Shirley wrote:
>Sukie, In Australia and the UK, at least, Bachelor of Veterinary
>Science (BVSc) is exactly the same as DVM and those people who hold it
>are certainly referred to as "Doctor". They do the same 5 or 6 years
>at uni but the course simply has a different name.

Shirley, a bachelors degree is NOT AT ALL the same as a doctorate, it
is the first step of moving toward trying to qualify to do later work
to get a doctorate. It's like learning to walk well compared to running
an Olympics marathon. (My hubby who has a doctorate in high energy
physics just walked in so I read that note to him, He dramatically
sighed. Placed his hand on his heart. Shook his head, and lamented,
"Well, I certainly wasted a lot of time..." it was hilarious! Yes, he
respects (and loves) people with bachelors (and without) -- I have a
bachelors and some grad credits though my post grad education options
were truncated by health problems, and his mom had secretarial school
after high school, plus one of my uncles left school at 14 to support
his mother and sister but succeeded in the stock exchange by working
his way up).

While there are very rare exceptions, people with doctorates typically
have first a bachelors (4 or 5 years usually), a masters (or the
equivalent recognition if in a doctoral program -- typically 1 or 2
years), and then further years spent getting a doctorate. A total of 9
to 10 years of education is the norm, but it can be longer, and for a
few rare things it can be shorter.

BTW, there ARE also vets in Australia, Britain and elsewhere who HAVE
done full doctorates in veterinary med and thus learned a great deal
more (unless they were twiddling their thumbs for the additional years
which I highly doubt), unlike the one to whom I referred who does not
have a doctorate and therefore should not be called "Doctor" but should
be called "Mister".

In the U.S. many of the people who do bachelors in vet med are
veterinary technicians, a discipline I hold in high regard, and I often
learn things hands on from the ones at the hospital we use, but I can
assure you that unless those techs had done further degrees in the
field (just as there are those who have earned doctorates in nursing
who often do very specialized nursing or teach in universities) and
have qualified for a doctorate they would NOT pass themselves off as
"doctor". It's just tacky and false advertising to do so -- the kind of
false advertising which makes a person want to check other claims more
closely if from the same person.

Shirley also wrote:
>I suspect you are referring to Dr Billinghurst and the "barf" diet.
>Personally, I don't agree with his ideals and believe he has sold out
>on his initial thoughts to earn money.

No, that was not who I meant. The person I meant is also widely quoted,
though, and is not among the pair later in this message. Honestly, I
think people should be doing their own checking so I'm not saying who
it is right now because I would like folks to themselves check the
people they quote and will be away for a protracted time beginning the
same day you read this. There is whole LOT to be learned when going
through people's own CVs on their sites!

Here is some general useful info for checking multiple types of
references:

Another thing to watch for is the "padded CV" which lists a pile of
things that really don't matter or stretches out things.

Also check the CVs of refs since I have found sites where those don't
match up with what is advertised.

Very important is to also check nominations for awards vs. actual
awards. Often it will be found that nominations can be easily made or
are not recorded so can not be verified, and often no award was won.
Some places allow people to nominate themselves. In fact, on checking
one site (a DIFFERENT SITE WITH DIFFERENT PEOPLE) where the people
prominently displayed that they had been nominated an award in 2003
this turned up on checking and it says worlds about the quality fo
the work when experts reviewed the submissions:

http://www.fondation-prince-laurent.be/indexen.html

>In 2003, as in 1999, the Prize of the Prince Laurent Foundation
>was not awarded since none of the works submitted met the
>expectations of the jury.

If people call themselves experts they SHOULD be checked. Heck, all the
rest of us should be, too, when there is good reason and often enough
there is! I've said it before and will say it again: verify, verify,
verify. That isn't only because of false claims, but can be because of
changed data, accidental mistakes in typing, lack of attributions, and
a whole further range of reasons. :-)

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 5630]