She’s there for pets when they need her most
In honor of World Veterinary Day this month (April 24th), we are highlighting some of the incredible veterinarians in the Airvet community for being fantastic leaders, compassionate practitioners, and helping to serve their communities.
Dr. Karen Strickfaden of Countycare Animal Complex in Green Bay, Wisconsin is no exception. Here are a few reasons why Dr. Strickfaden’s team tries to emulate her day after day:
“Her approach to veterinary medicine is like no one else that I have met. Her combined integrative care with traditional and holistic modalities seeks to dive deep to determine the root cause of the issue to best determine the solution for an optimal outcome. She pioneered 6 month wellness exams because many changes can take place with pets aging so much faster than people. She has given hope to thousands of clients with her integrative approach when other clinics could not. There have been thousands of pets that have benefitted from a higher quality of life and extended amount of time – increasing the human-animal bond.
Dr. Strickfaden’s approach to compliance and wellness care puts her at the top! She realized years ago that in order to advocate for the pets interest that clinics needed to do more than offer puppy/kitten, adult and senior wellness plans. Many times those plans are generic and did not meet the needs of many of our patients. She implemented and streamlined 18 different plans. These wellness plans match with the lifestyle assessments we do for each pet. Our wellness packages average is 44% which is well over the national average and our compliance increased accordingly. Preventative care helps keep pets healthy longer.
She has fierce leadership skills as well. She’s streamlined our processes to allow us the capability to see additional pets each day. In a time where practices are overbooked and turning away new clients, she has figured out how to become more efficient in our processes to allow us the opportunity to see more pets – which is what we are here to do. Our clients are happy, our patients are cared for and our staff are happy they are able to help. Our emergency centers are also happy as we are not sending as many to them! We receive many positive surveys, Facebook reviews and Google reviews letting us know how pleased clients are with our team and level of care.
When COVID-19 threatened to shut down businesses this past year, Dr. Strickfaden was an amazing leader. She worked tirelessly to come up with a plan that would keep our staff safe and our patients well cared for. We divided into two teams and divided our clinic space so if one team became ill with covid, our other team would not be at risk and would be here or patients. Her biggest concern was we needed to make sure we would have a doctor and staff to care for our patients, especially our urgent and sick ones. If the entire staff fell ill and we had to close – our patients would suffer. This took a lot of time and energy and a bit of adaptation to make this plan work but she never wavered. She was excellent at asking for input and communicating with everyone as we made changes along the way. Staff felt assured they could work in a safe environment and our clients were appreciative that we were able to continue to care for their pets.
In addition, Dr. Strickfaden has cultivated a culture that is extremely special at Countrycare Animal Complex. She recognizes that the staff are the backbone of our business and we could not be where we are today without so many incredible team members. For the past 10 years she has organized a spa rejuvenation day in January. The entire staff goes to the spa, gets a treatment of their choice, attends a catered lunch where we play games and bond and then we share our professional and personal goals. We unveil Countrycare’s word of the year – this word helps connect us to each other as a team, to our clients to our patients. We hold special trainings to implement this word in our daily work lives. Our word for 2021 – connection!
I have had the pleasure of working with Dr. Strickfaden for the past 12+ years. I have seen so much growth over this time period. She continues to strive to bring the best veterinary care possible with new modalities and old fashioned caring to all our patients. She advocates for the needs of her patients and works closely with each owner to make the best treatment plan for each pet. She listens to the staff and implements changes and makes a positive difference for the team. And for the past 25+ years she continues to be passionate about being the best veterinarian she can be for each and every one of her patients – and clients too! She makes us proud to be a part of her Countrycare dream and we are honored to share in her passion!”
It’s because of devoted and passionate veterinarians like Dr. Karen Strickfaden that we at Airvet are so honored to be a part of the veterinary industry. We love working with compassionate and caring practitioners and we feel honored to be able to assist them in bringing their clients’ experiences to new heights.
Thank you, Dr. Strickfaden, for being a leader to so many in the veterinary industry.
