About our Staff
Our Doctors and In House Specialists
Dr. Ava Ackerman
A Chicago native, Dr. Ava Ackerman attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for both undergraduate studies and veterinary school. While in vet school, she worked at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans and for various exotic pet clinics in the Chicago area.
After receiving her DVM degree in 1993, Dr. Ackerman continued her focus on exotic animals by working for a Madison, Wisc. veterinary practice where exotic pets made up half the patients. She later moved west and joined Belmont Pet Hospital in 1997. In addition to seeing exotics, Dr. Ackerman also works with cats and dogs.
Dr. Ackerman describes herself as an old-fashioned family doctor whose job is to support the animal and its role in the family. She knows that all pets – whether cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, ferrets, birds or other exotics – are important members of the family and deserve quality care.
Dr. Ackerman, who is married with two children, enjoys horseback riding and hiking in her free moments. She also spends time giving talks at local schools about her job.
Dr. Richard Hanel
Although he grew up surrounded by farm animals, Dr. Richard Hanel’s interest in animals always focused on cats and dogs. He attended UC Davis for both his undergraduate education and vet school.
After earning a DVM degree in 1960, Dr. Hanel moved to the Bay Area to work for a pet hospital. He later went into practice for himself, and in 1972 built a new clinic in South San Francisco. He also was part of a group of veterinarians that started the Peninsula’s first vet emergency care clinic.
Dr. Hanel is especially skilled in diagnostics and internal medicine, and he describes himself as a generalist. His approach to veterinary care centers on putting himself in the animals’ place and imagining how he would feel. Dr. Hanel works to manage animals’ pain so they can recover quickly and comfortably.
When he’s not working, Dr. Hanel is involved with the Aneurysm and AVM Foundation.
Dr. Blake Milam
Dr. Blake Milam attended UC Davis for both his undergraduate and veterinary degrees. After finishing vet school in 1976, Dr. Milam spent his first year as a vet doing an internship with The Animal Medical Center in New York City. He has been in private practice since, including an 18-year period when he owned a vet practice in Santa Cruz.
Dr. Milam brings this extensive background with him to the hospital where he sees cats, dogs, birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, ferrets, and other pocket pets. He has a special interest in working with older pets, particularly older cats. He also brings an interest in dermatology.
At home, Dr. Milam has a cat and 10 parrots, and he treats everyone’s pets as though they were his own. In his free time, Dr. Milam enjoys traveling internationally. He recently traveled to South America through his association with a biologist for the World Wildlife Fund. While there, he helped the biologist work with wild animals.
Dr. Bill Rivers
 We are very pleased to have Dr. Bill Rivers as our consulting radiologist. Dr. Rivers performs the more complicated ultrasound examinations on our patients, and helps us interpret our more complicated x-ray studies on our patients.
Dr. Rivers graduated from UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in 1984, and after an internship with Dr. Steven Ettinger in Los Angeles the following year, practiced general small animal medicine in the San Francisco Bay Area for several years. Dr. Rivers then completed specialty training and a PhD in Radiology from the University of Minnesota and became board certified as a specialist in Veterinary Radiology by the American College of Veterinary Medicine in 1995. After being on staff at two veterinary schools and a private specialty practice, he established his Bay Area Consulting practice in 1989.
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