Veterinarians and Staff
All of the Arbutus West Animal Clinic team members have a history with animals. We understand how important it is to have knowledgeable, caring people to provide veterinary services for our pets. We all have training in animal care, and we hold regular staff meetings to continue our professional development.
Our veterinarians and staff:
| Head veterinarian | Dr. Jack Brondwin |
| Head Technician | Dr. Geronimo Piano |
| Veterinarian | Dr Sue Hughson |
| DVM: Veterinary Technician |
Dr. NJ Dr. Nattawot Juttiwattananon |
| Veterinarian | Dr. Deb Dr. Debbie Archek |
| Practice Manager / Veterinary Diet Specialist | Irina Henriques |
| Veterinary Technician/Hospital Administration Assistant | Helen Ngai |
| Veterinary Office Assistant | Carley Schom-Moffatt |
| Veterinary Office Assistant | Aleesha Sangara |
| Hospital Administrator | Lydia Martin |
Jack Brondwin, BSc, DVM: Head Veterinarian
Dr. Jack developed an early love of animals growing up on a farm with cats, dogs, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys. Years later, his favourite pet was a Border collie named Buddy. Buddy was so smart that he knew not to cross streets when he was jogging with Dr. Jack, and he was a super frisbee catcher.
Arbutus West Animal Clinic opened in 1986 with Dr. Jack at its helm. To keep up to date on animal and veterinary care, Dr. Jack travels to veterinary conferences in various cities and attends Vancouver-area seminars for veterinarians. His memberships in The American Veterinary Medical Association and The Veterinary Information Network, as well as other Internet sources and textbooks, also help him keep up with the latest developments in veterinary medicine. His interests include feline diabetes, chemotherapy, compounding drugs, and treating pocket pets (hamsters, guinea pigs, rats, and other pocket-size animals).
Koko, the cat in the photo with him, passed away in December 2005. She was special to all the staff as well as to Jack because she spent her days at the clinic with him.
Dr. Jack also loves to travel and below are some recent photos of his trip to Thailand visiting the Elephant, Tiger and Monkey Sanctuaries.
Click on any image below to enlarge
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Dr. Geronimo Piano, DVM: Head Technician
Dr. Geronimo graduated from the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, College of Veterinary Medicine in 1993. He had worked in several fields of veterinary medicine (Poultry, laboratory animals and small animals) before moving to Canada.
He took interest in veterinary dentistry when he joined the clinic and has been in charge of the clinic's dental cases since. As the Head Technician, he is also in
charge of training newly hired technicians and oversees all the clinic's daily activities such as surgeries, in-patient monitoring and diagnostics.
He recently passed the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination which is the first step in obtaining a license to practice in Canada.
When he's done with all his exams, he'd like to expand his " specialization" and be an Internist or a Surgeon
Dr Susan Hughson, Special interest Acupuncture, Chinese herbs, homeopathy, holistic medicine
Dr. Sue Hughson graduated from Atlantic Veterinary College in 1990. She has practiced both small and large animal medicine and surgery. Her background includes experience with horses, dogs, cats, sheep, and goats.
In 1999 she started to learn more about various forms of complementary medicine. She has a strong interest in combining the best of traditional western medicine and the unique opportunities available to her from her experience in homeopathy, herbal medicine, and acupuncture.
She lives with her partner Bill and children Max and Emma. When not focused on her patients she enjoys the outdoors, skiing, running, camping, and gardening.
Nattawot Juttiwattananon (NJ) , DVM: Veterinary Technician Dr. NJ Dr. Nattawot Juttiwattananon
NJ was born and raised in Thailand. He completed his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 2005 and his Small Animal Hospitalization Diploma in 2006 from Khon Kaen University with both second honours'' Achievements. He decided to move to Vancouver in order to certify himself not only as a veterinarian in North America but also as an ophthalmologist for animals.
NJ has started his career as a veterinary technician in 2008, after he volunteered at AWAC for 1 year. NJ assists the doctors by preparing the medications under the doctors' instructions, preparing patients for surgery, monitoring patients under anaesthesia, taking blood, and radiographs. For him, he feels like Arbutus West Animal Clinic is my second home. .
Dr. Debbie Archek : Veterinarian
Bio Coming Sooon!
