Dr. Renee Girens DVM, MS, DACVIM

After completing her undergrad, Dr. Girens worked in research and received her masters degree. During her work in research she found a niche in working with the laboratory veterinarian and after shadowing in the clinic she knew that was what she wanted to do with her life. 

​

Her journey in the veterinary field started with her thinking her focus would be in laboratory animal veterinary field. However, during coursework and clinical rotations she fell in love with cardiology, and her former resident mates in Florida helped solidify that love. Throughout residency, she enjoyed treating heart failure patients to give them the best quality of life in addition to the relationships developed with both patients and their owners. She enjoys connecting with owners to help them understand their pets disease and how to manage cardiac conditions, medically or surgically

. 

She fell in love with the Pacific Northwest during an externship with a cardiologist in Seattle and excitedly joined the Summit Veterinary Referral team after her residency in 2022. 

 

When not treating patients, Dr. Girens loves playing video games with friends, walking the dogs, and just generally being outdoors. At home she has two senior dogs. Biggie is an older Yorkie (lovingly described as a crotchety old man) that enjoys his sleep and supervising me at work, and Baxter, a very high strung terrier mix, is cute and cuddly as can be. She also recently adopted a young cat named Buttons that thinks he's a dog and it's fantastic. He enjoys going outside on a leash to eat grass (they are still working on the walking part).