Dr. Heather Tucker is a doctor of veterinary medicine and a current veterinary behavior resident through the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists. Dr. Valerie Tynes, DACVB, DACAW, serves as her residency mentor. 

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I started my journey in the animal world as a small child at our family farm in central Georgia. Every day, after the school bus dropped me off, I would interact with and observe the cattle, pigs, dogs, cats, donkeys, horses, and wildlife we had on our and surrounding farms. I learned horsemanship by helping with routine horse care at multiple neighbor friends' homes in exchange for Western and English lessons. I had  pet goldfish, rabbits, ferrets, dogs, cats, and a salamander as regular house pets and many turtles I kept outside. But it never occurred to me to be a veterinarian. 

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To me, living in a rural part of Georgia, a veterinarian was a person who gave vaccinations to dogs and cats and occasionally helped with euthanasia. I wanted to be a physician, which in my child’s brain was a person who helped people physically and mentally feel better. In high school and then college I morphed from wanting to be a pediatrician to ultimately a trauma unit reconstructive and plastic surgeon. This is despite being a regular volunteer at the local animal shelter, photographer for the animal shelter’s website, and eventually creating and running a Siberian husky rescue— all the while studying for the MCAT in undergraduate school at The University of Georgia. 

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It was in my junior year of college that I made the switch to veterinary medicine after I realized the true scope of abilities these talented professionals had— from the MRI and ultimately brain tumor diagnosis of a German Shepherd foster I had who went to the University of Tennessee for care, to the Moluccan Cockatoo I visited at a local sanctuary who needed specialized care from the exotics team at the University of Georgia. It was amazing to learn that you could do so much in medicine with so many species when you had a veterinary degree. 

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In veterinary school I decided not to specialize despite going back and forth the entire four years as I loved too many species and too many facets of medicine. So I continued the mixed animal track with a strong emphasis in shelter medicine and public health. In veterinary school, I led and curated the largest continuing education conference for shelter medicine professionals as the shelter medicine club's president with hundreds of attendees that continues today.   Upon completion of veterinary school, I worked with small ruminants, pigs, small animals, and exotics in private practice and periodic relief work in shelter medicine for 10 years before starting a residency in veterinary behavior. I have a special love and interest in emergency, critical care, and internal medicine. I started a behavior program in each of the three states and practices I was employed  seeing traditional medicine cases . Behavior allows me to fuel my love of learning about all species and the diseases that affect behavior ( which is all of them), and how to improve welfare on a regular basis.