Outstanding Veterinary Impact Awards' Veterinarian Honoree
Dr. Allison Parnell is an Associate Veterinarian with Equine Veterinary Associates located in Olive Branch, Mississippi. Get to know Dr. Allison through this Honoree Q&A:
Why did you decide to go into Veterinary Medicine? I grew up showing in hunter/jumper events in the Memphis, Tennessee area. One day, I received bad news that every 16-year-old horse girl dreads: my horse had sustained a soft tissue injury and would be off for several months. During this time, I discovered that I enjoyed taking care of my injured horse, and other people’s horses just as much as I enjoyed riding.
What are common misconceptions people have about your profession? A lot of people think that veterinarians are simply in it for the money, but if that was the case then I would have become a human anesthesiologist like my mother told me to.
What is a memorable or career-defining moment you’ve had? A special moment for me was writing my first letter of recommendation for vet school. I think about all the people who helped me along the way and took the time to let me shadow and to teach me. I took a part of all of them with me and I can still hear their voices and their idioms in my mind when I’m doing things they’ve taught me. I hope I can be that person for others.
If you could change one thing about your field/ industry what would it be? Something that needs to change, and is slowly starting to change, is a lack of collegiality and collaboration among veterinarians. For many years, competition between horse vets was intense. We are facing a shortage of all veterinarians but particularly horse vets. There just isn’t room for hostility anymore, and that goes for owners as well. If an owner or veterinarian bashes another vet, that is a major red flag for me. We need to rely on each other or we are not going to survive as a profession.
Quote you live by: “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
