What do board-certified veterinary specialists do?

Orthopedics: these surgeons focus on the bones, joints, ligaments, muscles, and tendons that make up the body’s skeletal system.

A board-certified veterinary specialist is a veterinarian who has completed additional training in a specific area of veterinary medicine and has passed an examination that evaluates their knowledge and skills in that specialty area. Veterinarians can be specialists in many areas, including behavior, ophthalmology, internal medicine, surgery, dentistry, and more.

A board-certified veterinary specialist’s expertise compliments that of your animal’s primary care veterinarian. You may be referred to a board-certified veterinary specialist if diagnosing or treating your pet’s health problem requires specialized equipment and/or expertise that your animal’s primary care veterinarian does not have.