Our Team

A highly-trained and accomplished team.
BOOK APPOINTMENT

The Best Care

We’re passionate about delivering the best patient care to the pets you love.

Our skills are diverse but our focus is singular: the well-being of your dog or cat.

Our Doctors

Rebecca Healey, DVM

About Dr. Healey
Dr. Rebecca Healey grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and graduated from North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2020. She enjoys the diversity of cases and unique challenges posed by veterinary medicine. Her professional interests include preventative care, soft tissue surgery, and internal medicine. She highly values the human-animal bond and strives to make it the focus of each case. When she’s not practicing veterinary medicine, Dr. Healey enjoys hiking, biking, swimming, and spending time with friends and family. She has two cats who love napping all day and then waking her up in the middle of the night for attention.
Jocelyn

Jocelyn Selim, DVM

About Dr. Selim
Dr. Selim is originally from Ridgewood, New Jersey, but moved to North Carolina with her family just before starting high school. She returned north to attend Smith College in Massachusetts, where a joint degree in Biochemistry and English set her up nicely for her first career in science journalism. She worked as an editor at Discover Magazine in NYC for over a decade, where one of the highlights of her career was getting to ask Jane Goodall if chimpanzees would ever keep a puppy or a kitten as a pet. (Sadly, the answer was no…..) Eventually she went back to school to earn her DVM from Louisiana State University. She worked at various small animal clinics in Baton Rouge for the next ten years. She moved to Vermont last year and loves living on Lake Dunmore, where both she and her partner Alex spent childhood summers. When not at work, she can be found hiking with their aging but still spry New Orleans Street mutt, Shiner.

Kristen Guldbech, DVM

About Dr. Guldbech

Dr. Kristen Guldbech grew up in New Jersey. Before attending veterinary school, she got her Masters in Animal and Dairy Science at the University of Georgia. She then attended St. George’s University School of Veterinary Medicine in Grenada, West Indies. During her time in Grenada, she was part of a program that would travel around the island and help provide spaying, neutering, and veterinary care to the local pets most in need. After Grenada, she did her clinical year at Iowa State University. After a year in the Midwest, she missed the mountains and decided to move back to the East Coast.

Since beginning in private practice, she has made several trips with volunteer organizations dedicated to providing population control and rabies vaccinations to endemic countries to help in trying to reduce rabies cases worldwide.

Her special veterinary interests include internal medicine, theriogenology, and worldwide rabies prevention. In her spare time, Dr. Guldbech likes making pottery, knitting, traveling, hiking, camping, and cooking, especially baking. Kristen lives in Williston with her dog Squirrel.

Patty Pruitt, DVM, CVA

About Dr. Pruitt

Dr. Patty Pruitt has filled in for us since the 1990s but joined us at Bristol Animal Hospital as a full-time staff member in 2006. She graduated from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine in 1982 and is a self-proclaimed Midwesterner turned Vermont devotee. Along with dogs and cats, Patty loves rabbits. Another of her special interests is surgery. You could say her “special” particular interest is bunny surgery. Patty also brings another excellent service – she is certified in veterinary acupuncture and manual manipulation. When Patty isn’t at Bristol Animal Hospital, one can find her on her skis at Mad River Glen when it’s snowy and on her mountain bike with her Chesapeake Bay Retriever when it’s not.

Leadership

Tammy Lavalette, Practice Manager

About Tammy

Tammy brilliantly takes care of all things behind the scenes for our practice and has been with us since 2011. She has been involved with both large and small animal veterinary medicine since 1979, first working as a technician and then evolving into management. Tammy loves labs – she has been raising Labrador Retrievers since 1984. She also is an avid beekeeper and breeds rare varieties of chickens and quail as well. Tammy also loves spending time outdoors fishing, gardening, hunting, hiking, and spending time on Maine’s property.

Rachel Manikian, CVT

About Rachel

Rachel graduated from Vermont Technical College in 2005 with a degree in veterinary technology and joined the team at the Animal Hospital of Hinesburg as a technician shortly after that. Along with her regular technical duties, Rachel became the hospital’s Technician Supervisor/Assistant Manager in 2013. Rachel has a special interest (and skills) in emergency and critical patient care. When not on the clock, she can be found heading up a mountain with her lab-mix “Dexter,” taking a Zumba class, or just hanging out with her husband, daughter, cat, and flock of chickens.

Care Team

Kathy LaRose

About Kathy

Kathy began her career working for the Animal Hospital of Hinesburg in 1988. Shortly after that, she transferred to Bristol Animal Hospital, where she has been one of our primary technicians for over 30 years. Her advocacy for animal well-being, experience, and patience instills a sense of calm in the animals she cares for. Kathy is proud to be a Vermont native. She feels fortunate to live in this beautiful state and spends her free time outdoors enjoying it. She especially loves spending time with her pet and human family exploring the Northeast kingdom’s clean lakes and trails, traveling, or spending time at home in Hinesburg.

Mercedee Rougier

About Mercedee

Mercedee joined Bristol Animal Hospital in 2016. She is an Addison County native. In her free time, Mercedee enjoys hiking with her labradors, four-wheeling, and boating in the summer.