I'm one of the Associate Veterinarians here at Paw Haven Animal Hospital. As you can imagine, I got into veterinary medicine because I love animals, as all of us do. I have always really liked biology and science, and I love cats and dogs.
One of the things I love the most about veterinary medicine is the bond between clients and their pets, and how I as a doctor can kind of facilitate that and just help heal our pets and heal the bond that they share with their owners.
My favorite part about my job is the everyday interactions that I have with clients and their pets. I love even just basic wellness appointments and getting to know people. But I also love surgery, and I really enjoy doing acupuncture.
Outside of work, I really love going to Disney with my husband. Some other things that we enjoy are hiking with our dogs. I'm a huge fan of musicals. We go to the Strass Center in Tampa a lot and go and see lots of different plays and musicals.
I went to Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine. I graduated about five years ago now and have been practicing since then. Auburn was a great school. I really enjoyed being there in Alabama. I am still a gator at heart. I went to University of Florida for undergrad.
Before coming to Paw Haven, when I first graduated, I worked at a clinic in Sarasota. I worked there for several years, and then when I got married to my husband, I decided I wanted to move back to my hometown, which is actually Lakeland. I grew up here pretty much all my life. I'm familiar with the area, enjoy being back close to my family, and we're looking forward to spending a long time here at Paw Haven.
I went to the Chi University of Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine. That's where I learned how to do acupuncture, and I am certified to do acupuncture on pets. That's something that is a little bit different than our everyday day-to-day medicine.
With acupuncture, which is a form of Eastern Chinese medicine, you look at Qi, which is basically the energy flow throughout the body. As pets get different diseases, that disturbs the Qi flow throughout their body. With acupuncture, the goal is to treat different acupuncture points to help regulate that flow of Qi back to normal. It is something that we can use for pretty much any kind of disease. Most commonly, I use it for arthritis, neurologic diseases like seizures, or intervertebral disc disease, back issues.