A professional’s passion and skill to help sick animals
Dr. Victoria Waind (DVM) is a practicing veterinarian who finds volunteering an opportunity to use her skills while doing good in the community, helping people and their pets.
Dr. Victoria works as a full-time vet at an emergency animal hospital in Mississauga. In this setting, she sees pets that are very sick, she said.
A year ago, she reached out to the Companion Animal Hospital at the HBSPCA to see if she could be of service.
Dr. Victoria loves animals and interactions with people, so she was delighted to combine her skills with her passion and help people and their pets in the community.
Her experience at the emergency hospital is quite intense. “The highs and lows of an emergency department are even higher than in a regular practice,” she says.
She said she is incredibly grateful to help these people with very sick pets and to be able to walk them through a very difficult day.
Dr. Victoria’s regular hospital is a big animal hospital with specialties like cardiac and medical specialists. Its emergency service takes on animals from other areas.
Dr. Victoria lives in Hamilton and graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) in Guelph. Despite her busy schedule, she is able to volunteer once every month or so and she tries to volunteer when she has a day available.
Elise Ritter is the HBSPCA’s RVT supervisor. She says it’s great to have new, young vets here, to acquire new information and learn from them.
“They are able to hop on in a high-volume surgery setting,” she said. “Dr. Victoria has a really wonderful attitude.”
Dr. Victoria says she always enjoys volunteer work. “It gives a sense of purpose and fulfillment in a different environment,” she said.
Volunteer work also offers a chance to interact with other veterinary professionals, she says, while making their day a little easier.
She participated in one of the HBSOPCA’s Pet Health Outreach Clinics and said she loved the interaction with people. These community clinics provide a full exam, core vaccines, a dose of flea prevention and a broad spectrum dewormer.
“Pet ownership is such a blessing – they give such unconditional love. Everybody deserves the right to experience that, despite their income level,” she said.
Dr. Jennifer Farr (DVM), Medical Director of HBSPCA’s Companion Animal Hospital said: “Victoria has been a great help on surgery days in the hospital. On the days that she is able to join us, she performs pre-operative examinations of cats arriving for surgery. Following that, she jumps right into cat neuters and then cat spays. Her presence allows us to help more pets in a day as it frees up a second vet to tend to any shelter or foster pets with health concerns.
“We were fortunate to also have Victoria join us for a Pet Health Outreach Clinic. It is nice to hear insights from working at her regular job as an emergency veterinarian and we appreciate her taking time out of her busy schedule to help us at the HBSPCA.”
Dr. Victoria and her partner Blake have a four-year-old rescue dog Bear who is an energetic lab and border collie mix.
The HBSPCA is delighted to have a professional of Dr. Victoria’s caliber to help with the important work we do in the companion animal hospital.