opportunity to visit his own veterinary practice in Brisbane, Australia named Queensland Veterinary Specialists (formerly known as “West Chermside Veterinary Clinic”) with the aim

to learn and see how an operation of veterinary specialist practice be, orthopedic surgery in particular for 2 weeks long. This trip has significantly enhanced our practical knowledge and skill much more than our expectation. In addition to practical knowledge and skill in orthopedics surgery we also gain practical knowledge about veterinary referral center where sophisticated cases include veterinary orthopedics cases, reproductive system difficulties and other sophisticated internal medicine cases are referred to this Queensland Veterinary Specialists by general practitioners in this area and even from other parts of Australia for the best benefit of the sick pets and owners.

Also in 2000, with the aim to enforce and accumulate more and more knowledge and skill in orthopedics surgery Dr.Pongpao Hosathitam has decided to participate a workshops in the U.S.A. named Surgical Fixation of Fractures (A course in AO/ASIF Techniques 31st Annual Canine Basic Course) May 11-14, 2000 at The Hyatt Regency organized by The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A..  Additionally, WSAVA Orthopaedics lectures and workshops in Thailand-Bangkok and Chiang Mai, October 2000 has also been attended by Dr.Pongpao Hosathitam. This workshops were presented by two Australian veterinary orthopaedics specialists namely Dr.Geoff Robins from Specialist Small Animal Surgeon, Brisbane, Australia and Dr.Roger Clarke.

Since the past decades we have been seeing more and more cases of Chronic Renal Failure both in dog and cat, then in order to improve our knowledge and skill on this particular disease, CE course on this subject become absolutely necessary. So in 2001, Dr.Pongpao Hosathitam has taken the Renal Insufficiency online CE course  organized by Veterinary Information Network, Inc. U.S.A. after being a member of this Network since July, 2000.

Skin diseases have also been increasingly worsening the quality of life of more and more dogs and cats. In order to address this issue more effectively Dr.Pongpao Hosathitam has attended CE course on this subject: Small Animal Dermatology Diagnosis and Theapeutics, 30 November – 2 December 2001 held at Kanchanaburi, Thailand which was taught by Australian veterinary dermatologist named Dr.Beth McDonald.

Enthusiastically, Dr.Pongpao Hosathitam has regularly participated annual veterinary conference organized by The Veterinary Association of Thailand (VPAT) with the passion to best service pets and owners with current and up-to-date knowledge. During April 27-30, 2008 he has attended VPAT Regional Veterinary Congress 2008 held at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, Bangkok, Thailand.