Cardiology - Cardiology Staff

Dr. Karen Sanderson is board certified in Cardiology as a Diplomate of the American College on Veterinary Internal Medicine. She received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) from the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biological Sciences at Colorado State University in 1999 followed by an internship in small animal medicine and surgery at the Atlantic Veterinary College on Prince Edward Island in Canada. She then went on to pursue residency training in Cardiology at the University of California at Davis and became board certified in the college of cardiology in 2003.

Dr. Sanderson is the owner of Rocky Mountain Veterinary Cardiology and has practiced in Colorado since 2005. Her research interests during her residency included novel therapies for the treatment of canine pulmonary hypertension (endothelin) antagonists as well as echocardiographic evaluation of the heart’s “pump” function in the setting of mitral valve disease.

Her special interests are the management of congestive heart failure in both dogs and cats, pulmonary hypertension (its etiology and treatment) and congenital heart disease. Dr. Sanderson spends her free time with her two children, husband, dog, and two cats and enjoys trail running, nordic skiing, telemark skiing, hiking, and playing outdoors with her family.

Julie Martin, DVM is board certified in Cardiology as a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from The Colorado College in 1990. She spent two years at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs studying the effects of bronchodilators on different aspects of athletic performance in the elite athlete.

She graduated first in her class from Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in 1997. After graduation from veterinary school, she completed an internship in small animal medicine and surgery at the University of Tennessee Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Knoxville. A residency in cardiology at Colorado State University followed and was completed in the summer of 2002. Concurrently, she earned a Master of Science degree from CSU. After completing her residency, Julie began working at VRCC.

Julie’s research interests during her residency included evaluation of feline diastolic cardiac function and electrical cardioversion of various arrhythmias in the canine patient. She became a diplomate in the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, specialty of Cardiology in May, 2002.

Julie appreciates spending time traveling and making memories with her family, which include her husband Don, her two sons Wyatt and Charlie and her daughter Jenna. She enjoys all sporting activities and has coached and played soccer for many years.

Julie has a cat Squeaky, two dogs Bri and Maddie and Bugsy her french Lop.

Carrie received her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine form the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University. She then went on to a small animal internship at the Purdue University Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Following her internship, Carrie completed a combined cardiology residency and Master program at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue University. Immediatley following her residency, she achieved board certification in the dicipline of veterinary cardiology through the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine.

During her time at Purdue, Carrie was thoroughly trained in echocardiography, the clinical discipline of veterinary cardiology and catheter-based techniques that offer minimally invasive options at correcting congenital heart disease. Carrie has also performed research and published articles related to many aspects of veterinary cardiology. Topics she has covered include therapy for Atrial Fibrillation, anticoagulant therapy and pacemaker patients. Although she enjoyed her research, Carrie is much happier pursuing her primary interest of helping family veterinarians and pet owners diagnose and treat their pets with heart disease. She has a special interest in the clinical treatment of Congestive Heart Failure, Congenital Heart Disease and Electrophysiology (including the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias).

Carrie in enjoying living in Summit County with her husband Rob, dog Hailey and cat Sophie. She does her best to take advantage of all that the beautiful state of Colorado has to offer.

Dr. Allison Heaney received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Kansas State University. She spend four years in private practice doing emergency practice and general practice before returning to Kansas State to perform a combined cardiology residency and Master’s program. Her Master’s project invovled culturing valve cells to study degenerative vavle disease (the most common cardiac disease in dogs).

After completing her residency, she bacame an Assistant Professor in Veterinary Cardiology at Washington State University. During that time Dr. Heaney trained veterinary students, interns and residents in veterinary cardiology as well as performing research. Her research projects included continuing the mirtral vavle cell culture project, studying circulating endothelial cells and their potential relationship to heart disease, developed a novel diagnostic test for bacterial endocarditis (panbacterial pcr), and performing intracardiac echocardiography in reacehorses on a treadmill.

Dr. Heaney now enjoys living in the Front Range and taking advantage of all the opportunities here as well as working with all of the fantasic pets, pet owners and veterinarians in this area.

Carroll Loyer, DVM is board certified in Cardiology as a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. He received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Colorado State University in 1986, followed by an internship in medicine and surgery at Santa Cruz Veterinary Hospital, and finished a residency in cardiology at the University of California at Davis in 1992.

Dr. Loyer was the first student at Colorado State University to take elective courses in ultrasound and echocardiography. After an internship, he was asked to return to Colorado State to perform all the cardiac studies, even before receiving formal advanced training in cardiology. He introduced spectral Doppler echocardiography to CSU, and he was involved in the conversion to color-flow Doppler echocardiography at UC Davis. Dr. Loyer also developed the methodology to perform the newest technique in veterinary echocardiography, transesophageal echocardiography.

Recently, he has been involved in computer-aided veterinary medicine, and he is currently developing interactive software to help teach echocardiography to other ultrasonographers. Dr. Loyer has been a cardiology consultant for several large veterinary corporations, as well as maintaining his clinical practice, and giving continuing education lectures around the country.

Dr. Loyer no longer works full time as a DVM and serves as a relief cardiologist for RMVC.

Debbie joined the Cardiology department in September of 2003 after working in general practices in Wilmington, Delaware and Denver for 13 years.

Debbie enjoys the outdoors, hiking with her dog Chauncy, sporting events and spending time with her daughter Amanda.

Heather graduated from Bel-Rea in March 2003 and worked as a critical care technician before joining VRCC in the Cardiology department in 2008. Heather enjoys hiking and skiing with her husband Brian, and has 3 cats, Boozer, Malibu and Dolly.

Catherine joined the cardiology team August 2008. She graduated from Miami Dade College-Medical in 2004. She is currently working on obtaining a Bachelors in Biology. Catherine enjoys hiking, snowboarding, wakeboarding and cooking.