The founder of Southeast Animal Hospital, Dr. Mark Homer grew up with a love of both pets and medicine. From the age of 11, Dr. Homer knew veterinary medicine was his life’s work. A 1987 graduate of Texas A & M, Dr. Homer has practiced exclusively in his adopted hometown of San Antonio.  He is the father of two children who both attended universities in Texas. His son has a graduate degree in engineering and is a registered professional engineer. His daughter has a graduate degree in speech pathology and is a speech pathologist for NISD.

Dr. Homer has had a great deal of medical experience both as a doctor and a patient. Shortly after he began construction of the new facility in 2003, Dr. Homer was very fortunate to receive a kidney and pancreas transplant. Our new home was a long time in the making, as Dr. Homer’s health concerns placed his plans to build a new hospital on the back burner. In April 2004, the construction of Southeast Animal Hospital was complete and we moved into our new home.

Dr. Homer celebrated practicing veterinary medicine in southeast San Antonio for 25 years in February. He established Southeast Animal Hospital in 1990 and loves serving this community that has become his second family. He has had the honor of treating generations of family pets, as many of his clients have been with him since the hospital’s inception. He appreciates the devotion of his long-standing clients and patients and Dr. Homer is pleased to welcome new, four-legged family members into his hospital every day.

Dr. Ariana Finkelstein was born and raised in the Tri-state area. She grew up in Hightstown, NJ, a small suburb an hour from New York City and Philadelphia. She completed her undergraduate education at Cook College, Rutgers University graduating as a George H. Cook Scholar with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Animal Science in 1992. She completed her education at The Ohio State University, College of Veterinary Medicine. She graduated in 1996.

After working 5 years in private practice – including companion animals and exotics – she returned to academia from July of 2001-2002 to pursue an internship in avian, exotic and zoo animal medicine through Oklahoma State University College of Veterinary Medicine, The Tulsa Zoo and Oklahoma City Zoo. Upon completion of the internship she moved to San Antonio, Texas to work full time at the San Antonio Zoo. She continued to practice small animal medicine on a relief basis.

After two years at the zoo she returned to small animal practice at an emergency clinic. She started working part time at the Southeast Animal Hospital in January of 2006. Dr. Finkelstein currently works as our primary relief veterinarian when Dr. Homer is away and works full-time at a veterinary hospital in Florida. Having plenty of experience with exotic species she is always happy to see any type of pet – from aardvarks to zebras.

When she joined the team in 1999, she did not expect to become so enveloped in pet’s lives or to develop the friendships she has with so many of our regular clients. Desirae primarily stays in the front office area but she can sub-in wherever she is needed.

There is something different happening here everyday and she likes that there is never a boring day at Southeast Animal Hospital. Desirae loves getting to know our patients by heart, knowing their faces and names before clients have a chance to tell her, and a lot of times she knows your name just by hearing your voice on the phone.  She loves being a part of your pet’s life and getting to know and care for you, our clients, as well as your pets.

Shortly after moving back to San Antonio from Ireland, Susan made herself at home in our hospital in 2012. Susan’s smile is one of the first that welcomes you to Southeast Animal Hospital. She entered the veterinary field by working with vaccine clinics in 2011. She has been a life-long lover of dogs and has owned a variety of animals throughout her life.

Susan is a great listener and enjoys talking to our clients and sharing stories with them. She says the best part of her job is meeting the pets and the people that care for them. She has a great sense of adventure and loves traveling. She spends her spare time enjoying anything outdoors with her family. These days she tries to keep her life simple with one dog, Birdie Mae, and a cat named Skippy Jane Jones.

Nancy has fostered and volunteered at several organizations for many years. Before bringing Zen to our hospital in 2014, Nancy helped maintain the integrity (and sanity) of a law office and corporation as an administrative assistant and account manager.  Nancy has also managed a spay/neuter clinic where she learned her love for animals is far greater than she ever thought possible.

