About Doctor Reid Pearlman
Hello. I am glad that you have found your way here. What you are about to read represents my current aspirations and vision as a veterinarian.
From an early age I have always enjoyed and excelled at solving problems. My orthopedic work is the same way. I solve problems for a living. If there is a problem that is affecting your pet's ability to live and move comfortably, I am the person to solve it.
I am extremely fortunate to have received excellent educational opportunities thus far.
I spent eight years in Starkville, Mississippi. I graduated from undergraduate at Mississippi State University with a degree in chemistry and then went on to graduate veterinary school in 2022.
I chose Huntsville as the place Id begin upon graduation. My parents both reside and work in Birmingham and I have 4 siblings. One of my brothers and his family lives in Florence, Alabama and is a healthcare provider there. My other siblings are also relatively close by and Huntsville represents a good balance of proximity to family as well as excellent professional opportunity due to the rapidly growing community of young professionals.
I worked in general practice upon graduation. The veterinarians at this practice patiently walked me through my first couple of orthopedic procedures. It was during my first 6 months or when I realized that my passion as a veterinarian was in treating orthopedic conditions.
Many patients with orthopedic conditions will not receive care or will receive substandard care. I knew I was the person that would fill this niche in my community, and do it well. I was tired of seeing patients come in to receive care for a broken arm and leaving on three legs, or worse.
A big hurdle initially was finding mentors. Many veterinarians DO orthopedic surgery. Few veterinarians do it regularly enough to truly offer the highest standard of care. I hold myself to a very high standard of care and see my orthopedic work as my art.
A few veterinary surgeons were kind enough initially to allow me to come and scrub in with them as often as I wanted. We repaired fractures together, performed TPLO procedures, did spinal surgery and much more. Watching these doctors work really made me realize that this was something I had to pursue and offer my community.
The pursuit of excellence
I know I have a vision and need to figure out how to materialize it. Initially, I had no idea Id be interested in starting a practice, I just knew this was something I had to learn more about. Ultimately, I realized that having my own practice would be the best way to get these patients the care they need.
Honestly, learning is fun when you love what you do. More importantly, when you love what you do, you do it well. In addition to mentoring I knew that I needed more to be able to confidently go forth and offer these services to the community. I invested in my personal education, both in terms of time and money. I travelled to multiple destinations all over the country in order to attend courses on orthopedic surgery for veterinarians. I continue to travel to receive clinical training on the latest advancements in veterinary orthopedic surgery. I find myself studying far more that I ever would have imagined as a veterinary student in order to ensure every patient receives the best care possible.
I took a job at a local ER in order to be exposed to more surgery, more fractures, more trauma in order to be involved in managing these patients. Often patients with fractures have concurrent injuries that are life- threatening and I often am managing other injuries prior to addressing their orthopedic concerns.
Additionally, I was also working with several shelters in Alabama and fixing fractures for patients who would euthanized or amputated otherwise. There just is not the resources to fix everything, unfortunately. I saw doing shelter work as a win/ win/ win for everybody. I get the case experience, the patient receives treatment, and somebody somewhere gets to have a companion with a good quality of life. I had prepared pretty well by the time I started doing live cases and as a result enjoyed good success. This really encouraged me to continue learning and doing surgery.
I continue to do orthopedic surgery for rescues/ shelters throughout the southeast region in order to give these patients, who have suffered immeasurably, a normal pain free life. Providing these services has become my mission as a veterinarian.
In late 2023 I decided I could do even more of this type of work than I could working at an ER, and additionally, I could arrange to work a schedule that would allow me to leave specific times open in order to have the freedom to help a patient with a fracture/ injury in a timely manner, instead of relying on them to find me. Additionally, my current schedule allows for plenty of time to continue learning/ studying. I take advantage of this.
Currently, I am learning/ studying new procedures and working to be able to offer these to my community. Additionally, I am creating educational content/ lectures for other veterinarians so that they can have the knowledge to diagnose/ manage these conditions too.
My current professional associations are as follows:
American Veterinary Medical Association
Alabama Veterinary Medical Association
Veterinary Orthopedic Society
AOVet
SURGE Veterinary Surgeon Group
I am partnering with several clinics and doing several major orthopedic procedures per week. The majority of what I do currently is knee surgery and fracture surgery. I am always looking to expand the services I offer and will be offering other advanced surgical services in the future depending on the community needs and being able to find a way to fill that niche.