MontVet

“Where exactly are you going ?!…..” I asked my driver, about ten minutes after we had left the main highway and while I was following on Google Maps how we were zick-zacking through the Southern suburbs of Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro.

“To airport ! ……..Not airport ?”…….

”Nope!……..Not airport……..but to the city centre !……”

My taxi driver sighed, cursed in his native Albanian, then turned the car around and we were driving back the way we came…….

This minor mishap didn’t spoil my first encounter with my next destination and twenty minutes later – while my driver, pacified with a decent tip, was heading back to Shkodër – I was meeting Predrag Stojović, my next host, in the Zeppelin Bar next to Podgorica’s old town centre.

It had taken Predrag not less than 15 years – since our first encounter at a vet meeting in Lille – to get me to his country and that, despite the undisputed fact that Montenegro features some of Europe’s most acclaimed mountain areas.

Predrag – together with his colleague Nebosja Sćekić – is owning MontVet, an institution, when it comes to animal care in this part of the world.

And this doesn’t just involve the care of companion animals:

When we entered the smaller Old Town branch of MontVet, the first thing I noticed, was a glass funnel and a microscope ……vital equipment for the testing of porcine meat for Trichinellosis – a debilitating zoonotic disease – which veterinarians, at least in Europe, have kept under control for many decades. An often underreported “One Health” success story.

Another large part of Predrag’s daily workload is taken up by shelter medicine. MontVet is responsible for the care of all rescued dogs and cats of the capital.

A short drive away I was then given the opportunity to visit the main clinic, fitted into a number of adjacent retail units, with a Husquarna chainsaw outlet inbetween – not related to the veterinary business….

The upper floor was extremely well stocked with pet food and accessories, for some of which MontVet is the only national importer.

The rooms on the lower level were dedicated to clinical veterinary work.

In a number of consulting, imaging and operating rooms, an international team of vets was looking after the pets of their equally international clientel.

Consultations were conducted not only in Montenegrin, but also in Italian, in Albanian, in Russian and in English and probably in a few more languages.

Once again I noticed so many similaritlies with my own clinic in the UK and I felt that it was about time for me to return to some clinical work. But before that, there was a bit more travelling ahead of me…..