www.cookevet.com

This may be the most unique opportunity to practice veterinary medicine in the state of Virginia. Our practice is patient/client focused and service-oriented and, it’s absolutely different here! When Dr. Cooke opened The Cooke Veterinary Medical Center in 2002, she had a vision to create a truly unique veterinary hospital that was focused on the patients and the clients, while also honoring of the talents, needs and growth of the staff. Our hospital was designed to allow everyone that enters here to feel heard, respected and valued. Is it a veterinary utopia?? Come meet us and find out.

Clients are not herded like cattle from front to room and back to front again. They are not hustled in and out to meet the appointment scheduler. No one is given ‘the bums rush’ to hurry them along, so that the doctor speeds to the next room to give another client a ‘volume focused’ exam.  Illness and lameness are allotted 1 hour on the scheduler while follow up (recheck) appointments are 30 minutes on the scheduler.  With longer appointment times, the doctor has time to focus on all the needs of the patient and client and work to more effectively ‘heal’ the patient.  Wasn’t that why we went to vet school in the first place??

Dr. Cooke’s vision included a veterinary utopia of sorts. She asked and wondered, “why can’t we have it all? Why can’t we make a great living, help animals, treat clients with dignity and respect, work on a world class team in a world class facility, AND, have a healthy work life balance? Why must we kill ourselves with late night appointments, heart breaking cases, and work ourselves to death? 

At Cooke Vet we focus on practicing concierge level medicine. We provide the highest quality, compassionate, service-oriented care possible, where the client is part of the healing process. The clinic was designed with open views into surgery and the main treatment area allowing the owner to be part of the solution to their pets healing. We have worked hard to create the most unique ‘niche’ practice in Tidewater.  

We often get the second and third opinion clients who are willing to pay for quality medicine and non-rushed doctor attention. Our clients become very loyal and appreciative of our amazing staff and standards. It is not uncommon for our cases to ‘stump’ the specialists when we do refer out a patient. We have an optimized mix of experience levels among our doctors and our staff. We also offer a combination of the best of both eastern and western medicine as we have doctors whose training and expertise can cover a wide range of modalities. People are often referred to us when no other practices have been able to provide solutions for healing. These often become some of the most satisfying cases, as we are able to help their pets outlive those grim expectations and have a good quality of life for the remainder of their days. 

Our business has grown steadily and organically mainly by client referrals and word of mouth. We have always operated under the knowing that if you do quality work, with quality people the rest will take care of itself. Our gross margins have been steadily increasing every year without driving a marketing strategy other than treating each and every patient, client and employee the right way. It grows also from the ‘true connection’ our clients feel when they are here. The whole staff cares about each other, and about the clients and the patients. The entire staff has the ‘it’ factor. We all enjoy being in the building and working together in a field that provides far more back to us than merely a paycheck.

What we are:  Excellent support staff with 3 full-time and 2 part-time doctors, 2 LVTs with over 25+ experience. A growing clinic that continues to invest in cutting edge technology. We are dedicated to finding the root cause and fixing the problem the right way the first time and not continuing to treat the symptoms while not addressing the underlying issue. We are a group of people that truly care about each other and there is a familial feel to working here. We are selective in who we invite to join our team and our turnover rates are significantly below industry average.

What we are not:  Corporate owned, nor are we preparing to sell to a corporation, pushing just numbers and agendas, having to push ‘plans’, making personal growth of income dependent on pushing products and services pet and clients may not need. We are not a veterinary numbers factory to burn you out. We want to honor the reason we all chose this career in the first place!

Who we seek:  We are looking for a doctor that is passionate about vet medicine and wants to help shape the future growth of this center. A person who loves being a veterinarian, and who is tired of the corporate rat race, tired of only living production check to production check.  We are looking for the right person who wants to grow and expand their medicine and themselves professionally and personally. Someone who is interested in learning about how to incorporate alternative therapies into western medicine and helping us grow on many levels. We would also love to learn new things from our new associate. We seek a person who seeks a ‘balanced’ life because we are better veterinarians when we can rest, recover, and get away from our work for periods of time. If you are a recent graduate don't hesitate to apply as well. We recognize all rock stars don't have years of experience under their belts yet.

What the full time schedule would be: You will work a 4-day work week with one ½ Saturday a few months a year (from 8-12). Part time will be dependent upon your availability. 

Salary structure: Base salary will be commensurate with experience. We do offer split rate compensation so you will have control of your own earning potential. Our salaries and benefits are competitive and we aggressively invest back into our employees as we grow.

We offer 4-day work week, CE benefits, DEA, AVMA, and time off for CE, paid holidays, and 2 weeks paid time off per year which increases to 3 weeks paid time off at the 4th year of employment. Company match 401K and fully paid health insurance.

• Assessing and examining patients, and diagnosing medical conditions.
• Conducting laboratory tests on specimens to diagnose medical conditions.
• Performing diagnostic imaging and ultrasound tests.
• Performing surgery, dressing and treating wounds, and prescribing medication.
• Performing dental health checkups and cleaning and extracting teeth.
• Euthanizing patients.
• Promoting preventative care by advocating and administering routine vaccinations and by educating clients on positive diet and lifestyle choices for pets.