20 + years of specialty surgery experience 

Dr. Sharon Shields is a board-certified surgeon that has been part of the AVS team since the day the doors were open for business. With over 20 years of specialty surgical experience Dr. Shields is well accomplished in orthopedic, general, soft tissue, and neurologic surgical procedures. She is also qualified to perform minimally invasive procedures such as laparoscopy and arthroscopy. While there is not much she has not seen or operated on, distal limb fractures, surgical oncology, and stifle(knee) surgery make her smile! 

Dr. Shields is a UCSB graduate with a degree in Biologic Sciences. She received her veterinary degree from the University of California, College of Veterinary Medicine, Davis, California in 1997 where she graduated with academic honors (Phi Zeta). She completed her one-year internship and a three-year residency in Small Animal Surgery at California Animal Hospital in Los Angeles, California and became Board Certified in Surgery in 2002.

Prior to building and supporting the surgery department at AVS, Dr. Shields was part of the busy surgery team at Animal Specialty and Emergency Center in Los Angeles for 6 years and Veterinary Specialty Center in Tuscon, Arizona for 4 years. Yet, being a UCSB Guacho, her heart has always been in Santa Barbara. In addition to tending to the surgical care of the pets in the Santa Barbara community, Dr. Shields also works closely with local veterinarians through continuing education, case review prior to formal consultation, and evaluating radiographs and other diagnostic tests. She is grateful for their support over the last 10 + years and likes to be available for questions on their patients. Through this collaboration, Dr. Shields and AVS can be part of the comprehensive care for these canine and feline Santa Barbarians. 

Outside of AVS, Dr. Shields enjoys running, cooking, hiking, creating cool (and occasionally lopsided) ceramics, and smelling the flowers (Ferdinand the bull is a personal hero). But most of all, she is grateful to spend time with her family which includes her kilt-wearing  ever supportive husband, her son who loves to play with his border collie Winnebago, the geriatric shepherd girls Zella and Sassy, the outspoken chihuahua Tomas (also known as Saint Burrito), and the 2 fuzzy felines who rule the house and hearts, Booger the Supervisor and Sebastian the Snuggler.