Molly
Molly’s life has focused mainly on her two true loves for over a decade now – working in the veterinary medicine world and being a wonderful mother! It is amazing how time flies because it seems like just yesterday that I met the compassionate, caring person that is Molly! She had grown up around animals her entire life and is an amazing horseback rider, but as much as she enjoys her hobby that involves large animals, she really found her calling to be more about focusing on the small animals and exotic animals that we take care of at Elgin Veterinary Hospital. She has been in the animal industry for over 20 years now and we have been blessed to have her with us since 2016! She has worked at several different veterinary clinics, as well as worked in the grooming and non-veterinarian kennel, since she started in this amazing field of veterinary medicine. While all aspects of veterinary medicine allow her heart to be put to great use with all the compassion and love she has for animals, she found something different when she found Elgin Veterinary Hospital. She found a completely different atmosphere, where we strive to provide the best quality medicine in an environment “where you always feel at home”.
Molly has several reasons that she has wanted to stay at Elgin Veterinary Hospital, but the main one is that we spend a great deal more time, one on one, with our clients and patients. She loves that every person or pet that walks through our doors becomes a part of something bigger – a part of our family that we love and treat as if they were our own. From every staff member on our team, to every furry to feathered to scaly pet, everyone has a special place. She also really enjoys seeing all the exotic animals that we treat because it allows her to continue to grow and learn. That also is one of the reasons why she loves working with me – I like to teach, be it owners or my staff or the general public. I miss teaching classes, but there just are not enough hours in the day! Though I get the channel my teaching bug each and every day by sharing new knowledge about the constantly changing field of medicine. I strongly believe that it is much more effective for people to learn and understand the “why” behind what is being asked of them or recommended. In all of our training I explain that the method of learning a skill is best when “watch one, do one, teach one” is applied. This is also extremely important with exotic animal medicine and surgery since it is absolutely the most rapidly changing medicine out there. As part of the veterinary community, we learn new things all the time, but with exotics things can change day to day from husbandry to advancements in medicine and surgery. That is also why Elgin Veterinary Medicine works with multiple schools, from veterinary schools to pharmacy schools to medical schools, to share knowledge. We also participate in clinical trials to help on a global level to advance our ability to provide the highest quality of medicine, but also ensure it is quality of life that we pay the most attention to. Do not worry, our involvement is only after the majority of the testing has been done so any clinical trial we are involved in has already been proven to be completely safe. It is just our chance to give back to a field we love so much with real owner feed-back and it often can allow us to offer care to animals that may otherwise not be able to afford it. There is nothing better than offering the highest level of cutting-edge medicine that also has the benefit of owners receiving free care or routine lab work or monetary clinic credit to be used in the future. When it comes to learning, Molly feels like this is the clinic to work with in continuing to her own education and the education of pet owners.
In her spare time, she is a die-hard Gamecock fan and attends as many events as possible. Her son Logan is also quite the athlete, along with his many talents, so she is a full-time baseball and golf mom. I think that being a mom in and of itself is a full-time job, so I have no idea how she gets it all done! She manages though and makes sure that he is a very well-rounded child who knows he has the love and support of his mom. She also has two bichons – Zeus, who is 2 years old, and Maximus, who is seven months old. She definitely has her hands full, but she takes it all in stride with a smile on her face!
Cynamin
An absolutely amazing member of the Elgin Veterinary Hospital Team is Cynamin and she can do it all! Originally from Texas she moved to South Carolina to attend the University of South Carolina. She toured many colleges to see what her options were, but USC felt different – she said that while touring it, it immediately felt like home. She proudly graduated with a B.S. in Marine Biology with a concentration of biological oceanography in 2022. She has had a love for animals since she was a child, but people told her she cared too much and would not be able handle seeing sick animals. Lucky for us, she listened to her heart and finds that is part of her love of being involved in veterinary medicine. She loves that we are able to help animals that are unable to help themselves and enjoys the challenges of the ever-evolving medical world. One of things that makes her so special is her compassion for not only the animals, but their owners’ as well. As she puts it “it is the most heartwarming feeling seeing a sick animal find their happiness again and being able to bless the owners’ with that gift and witness the pure joy of seeing an owner reunited with their pet after being ill”. Many people think that people are drawn to veterinary medicine over human medicine because they do not want to work with people, but that could not be further from the truth in our line of work. Every animal has a person or people who love them very much and so she truly embodies our motto of “where you will always feel at home”. She wants to connect with the people as much as the pets and give the gift of care while partnering with everyone who loves an animal to provide the best quality care possible. She loves that we are a family and that we all welcome every patient and the humans attached to that pet to our Elgin Veterinary Family.
