VCA West LA

Laila Proenca, DVM MS, PhD, DACZM, MV

Dr. Proença has always been passionate about veterinary medicine. She is the first South American to become a Diplomate of the American College of Zoological Medicine (DACZM), with emphasis in zoological companion animals (a.k.a. exotics). She is currently the Director of the Zoological Medicine and Surgery Program at VCA Animal Hospitals and the Chief of the Zoological Medicine Department at VCA West Los Angeles Animal Hospital. Dr. Proença did her Zoological Medicine residency at University of Georgia, where she developed a special interest for exotic animal endoscopy and minimally invasive techniques, collaborating to produce several publications including novel techniques in endosurgery. She is the co-editor of the 2015 Exotic Endoscopy issue of Veterinary Clinics of North America. Dr. Proença has been actively participating in the zoological medicine community, teaching many national and international lectures, courses, master classes and wet labs, including exotic endoscopy courses. She graduated in 2004 from The College of Veterinary Medicine (UPIS/FAVET) in Brasília, Brazil and obtained her American Veterinary Diploma (DVM) in 2012. Dr. Proença completed a Masters degree in Biological science (UnB, 2007), where she worked with free ranging maned wolfs and crab eating foxes. Her PhD was in Veterinary sciences where she worked with psittacine birds (Unesp, 2010).