She is the proud mother of a beautiful pit bull named Chip and an orange tabby cat called LeeLooMinai. Her non-furry dependents include four bearded dragons, two leopard geckos, a large iguana, and a spiny lizard. Nancy loves helping the four-legged and the two-legged and looks forward to meeting new pets and people every day!

Adriana began as a health occupations intern her senior year in high school in 2002. After graduating she became a volunteer, and after seeing her dedication and hard work we offered her a kennel technician position in 2003. Since that time she has worn many different hats in the hospital and she has mastered many different job descriptions.

Like many others in the veterinary profession her reason for being here is one from the heart. Adriana said she was drawn to this field because of an early childhood inclination to love and care for animals. For her, the greatest reward of her job is being able to see patients go home feeling better and happy.

Eighty volunteer hours brought Elizabeth to our door step in 2012. Her volunteer hours were a prerequisite for college, to make sure veterinary medicine was the field she wanted to make her career. Thousands of hours later she is still here, but now she gets paid to be here. Liz has been cross-trained to help with every duty in the hospital and loves learning new things.

She has three dogs: Max, Toby and Saby. Max is her right hand man and travels everywhere with her, including the drive-thru window; his bark gets her faster service. She enjoys kissing and spoiling the pets and knows she has done her job well when she sees the clients walk out with a smile on their face.

Jackie has been involved in the care and fostering of pets since 2007. She has worked at several different organizations in Florida and Texas and has been nurturing pets at Southeast Animal Hospital since 2012. She loves rehabilitating wounded animals and finding foster homes (but prefers forever homes) for abandoned strays. She is a sucker for squealing litters of kittens.

Needless to say, she has a house full of “strays”. She has bottle-raised two of her pets: her horse-sized, pit bull, Tex, and her siamese cat, Simon. She also has a red heeler named Scooter, a shepherd mix named Chester, and a black lab named Brownie. She enjoys swimming, the outdoors and reading a good book. Her dream is to one day have several acres of land in the country with her own animal rescue…and a horse of course.

This seasoned technician is always eager to jump in and lend a helping hand wherever she is needed. She began working in veterinary hospitals in 2004, and has a houseful of rescues to prove it. When she is not hustling at work, she is at home juggling between caring for her two and four-legged kids. Angelica has four dogs ranging in size from 10 to 90 pounds and she also has two cats.

Since she was a little girl she has had a passion for making animals feel better. On a regular basis we find her rubbing noses with the pets in our treatment area and sweet-talking them in Spanish. Angelica began working with our hospital in 2013, and is dedicated to making clients go home with a smile and with a little more education about their pet’s health than with what they came in knowing.

This bookkeeper never expected an animal hospital to be such a good match for her accounting skills; since when did pets+bookkeeping=love? Kiness has been a full charge bookkeeper since 1980, but has done some type of accounting or bookkeeping work since she graduated from high school (we will not disclose what year that was…).

She has taken many roads before arriving at our hospital in 2011, including owning her own business for 10 years. We keep her busy managing the finances for Dr. Homer’s businesses. She loves seeing the variety of cute little critters that come through our doors and enjoys the company of her co-workers. She adheres to our hospital philosophy of caring for and loving animals and devotes all her affection to her partner-in-crime, Missy, a 7-year-old terror mix. Oops, we mean terrier mix.

The best of both worlds is what Kristi has now – as a young girl she wanted to either be a beautician or work with animals, now she does both as Southeast Animal Hospital’s pet groomer.  A country girl at heart, she has had all kinds of pets: dogs, cats, geese, rams, fish, ferrets, pigs, horses, donkeys, chickens, turkeys, and cows.  She graduated from a grooming academy and started grooming dogs in 2012; she joined our team in the winter of 2014.

Nothing gives her more pleasure than watching the personality of a matted, muddy dog change into a happy puppy with the help of a fresh bath and new haircut.  She also enjoys the challenge of taking a scared or aggressive pet and earning their trust.  Kristi loves the bonds that she builds with her clients (the pets) and their parents and doing her job well so that both the client and pet’s parent are happy.