We Have Six Doctors To Serve You Best!
(click on the doctors' pictures!)
Dr. Patrick Smith graduated from the Ohio State University
College of Veterinary Medicine and came west with his wife,
Sandy, to start practice when the doors opened to a much smaller
Mesa Veterinary Hospital in June, 1974. He enjoys behavioral medicine
and surgery along with all facets of getting along with people and their pets.
He spends a lot of his "spare" time on the computers
at the hospital, keeping things up to date. (Including
building this web site for your enjoyment!). The Smith
family, including two adult sons who live in Colorado,
all enjoy martial arts to keep fit, and anything to do with
living in the mountains west of Denver including skiing,
biking
and building a house.
Dr. Stefan Rachwal came to us as a student at Wheat
Ridge
High School. His intelligence and love of cats "forced"
us
to keep track of him throughout college at CSU and then
keep him as a veterinarian in 1984. He became an owner of
Mesa Veterinary Hospital a few years later and has kept his special interest
not only in cats, but also in any part of internal medicine.
He is our "walking book of knowledge!" He likes biking
and
working out downtown at the gym. Stef has participated in
the Pet Loss Support Committee and other elected positions for the
Denver
Area Veterinary Medical Society for over 20 years and
we support him totally in this important endeavor.
Dr. Steve Batch is a Wheat Ridge High School classmate of Dr.
Rachwal's
and we met him at about the same time. (Lots of stories there!)
Steve went to an internship out in west Los Angeles after
he graduated from the College of Veterinary Medicine at CSU. After an
intense year in California, he and his wife, Martha, came
back to us in 1984.
They have 2 beautiful daughters in college and live in Arvada.
He is one of the
four owners of Mesa Veterinary Hospital, and has been instrumental
in our
tremendous growth and success. Steve has special interests in
everything, but especially internal medicine, surgery and oncology. He handles
a lot of our exotics cases as well.
Dr. Christine Horst, one of the owners of Mesa Veterinary Hospital,
came to us in high school, during an honors externship
program from
Kent Denver. We recognized her skills and intelligence and kept in touch
with her throughout college and she graduated from the CSU
College
of Veterinary Medicine. After working in a small animal and exotic practice
in Phoenix, she came back to MVH and we are really pleased she
did!
She handles most of the exotic animal work at the practice
(along with Dr. Batch) and she loves working with the puppies
and kittens too! She and her husband, Wade, spend nearly all of
their free time on bicycles and have even had the good fortune
to do the Ride the Rockies event. They welcomed their son,
Zack,
into the family in the summer of 2007.
Dr. Kitren Nickerson was a wonderful addition to the Mesa Family. She
graduated
Magna Cum Laude from CSU in 2001 after receiving her Master's Degree there
in
1997 in Physiology. She originally graduated with her B.S. from Cornell
University,
but her love for Colorado brought her back home to go to school. Kit and
Matt love
their horses and live up in the mountains near Dr. Smith. She also loves
every aspect
of working and living with animals as evidenced by her own 4 dogs, 2 cats and
2 horses!
Kit has tremendous energy and enthusiasm and has helped
make MVH one of the top
veterinary hospitals in Denver.
Dr. Lindsey Brooks, a Colorado native and a graduate of the College of
Veterinary
Medicine in Ft. Collins, came to us after her year's internship
there with an emphasis
on internal medicine and surgery. She spent part of
that extra year at the Denver Dumb
Friend's League instructing senior veterinary students and
working as a shelter medicine
veterinarian where she performed an extensive amount of
surgery. Lindsey has a special
interest in clinical pathology, surgery and dermatology,
but will always have a special
place in her heart for shelter medicine. She and her
husband, Ross, enjoy hiking and
snow shoeing with their two high energy labs, Lucy and
Rosa Mae, and lounging around
with their lazy cat Stuart. They have two aquatic
turtles as well!
We are very pleased she chose to be with our group.