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Alan Spier

New Position: Staff cardiologist, Florida Veterinary Specialists & Cancer Treatment Center, Tampa. Previous Position: Assistant professor, University of Missouri, Columbia

By Times Staff Writer
Published September 26, 2005

Alan Spier has brought a veterinary specialty to the Tampa Bay area: cardiology.

Spier joined the Florida Veterinary Specialists & Cancer Treatment Center, a 24-hour critical care facility for animals in Tampa, as the area's first veterinary cardiologist. The specialty is fairly new, and one of several offered by the 9-year-old Tampa facility.

Spier estimates there are "probably a handful" of veterinary cardiologists throughout the state and only about 130 in the United States. "There aren't many of us," he said.

His patients at the veterinary clinic almost exclusively have been dogs and cats, Spier said, although he expects to see other animals such as ferrets, parrots and rabbits.

"I'm in charge of seeing, treating and managing patients with cardiovascular disease," he said. Spier performs a number of heart procedures on dogs and cats, including doing diagnostic ultrasounds and installing pacemakers, if necessary.

Patients come to him in two ways, he said: either referred to the clinic by another veterinarian, much like a family practitioner would refer a human patient to a cardiologist, or as a consult from others veterinarians at the clinic.

"I service the community and I service the hospital," he said.

Other specialties available at the clinic are dermatology, neurology, internal medicine, oncology, ophthalmology, radiology, surgery, acupuncture. Although he has been at the clinic only since the first of the month, Spier said his practice already is turning into 10 to 12 hours a day. He's also on call frequently for emergencies.

Having animals as patients provides a challenge in terms of communication, Spier said. "Sometimes that's the biggest challenge, not knowing what's wrong, so you use the diagnostic tools regular physicians use. You employ the technology available in human medicine to provide (veterinary) care."

Spier said he knew he wanted to be a veterinarian when he was 10. A native of El Paso, Texas, Spier earned his bachelor's degree in zoology at the University of Texas in Austin in 1992. He went on to earn his doctor of veterinary medicine, or DVM, degree at Texas A&M University in College Station in 1996.

He did his small animal internship at Kansas State University in Manhattan from 1996 to 1997, then went to Ohio State University, where he did his cardiology residency while earning a Ph.D. in 2002.

"I very much enjoyed cardiology medicine and decided to devote myself solely to that," he said.

Upon becoming a board-certified veterinarian in 2002, Spier took a position as assistant professor at the University of Missouri in Columbia, where he did research while practicing clinical medicine.

"There's something incredibly rewarding about becoming a veterinarian," he said. "There's some altruism associated with it. Veterinary medicine is a noble profession - I believe that."

Spier, 35, and his wife, Debbie, plan to settle in Tampa. They have a 4-month-old daughter, Alison. They also have two dogs and a cat.

[Last modified September 22, 2005, 19:47:21]