Mark Birkenfeld is a native of Nazareth, Texas, and is a 2009 graduate of Texas A&M University. In the spring, he enjoys hunting for turkeys. His favorite fall activity is watching college football when he goes to visit his children at their colleges. He and his wife, Shanon, have two children. Matthew is a student at Texas A&M University and Madelyn is a student at Oklahoma State University. They have two cats—Walter and John Denver. Walter is a fat black cat whose first and only love is cat food. John Denver is their long-haired cat that is likely the friendliest cat you could meet. His favorite experience from working at HCVC is not one particular time or event; it is the people. He says he has been blessed to get to help our clients with their pets and livestock through the years, and his goal is to be the best doctor he can be every time he sees them. He also points out that he is blessed to be surrounded by a team of co-workers that cares for one another and strives to do their best.
Mark and his wife Bernadette have been blessed with five children: Samuel, Anna, Mary, Leo, and Simeon. When he is not at the clinic, you can find him spending time with his family raising his children and working on his farm raising cattle. They have lots of pets on the farm, including several cats—Marvin, Luna, Yoda, and the Coop Kitties—as well as a horse named Penny and lots of cows, goats, chickens with a few guineas and ducks to boot Dr. Birkenfeld says getting to come back as a partner in the practice he started out at following vet school has been a blessing. Some of his favorite success stories while at HCVC involve extracting some pennies from a cat’s intestinal tract, removing part of a dog’s liver that contained cancer, and intensively managing a cow whose claw had sloughed to heal the infection and allow the hoof to regrow while keeping the cow healthy and sound [citation].