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Community Corner

Dr. Sylvia Domotor Brings Energy and Enthusiasm to Caring For Pets

Dr. Domotor has been practicing veterinary medicine for 25 years.

Sylvia Domotor keeps busy.

In addition to caring for pets as a veterinarian for 25 years, she’s been an active member of Monrovia’s Rotary Club and Relay For Life, where she twice served as an event chair.

Domotor opened her own practice--Dr. Domotor’s Animal House Veterinary Hospital--at 135 W. Foothill in the mid-90s, and she's attracted a loyal clientele.

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"She’s an excellent vet," said Norm Haley, a real estate agent in Monrovia who has brought numerous pets and rescue animals for treatment since Domotor opened her practice, including, most recently, several dogs and a rabbit.

"I can find her there most nights of the week," he said. "She’s helped me with a lot of stuff over the years."

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Domotor's hospital offers many services, including internal medicine, dermatology, ophthalmology, dentistry, surgery, radiology, ultrasound, and behavior counseling. Encompassing 10,000 square feet, it includes six examination rooms, an operating room with a crash cart for resuscitation and an oxygen chamber, separate kennels for cats and dogs of varying sizes, a temperature controlled room for more exotic animals such as reptiles and birds, a separate room for contagious animals, a courtyard outside with sun and shade where dogs can exercise three times a day, an in-house lab, X-rays, and an in-house pharmacy.

"We can send you out the door with all your medications," Domotor said.

Domotor also works with Dr. Sherry Johnson and Dr. Johnathan Friedburg and sixteen staff members, including receptionists, inpatient nurses, outpatient nurses, and animal care staff. They serve almost 11,000 clients.

Domotor said her mother was a great influence on her, and even told her while she was growing up that she should become a veterinarian.

"She’s a huge animal lover," Domotor said.

When her mother was young she brought her cat to a vet in Budapest, Hungary, even though the vet didn’t normally treat cats, Domotor said.

Domotor’s parents came from Hungary, but she was born in Yugoslavia because her mother had to leave during the Hungarian Revolution. They lived in many countries, including Italy, France, and Norway, before making their way to Montreal, and then to Burbank, by way of a job transfer, when Domotor was 11.

Domotor currently has two dogs and two indoor-only cats of her own at home, but throughout her childhood, she lived in apartments that only allowed smaller animals, and her pets included cats, fish, rats, and mice. That didn’t stop her from befriending the neighbors’ dogs.

"I knew the name of every animal on the way home from school," she said.

When they moved to California, she said her mother immediately loved the weather because it felt more like the climate in the southern part of Hungary. As a result of her upbringing, Domotor also speaks Hungarian and French, and at one point gave multilingual tours at Universal Studios for fun.

Upon graduating from high school, Domotor returned to Montreal to attend McGill University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in neurobiology. She then went to Ontario Veterinary College. She was active in the student government, served as student body president, and also participated in intramural volleyball and competitive square dancing.

"We were the first veterinary class to win the competition!" she said.

Domotor began practicing in her current location—which used to be a car dealership and a boat dealership—in 1996.

Domotor also rents out space to the groomer K9 Clips, and she takes her own pets to be groomed there.

"They do my dogs and they do a beautiful job," she said.

Domotor said that in the past, she would also take on orphaned pets, and at one point she kept as many as 20, including dogs, cats, parakeets, guinea pigs, bunnies, and chinchillas. Today she has reduced the number of pets in her home to six—four belong to her, and two belong to her mother—and she tries to find the orphaned animals a home with someone else. At the hospital, there are currently several pets, including cats and a bunny, which are available for adoption.

After moving around frequently during her childhood, Domotor has now found a home in Monrovia. She is especially fond of the hillsides.

"Monrovia to me is wildlife," she said. "I love being able to walk where it’s clean and green and pretty."

In spite of various financial challenges, and occasionally getting scars from unruly patients, Domotor also finds her career to be very rewarding.

"We know our patients. You end up having a relationship with the clients. I have clients I’ve been seeing for 25 years," Domotor said.

She said that when she speaks with longtime clients on the phone, they often finish one another’s sentences during phone calls.

"It’s hilarious," she said. "It becomes shorthand and that makes it so easy. There’s trust, which is really important."

"We’re all here because we love the animals," she added. "The reward is easy. It’s the connection between the people and the pets."

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