Dr. Rachel Szumel
Associate Veterinarian
Dr. Rachel Szumel grew up in the bay area, and wanted to be a veterinarian since before she can remember. She started working for her family vet when she was 13 helping out throughout the clinic and running all the heartworm tests! She went to college in Portland, Oregon, and returned to California for veterinary school at UC Davis. After vet school she completed an internship (another year of intense training) at a 24 hour specialty hospital in Santa Rosa. Since then she has been in general practice and moved to Tahoe in 2013.
Dr. Rachel loves practicing veterinary medicine – it’s always interesting, and there is always more to learn! She particularly enjoys internal medicine, dentistry, and behavior. In addition to frequent continuing education in the veterinary field, she honed her dog training knowledge at The Academy For Dog Trainers, from which she graduated with honors in 2015. She is also Fear Free Certified Practitioner and strives to make her patients as relaxed as possible when they come to see her. She loves helping newly adopted pets get started off on the right foot, as well as helping out when things go awry.
Dr. Rachel couldn’t be happier to live in Tahoe with her husband Leo, kids Tenaya and Banner, and their SuperChiTM Mamacita. She spends her free time trail running (slowly), skiing (getting better), mountain biking (also pretty slowly), vegetable gardening (trial and error), camping and backpacking, occasionally rock climbing, and always nerding out about birds and wildflowers. Mamacita joins her in all of the above activities (yes, including backcountry skiing), and never seems to get tired.