She definitely did her research before deciding on who she wanted her first mentor to be and at what facility – I can speak for the entire Elgin Veterinary Hospital Team that we feels every bit as lucky as she does that, she chose us and is part of our family. She loves working at Elgin Veterinary Hospital so much she immediately told her parents that working with us does not even feel like a job, but more of a second home where she has been welcomed by both the staff and our amazing Elgin Veterinary Hospital Family with kindness and love. She looks forward to continuing to build relationships every day with each new person and pet that she has the pleasure of meeting and serving.
Outside of work she has a deep love of the ocean and loves spending time at the beach and scuba diving. She currently has her Advanced Open Water certification, but hopes to move up to Master Scuba Diver with an Underwater Photography Specialty. Her love of photography is also deeply shared with another teammate, Robyn. When she cannot get to the beach she enjoys playing video games, especially League of Legends, and reading, with her all-time favorite book series being the Hunger Games. Of course, she spends as much time as possible with her cat Mango, who she adopted her sophomore year of college and loves with all of her heart. She may love Mango with all of her heart, but she still has plenty of room for all of the pets and people who come to Elgin Veterinary Hospital. She is wonderful to work with, brilliant, and a real self-motivated go-getter! We are so happy to have her and know you everyone will love her just as much as we do.
Gabbie
Gabbie’s smiling face and giant heart make her an ideal team member at Elgin Veterinary Hospital (EVH). She is finally doing what she loves by taking the best possible care of all the pet parents and their kids, in an atmosphere where she really feels like she is on this journey with them. She currently has her hands full at home with all her fur babies. These include four fur babies (Layla, Taz, Sasha, and Bailey), two kittens (Prue and Piper), around 52 chickens (all named after country singers or old school actors/actresses), 4 ducks (Smokey, Bandit, Snowman, and Carrie) a pet snake (Bellatrix) and a beta fish (Swim Shady). This photo is special to her because she is with her last surviving childhood pet Misty, in her Cinderella costume, and reminds her that her love and passion for animals was always a part of her. She’s fascinated by animals and is naturally drawn to them to form a loving connection. She watched a lot of Animal Planet and National Geographic as a kid and her dad would always buy books and encyclopedias about animals. As a child, she would spend any time she could outside trying to find and catch animals like frogs, lizards, turtles and fishing with her dad. In the beginning her parents were not too keen on the idea of any pets, other than fish, but she spent years begging for a dog. She finally had her wish granted when her uncle found Max and his siblings abandoned in a box. Max was her first rescue, but certainly not her last! Her love of rescue dogs and desire to do her best to care for all the animals in the world quickly became her lifelong passion and she knew that it was something she wanted to incorporate into her everyday life for as long as she lived. She did understand that by loving so fully, it also meant experiencing some heartache along the way, so she struggled for a bit, wondering if she would have the emotional strength to be a part of the veterinary field. However, the more she realized how much of a positive difference she could make in an animal life, the more she realized her calling was to be a part of the healthcare of animals even though she feels the sad parts as deeply as the highlights.
She was on a journey turning her love and passion into reality when she started a veterinary assistant program at Midlands Tech and, lucky for all of us, that is when our paths crossed. When she started working at EVH, she felt like she finally found where she belonged. There were no doubts in her mind that she was exactly where she needed to be. The training she received from working at EVH helped shape her into the amazing technician she is. She feels very fortunate to have a job that she wakes up looking forward to going to every morning. As she says, “There's never a dull moment and there's always something new and fascinating to learn and discover. Not only do I have the chance to help dogs and cats, but since we're an exotic clinic, I have the chance to help other species as well which is an added bonus since I love all types of animals. Being able to help those who can't speak or advocate for themselves is such a blessing especially when you can see and hear the relief and gratitude of the pet parents when they come back in for their pets follow up appointment happily and excitedly telling you how much their pet's life has improved and changed for the better.” Gabbie should absolutely be proud of those wonderful moments because without her EVH just would not be the same and I feel so lucky to work alongside her every day as we all try to do everything, we can to provide the happiest and healthiest life possible for our EVH family members!
In her spare time, she loves spending time outside watching her chickens and ducks in their element. Her boyfriend Jose and she also love playing with their fur babies and giving them new toys and puzzles to play with so they can have different enrichment in their life. Her favorite thing to do is gather all of them on the couch and watch movies with them. She also loves baking, being at the lake or the mountains relaxing and fishing. Of course, Gamecock football season is all about cheering on our Gamecocks! Her newest hobby has been starting a vegetable garden. Since rescuing 2 kittens she’s also been working on forming a bond with them and helping them get comfortable in their new home. Once they finish all their booster vaccines, she looks forward to working on slowly introducing them to the rest of her fur babies.