Irina Henriques: Practice Manager/Diet Specialist
Irina Henriques completed her VETERINARY OFFICE ASSISTANT in 2002. She has been a part of the AWAC Pet Health Care Team since her graduation. She worked her way up the ladder absorbing every aspect and technique of the veterinary field and focusing her learnings on enhancing the quality life of her patients. .
The greatest passion about her career choice has been client education. She thrives on the continuous education of our new pet owners, and also about the health care plan of those who need a little more attention. Her specialty is diet planning for all kinds of conditions such as obesity, food allergies, and kidney failure just to name a few. A big interest of Irina's is figuring out the hard cases and making them stable with the proper treatments and products. AWAC is her second home, her clients and patients are family to her. She has connected to many of her patients as if they were her own fur-babies.
She is the proud mommy of 2 Border Collies, and 1 German Shepherd. Keisha is 12 years young soccer player at heart, and enjoys counter surfing on her spare time. Nico is 8 yrs young and lives for the ball, if it moves, he moves, you don't exist. Jedo is the 7 Year old baby he was rescued from puppy abuse at the age of 3 months, he is our gentle giant. she's worked very hard with him and the confidence he holds now would never show his puppy-hood abuse..
Helen Ngai: Veterinary Assistant/Technician in training
Helen joined the unique team of Arbutus West Animal Clinic as a veterinary assistant since 2003, after previously working at another clinic for 2 years. She works in all areas of the clinic. Her grasp of Cantonese, Mandarin, Shanghainese and English are a huge asset to the clinic. As a receptionist she learned duties such as pulling client files, working on the phones, using the computers and filing. However she has moved from reception work to technician duties shortly after mastering her reception work.As she now takes blood, check blood pressure, x-rays, neuters, prepare for surgeries, give vaccines, sub-cutaneous fluids and much more.
Her love and deep connection with animals developed at a young age. As a child she had dogs, cats, birds, hamsters and turtles so it only came natural to her to work with them each and every day
She is currently pursing a full time degree in criminology, and any free time is spent with her lovely duck-toller, Q-Tip, and handsom siamese cat, Tic Tac. Helen also enjoys pet sitting, and often watches dogs or cats in her home. On occasion you will find Helen playing volley, dodgeball, or at a hiking trail with her canine friends.
Her passion for the field and purpose to working in the veterinary field are both synonymous. She longs to provide the best health care possible for the loved ones of other people. It gives her great happiness when she is able restore the health, and relieve pain of a sick pet.
Carley Schom-Moffatt : Veterinary Office Assistant
Carley's love of animals started before she can remember. Carley's pets have included dogs, cats, a rat, birds, frogs and fish. She also helped take care of the Highland Cattle and chickens on her parent's Saltspring Island farm. Currently, Carley has two cats, Thor and Alix, who bring her a lot of joy and play an important role in her life.
Since graduating high school in 2003, all of Carley's jobs have been related to animals. She's worked in a veterinary office, worked and volunteered at a cat shelter, in a pet food store, and regularly pet sits and helps take care of cats in need of medical attention.
Carley is really enjoying being back at work in a veterinary office, increasing her knowledge and being able to spend time around a variety of animals. She knows her career will be related to animal care in one capacity or another. Carley is looking forward to gaining more experience in directly caring for animals, and is particularly interested in animal psychology.
Aleesha Sangara : Veterinary Office Assistant
Bio Coming Soon!
Lydia Martin : Hospital Administrator
Lydia has recently completed the Veterinary Office Assistant program at Granville Business College. She joined our practice for her Work Experience portion of the program, and we felt she was exactly the kind of team player to join AWAC. She is very excited to be working in a clinic that sees a variety of different pets.
Lydia’s passion lies particularly in the welfare of domestic and farm animals. Being very new to the veterinary field she finds it difficult to focus on one passion. One of her passions is being hands-on with the clients and their pets.
Lydia was the proud owner of a dog, a hamster, rabbit, some guinea pigs, and a couple gerbils. She now owns a 7.5 year old “moochy” Yorkie named Max, and 3 year old gentle and affectionate Husky/Shepherd named Butters, who is often confused with a cat.
Her day to day enjoyments are walking her dog Butters along the seawall, going to see her sisters and Max, and reading about all the new veterinary literature that comes out. She is a frequent viewer of www.veterinarypartners.com.