Dr. Courtney Norjen grew up in Ellicott City, MD. She wanted to be a veterinarian ever since she was 5 years old. She received her BS in Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences from Penn State University in 2014 and her DVM from Ohio State University in 2018. She has been practicing in northern Virginia since graduation. She spent the last two years prior to joining MVP as a relief veterinarian, practicing general medicine, surgery, and emergency medicine at many hospitals in the area.
Dr. Norjen has special interests in preventative medicine, behavior/training, surgery, and pain management. She is passionate about educating clients on the importance of all aspects of preventative care so that their pets live long, happy, healthy lives. She learned a ton about behavior and training from her experiences with her own dog who used to hate veterinary care. She is a Fear Free Certified Professional and is skilled in teaching cooperative care behaviors to dogs so that they learn that veterinary visits don’t have to be scary, and can even be fun! She also enjoys performing soft tissue surgeries, ranging from routine spay/neuter to advanced and emergent abdominal procedures like foreign body removal, pyometra, and mass removals. She is passionate about providing excellent pain management to all of her patients – whether related to surgery or for chronic painful conditions like arthritis.
Dr. Norjen lives in Alexandria, VA with her husband, Sean, and her Australian Cattle Dog, Finn. She spends most of her free time hiking with Finn, traveling with Sean, and exploring local wineries and breweries.
Q&A With Dr. Norjen!
What is your Favorite?
- Food: Essentially any seafood dish
- Candy: My mom’s chocolate fudge
- Drink: Flavored lemonade sparkling water
- Movie: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
- TV Show: Ted Lasso, Schitt’s Creek, Gilmore Girls
- Book: Truly impossible to choose – I love reading and I’ll read any genre!
- Music: Pop
- Holiday: Thanksgiving
- Hobby: Hiking, baking, reading, and dog sports with Finn
- Superhero: Black Widow
What is the Most Rewarding Part of Your Job?
I find it most rewarding when I walk away from an appointment knowing that I really made a difference for the patient and his or her family, whether it be fixing a sudden illness, better managing a chronic illness, providing better pain control for arthritis, or helping with a training or behavior issue.
What is the Hardest Part of Your Job?
Delivering bad news. No matter how many times I do it, it never gets easier to tell someone that their beloved dog or cat has a terminal illness or something that I can’t fix.
What is One Medical Case that you Remember like it was Yesterday?
I once saw a dog that had a HUGE tumor on his kidney, and his family was unable to take him to the specialist to remove it. Despite knowing that I had never done a procedure like that before, they entrusted me to take him to surgery to try to save him. Surgery was really successful and he recovered well. The tumor came back as an extremely rare form of an aggressive cancer, but this dog fortunately did not show any signs of metastasis at the time. He lived a great life for quite a while after surgery, and his family was so grateful. That was a really rewarding case!
What’s your Favorite Activity Outside of Work?
I love to hike and travel – I combine the two anytime that I can!
If you could spend a day with any famous person in the world, dead or alive, who would you choose and why?*
Steve Irwin! He was one of many people that inspired my love of animals! It would also be amazing to go out and spend a day studying chimpanzees with Jane Goodall!
Tell me about the moment you chose to become a doctor.
This is a question that would be better answered by my parents! At 5 years old I stated that I wanted to be a vet when I grew up, and I never changed my mind!
