Working with animals has been a lifelong passion for Vale Park Animal Hospital Associate Veterinarian Dr. Ashley Walker. A proud owner of many cats, some box turtles, and a corn snake as a kid, animals have always been at the forefront of her life story.
“I’ve wanted to be a veterinarian my entire life,” she said. “I've always been passionate about animals. I had a lot of animals myself growing up and always visited different animal-based attractions with my family at zoos. Ever since I can remember, being a veterinarian was something that I’ve wanted to do.”
While a small animal veterinarian now, Dr. Walker originally began her career a little more on the “wild side” with focus in wildlife animals and zoology. She studied the field as an undergraduate at Southern Illinois University (SIU) Carbondale, where she also earned an additional certification in companion animal nutrition. Following graduation, she held internships from coast to coast at the California Wildlife Center and the Animal Nutrition Center at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida.
“The California Wildlife Center was super cool because I worked with California sea lions, bats, raccoons, and birds – basically any wildlife animal who needed help would be there. It definitely had a wide variety of different animals. Doing that internship was my first real medical-based internship where I did a lot of animal handling skills, learned how to draw blood, and learned how to read different tests. It was super awesome,” she said.
While at Disney, Dr. Walker had the chance to dive into the specifics of animal care, such as how to accommodate for their dietary needs.
“My time at Disney was actually more of a research-based internship where I got to learn how to properly balance diets and how to make sure each specific animal species have the nutrients that they need based on what their captivity statuses and medical needs were,” she said. “We had some really old tigers there at the time who actually didn't have any teeth, so we had to modify their protein intake and make sure that they were able to eat it right.”
Dr. Walker then attended the University of Minnesota for veterinary school. While there, she realized she wanted to slightly shift the focus of her specialization – she loved working with wildlife animals, but the career opportunities in the field were more research-based. She wanted a role where she could interact more with her clients as opposed to spending most of her days combing through various documents. That’s when she discovered small animal medicine was the perfect fit.
“Becoming a veterinarian was always the end goal for me, but once I got into veterinary school, I ended up diverting what I wanted to specialize in,” she said. “Becoming a zoo and wildlife veterinarian can actually be very challenging to get into - there's limited opportunities. A lot of them are more research based, which wasn't quite the avenue that I personally wanted to focus on. I wanted more hands-on care with patients and more client interaction, so I started focusing my studies on small animal medicine and, more specifically, cats.”
While at vet school, Dr. Walker held various positions that allowed her to work with and learn more about feline care. Her clinicals were at many different feline exclusive practices, she received a Cat Friendly Veterinarian Certification from the American Association of Feline Practitioners, and even spent two weeks offering spray and neuter services to stray cats in Greece.
“I'm definitely known as ‘Cat Whisperer’ by a lot of people in the area,” she said with a smile. “I enjoy cats, and I'm able to work on more complex conditions, issues and medication for them. It’s what I'm most passionate about. Cats sometimes don't get as much love in the veterinary world as dogs, so being able to put that focus and that passion into helping what could be considered a less privileged group means a lot to me, and it definitely means a lot to people who love cats, too.”
Today, Dr. Walker is applying her versatile experience in the world of veterinary and feline medicine to her work at Vale Park, where she’ll be celebrating three years this June. She absolutely loves working alongside her team as they work hard to provide quality care to cats and other pets across Northwest Indiana.
“My team is awesome,” she said. “I love everyone, from the assistants to the veterinarians who I work with. We truly have that family-like bond and connection. We can laugh and make jokes together but also get some serious work done at the same time. Vale Park offers very high-end care, very wonderful people, and I’m very happy I came to work here.”
Dr. Walker is also a proud cat owner herself and enjoys spending time with her black cat Merlin when not at work. She can additionally be found outside – particularly hiking, backpacking, or running – in her free time.
For more information on Vale Park Animal Hospital, please visit valeparkah.com.
