Spike Vainshtein is a Registered Veterinary Technician with 18 years of experience in the veterinary medicine field.
Born in Lvov, Ukraine in 1973, Spike and family relocated to Rome, Italy in 1977 and eventually settled in Los Angeles in 1978.
Evidence of Spikes love and adoration for animals started very early in life and ultimately led her into the world of veterinary medicine in September 2000.
After 5 years in general practice, she transferred into a Specialty hospital where she spent 13 years immersed in a dynamic environment and actively worked until September 2018.
During that time, Spike was a Technical Surgery Supervisor working directly with multiple Board Certified Veterinary Surgeons and managing a team of anesthesia technicians. While working as a Surgery Tech Supervisor transitioned into the Oncology department and worked with the head Oncologist for 9 years. She also was a founding member of a companion animal Bone Marrow Transplant team based out of West Los Angeles. Spikes experience also includes anesthesia, radiation oncology, internal medicine, MRI, CT, radiology and emergency medicine.
When not working in the Veterinary world, Spike is a multimedia artist, lighting designer/ fabricator and most importantly a geriatric chihuahua wrangler.
Testimonial
“My family and I met Spike when she was working in the Oncology department, where unfortunately our dog Buddy had a rare type of nasal cancer. She took such amazing care of our Buddy and we always felt comfortable when she was over seeing his care. Meeting Spike proved to be a long-lasting friendship and we have come to her over the years for advice and questions about our other dogs. In fact, when we went to the vet with another dog, Spike came out to talk to us because she saw his chart was in the back. It was extremely sweet and no one has ever done that for us before. Her helpfulness and sincerity has been a gift to our family, especially our dogs.
In more detail, Spike always spent time to calm our dog and talk to us about how a procedure will go. If I had any questions after, I always called Spike and she would consult the vet or impute her knowledge to me. Spike always kept me in the loop, which, for a nervous dog parent, was the best thing I could ask for. It is clear to see Spike is very involved, interested, and supportive of us - she answered every question we had. We are grateful we had Spike on our path. We always, 100% felt comfortable to leave our sweet Buddy with Spike, because we knew she would take care of him like he was her own dog.
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