Meet Our Team

Dr. Michelle Thornberry

Medical Director

Dr. Thornberry has always had the desire to work with and around animals in some capacity which is what drew her to Veterinary medicine. Her favorite part of being a veterinarian is providing people with knowledge or comfort that they did not have before they brought their pet to see her. She enjoys forming positive relationships on a daily basis (with a pet, with a person, or with a group of people), and strives hard to achieve practical solutions for the cases that come to her. Her specialties include preventive care, dentistry, and soft tissue surgery.

Dr. Karen Felder

Veterinarian

Dr. Felder has been at Binder Animal Hospital since 1992. She majored in Biochemistry undergraduate school and in 1988, she graduated from the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine. Currently she is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Missouri Veterinary Medical Association and the Greater St. Louis Veterinary Medical Association. She has three cats named Mischa, Kanga and Kita.

Dr. Andrew Swatek

Veterinarian

Dr. Swatek graduated from the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at the University of Missouri in 2011. After graduation, he began work as a full time emergency veterinarian at Associated Veterinary Specialists. For the following 12 years, Dr. Swatek continued working exclusively as an emergency veterinarian at AVS, VSS, and AEC. During this time he gained diverse experience treating critically ill pets. Despite his love for emergency medicine and surgery, Dr. Swatek began working as a family veterinarian in 2023 to better accommodate the growth of his personal family. While Dr. Swatek embraced the importance of preventative medicine, he missed the challenge of focusing on sick pets and continued working part time as an emergency and urgent care DVM at VEG and Binder Animal Hospital. Dr. Swatek is excited to continue his work caring for sick pets full time as an urgent care DVM at Binder Animal Hospital. Dr. Swatek looks forward to being able to provide care for pets in need of both urgent medical and surgical care.

When not caring for the community’s pets, Dr. Swatek enjoys spending time with his family, friends, and two cats Scribble and Pyro. Dr. Swatek does not currently have any dogs but looks forward to having dogs again, as soon as his wife will allow it. His wife is also a veterinarian, but she is a cat person.