Dr. Zeifman is thrilled to join Peace Love Pets, and to have the opportunity to practice high-quality medicine in a state-of-the-art facility where compassionate care is a cornerstone of the practice philosophy. It is an honor to work for Dr. Levitan, a board-certified internist. Dr. Zeifman is pleased to join the team of brilliant, skilled, and caring veterinarians, technicians, and staff at Peace Love Pets.
Animals were always an important part of Dr. Zeifman’s life. As a child growing up in New York City she enjoyed taking care of an assortment of fish, turtles, newts, lizards, hamsters, rabbits and, finally, cats and a dog. She loved drawing animals, watching them in zoos, and above all, observing them in their natural habitats: from bird watching in Central Park, to whale watching, to snorkeling in coral reefs, to studying marine life in mangrove swamps, to searching for elk, mountain goats, marmots, prairie dogs and coyotes while hiking. All kinds of creatures fascinated her.
The idea of becoming a veterinarian, however, did not come to her until nearly halfway through college. She was trying to decide between careers in oceanography, anthropology and comparative French and English literature, when she went to stay at her uncle’s farm in California. He and his wife, both medical doctors, said that if they had to do it over again, they would have been veterinarians. Helping to take care of their menagerie of horses, goats, chickens, cats and dogs and living in the country, the idea quickly took hold of her. It probably also helped her decision that, at the time, she was reading James Harriet’s series of novels (All Creatures Great and Small…) about the life of a rural vet in England. With newfound direction and passion, she returned to college in New York and immersed herself in pre-vet courses.
She spent the next years studying extremely hard, working for veterinarians whenever possible, and a memorable summer upstate shadowing a vet and milking cows on a dairy farm. The hard work paid off. She graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University with honors, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa and was admitted to Cornell for Veterinary College.
During vet school, Dr. Zeifman did externships at the Bronx Zoo and the Oklahoma City Zoo and volunteered at Cornell’s Avian Clinic helping to treat injured hawks and owls. After graduation from vet school, she completed a one-year internship at the Animal Medical Center in Manhattan. She rotated through many specialty areas including cardiology, neurology, nephrology, exotic animal medicine, and surgery. It was a year of intense learning and of honing skills through many long days and nights. Being night doctor, the sole veterinarian on duty all night for all of Manhattan, as a first-year intern was a trial by fire, but it taught many invaluable lessons.
After her internship Dr. Zeifman worked for high-quality small animal practices in Westchester and Nassau County. She has over 30 years of clinical experience which gives her a large font of medical, surgical, and dental knowledge and expertise to draw from in her daily practice. She has a special interest in feline medicine, renal disease, and endocrinology. Her thorough, detail-oriented approach helps her solve the many diagnostic challenges presented by her patients. She is a firm believer in the importance of continuing to learn and seek new solutions to the ever-evolving medical problems posed by our furry friends. She also understands that there is often a delicate balance that must be maintained between the needs, expectations and desires of the various family members and their pets’ needs, behaviors and medical issues. Veterinary medicine is in many ways not just a science but also an art that must be finessed to fit into the lives of individual owners and their unique animals. There are few things as rewarding as a seeing a joyful reunion between a loving owner and their animal companion after its recovery from an illness.
Dr. Zeifman is enjoying her new role as part of the deeply caring, talented team at Peace Love Pets with Dr. Levitan, Dr. Glaser, Dr. Baillie and Dr. Eylers. It is a pleasure and an honor to be able to help this community’s pets stay healthy and to strive to treat their illnesses.
When not working, Dr. Zeifman loves to climb mountains, be outdoors in nature and travel with her loved ones. She enjoys hiking with her dog Mandy and playing with her cats Romeo and Juliet. She also enjoys reading, going to museums, theater and movies, and spending time with friends and family.