Veterinarian
I'm Dr. Lynae Shubin, and I'm an associate veterinarian at Livermore Family Pet Hospital! I joined the team in August of 2024.
Why did you decide to become a veterinarian?
I decided I wanted to be a veterinarian because I really loved studying science in school, and I thought it was really cool. I have always really loved working with animals, and I found them very interesting. It was also very fulfilling to work with them. I've always had dogs and been very attached to them, and I also wanted to have a job where I got to do lots of interesting things every day, and that is definitely veterinary medicine. We see appointments, we do surgery, we see emergencies, so it really keeps you busy and on your feet. That's how I ended up here, and I'm very happy to be here!
Where did you go to school, and what was your educational background?
I went to UC Davis for undergrad and for grad school, so I got my bachelor's of science there in animal science, and I got my minor in wildlife conservation biology, and then I went to UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.
Did you have any unique experiences during your education?
When I was an undergrad, I volunteered at Sacramento Zoo and the California Raptor Center. I also had an internship at the Marine Mammal Center in Los Angeles. I got to work with seals and sea lions there and do releases, which was really fun. Now, I get to volunteer at Lindsay Wildlife, which is over in Walnut Creek, and work with their rehab animals there, who are hopefully getting released back into the wild after they get some TLC and some treatments. So I've gotten to work with a lot of different creatures, ranging from seals and sea lions and eagles and hawks and owls to all the fun critters they have at SAC Zoo. They have lions and tigers and anteaters and stuff like that. I've gotten a full breadth of animal experience!
Did you have any international experiences during your veterinary studies?
When I was a student in veterinary school, I had the opportunity to work in Ireland, doing some research on influenza in seals and also multidrug resistance, so antibiotic resistance in wild species, which was a really great opportunity. And I got to work at their vet school, which was very cool. The previous summer, I actually got to do a similar project working in New Zealand at their vet school, and we were looking at dolphin tissues and testing them for toxoplasma, which is something that you might be familiar with as a feline disease, but it also affects many wildlife species, including dolphins. So that was a cool study to do and, obviously, very nice places to do these studies in, so I really enjoyed that.
What certifications do you hold?
I got my fear-free certification in 2019, and I actually just finished the level two certification earlier this week. The point of that program is to really minimize stress in our patients and make the veterinary hospital a positive experience for them. There are different handling techniques we use, as well as medications, and there's a lot of training to recognize early signs of fear before they escalate to a point where we can't handle them. So we can hopefully recognize things early and address them instead of letting them work up to a point where we can't help them and treat them here in the hospital. That's been really important. Livermore Family Pet also, like the whole staff, really adopts a lot of those concepts and tries to emphasize them.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
I have a few hobbies in my post-vet school life. I really like traveling when I can. I like camping and hiking and just being outside. I also really like cooking, baking, gardening, and having a veggie garden. I have a dog and a cat who take up a lot of my time, too. And then I also am learning how to ride a horse. I'm living out my childhood dream of taking horseback riding lessons. It's slow, but it's very fun!
