10/18/2024
Happy Tech Week to our LVT Shannon!
To say that vet med is life for this girl would be an understatement! Shannon grew up spending her summers at her Gramma's hospital in PA; working her way up from painting fences, helping with kennels to running rooms and assisting in surgeries by 16/17. When she wasn't working, they were off on trips across the states and riding horses. When she was home, she was volunteering at the local Humane Society, playing soccer, and the laundry list of after school activities she participated in. She had no doubt that being around animals and working in vet med was where she belonged and so she went to SUNY Canton to pursue her degree in Veterinary Technology and graduated in 2016, passing her NYS boards that same year.
Shannon credits a large part of her being to her Gramma and her time with the amazing people she met at Rainbow Veterinary hospital and maturing as tech under the amazing guidance of Dr. Kearney and Dr. LaForte during her time at BVH. Her Gramma taught her how to work hard for what she wants, help someone whenever you can, and provide compassionate care. It's because of this that Shannon is passionate about being part of a team and helping the people she cares about find their passion in vet med, a job that many of us burn out in from passion fatigue and feeling like we don't make a difference.
She holds a special place in her heart for geriatric pets and helping them enjoy their senior years comfortably and leaving as many good memories with their parents as possible. She genuinely enjoys getting to know pets and their parents as they grow with the hospital over the years, greeting people by name and remembering their stories and having people feel like part of a family of people that really cares about them and their pet. She is extremely passionate about quality dental care and enjoys seeing owners get to experience a whole new side of their pets that they get when their mouths no long cause them discomfort, she routinely takes time to learn new techniques in extraction and cleaning and providing minimally painful surgical care. She also believes in quality preventative care and client education... too many times in her career she has witnessed owners in distress because of judgmental teams and those who didn't take the time to help them be an educated advocate for their pets and understand why preventative care is important or felt judged or shame over the things they couldn't afford to do or didn't know any better. This is something Shannon is hoping to change here at FRVH.
While she enjoys her old title of "cat wrangler" and loves being a part of even the grumpy kitties being able to receive good care and will be second in line behind Kev for a kitty snuggle, she is truly a dog girl at heart, there's nothing like the love of a dog (especially one named Noli, and maybe a bunny and a chicken or 10). She is part of the crazy plant girl committee (her current obsession is anything Monstera and Orchid), she loves wildlife photography (team Canon), has a passion for travelling and trying new foods (literally just loves food in general), and loves all kinds of animals and is happy to have a partner who supports her animal madness and crazy ideas.
Thank you for being part of our team, Shannon!
