GUARDIAN ANIMAL MEDICAL CENTER - Key Persons
Mary Lara has been with the Guardian Animal team since 2020. Mary Lara came to our team as a current client wanting to help give back to our team. Mary Lara's favorite part about her job is getting to learn about and care for a variety of animals hands on. Mary Lara plans to go into animal care and conservation and says this job is a perfect introduction.
When Mary Lara is not working she enjoys reading, crocheting, hiking, and being a part of the Girl Scouts community. Mary Lara is always looking for a way to help here with the clinic and out in the community.
Mary Lara has a love for our adoption cats at Guardian Animal and enjoys spending time with them while they await their forever homes. The love she has for those cats started with her own. Mary Lara has four cats at home ( Pitch, Inkpot, Barry, and Selena), last but not least her most recent adoption is Indy, her dog.
Dr. MJ Wixsom moved around frequently while growing up. The one constant was her family dog-she and Ike were practically inseparable. Her early experiences with animals made one thing quite clear: she would love to help foster the special bonds between pets and owners by becoming a veterinary professional! Dr. Wixsom is able to do just that every day as the owner and chief veterinarian here at Guardian Animal Medical Center.
Before entering the veterinary field, Dr. Wixsom spent four years as a member of the United States Coast Guard and was even in the first female graduating class of the Coast Guard Academy. After a knee injury sidelined her career at sea, she decided to return to her childhood passion: animal care. Dr. Wixsom went back to school during her last tour of duty to receive a second Bachelor's degree in biology and then headed off to veterinary school to earn her Doctorate.
Dr. Wixsom volunteered and then worked for a local mixed-animal practice during her veterinary studies, and also earned a Master's degree in veterinary parasitology to become the first student at her university to earn dual degrees during veterinary school. She came to eastern Kentucky for an externship during her senior year, and it wasn't long before she was determined to open her very own clinic to serve the pets and people of the Flatwoods area, and she's been here ever since.
Dr. Wixsom is a believer in state-of-the-art progressive medicine and surgery, and loves to learn about new techniques whenever possible; she makes a commitment to attend over 40 hours of continuing education courses per year. She's also passionate about client education and loves to mentor her staff members to help them grow in their own personal veterinary journeys.
Along with her husband, Matt, and their daughter, M'Kinzy, Dr. Wixsom shares her life with a menagerie of pets. They have three Labrador retrievers-Whiskey, Tango, and Ryker-as well as a Malanois named Crash and three cats who go by Jarvis, Tigre, and Parker. The animal portion of the family is rounded out by two Amazon parrots, 17-year-old water turtles, chickens, pheasants, guineas, and bees!
When she has a spare moment between family life and her duties here at the hospital, Dr. Wixsom loves to spend time outdoors and has gone rock climbing, kayaking, motorcycle riding, back-country camping, snorkeling, and scuba diving. She also likes crafting and working with her Girl Scout troop. Most of all, though, Dr. Wixsom enjoys reading and writing. She will typically read anywhere between five and 20 books a month, and she's published four books of her own.