Vladimira Erjavec graduated from the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Ljubljana in 1999. After completing a one-year internship at the Small Animal Clinic of the Veterinary Faculty, she continued her multidisciplinary postgraduate studies in biomedicine at the University of Ljubljana under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Zlatko Pavlica. She obtained her Master’s degree in 2003, and in the same year, under the mentorship of Prof. Dr. Milan Petelin and Prof. Dr. Zlatko Pavlica, she pursued her doctoral studies, which she successfully completed in 2008.
She enhanced her knowledge in the field of stomatology at the University of California, Davis, in England, and in Sweden. In 2005, she completed advanced training in stomatology and oral surgery at the European School for Advanced Veterinary Studies (ESAVS) in Luxembourg.
Until the completion of her doctorate, Vladimira Erjavec worked as a veterinarian at the Small Animal Clinic, focusing on stomatology and oral surgery. After obtaining her doctorate, she expanded her scope of work to include small animal surgery. Under the guidance of renowned surgeon Prof. Dupré, she continued to refine her skills in soft tissue surgery. In 2020, she completed her advanced training in small animal soft tissue surgery at ESAVS (European School for Advanced Veterinary Studies, https://www.esavs.eu) and obtained a certificate of advanced studies in veterinary medicine in soft tissue surgery from the University of Luxembourg in 2021. In recent years, she has also trained at renowned surgical centers abroad, spending several months specializing in soft tissue surgery at the Veterinary Faculty in Vienna, one month at the Aura Veterinary Specialist Clinic (formerly Fitzpatrick Referrals), and several months at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Zagreb. She served as the head of the surgery unit at the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Ljubljana for 10 years.
Currently, she holds the position of Associate Professor at the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Ljubljana. Recently, she has been deeply involved in addressing the health issues of brachycephalic dog breeds. Two Prešeren’s works and two projects “Po kreativni poti do znanja” have been successfully completed in this field. As part of these projects, a television show was produced for RTV Slovenia and a textbook titled “Lep, lepši, bolan: Zdravstvene težave in zdravljenje psov brahicefaličnih pasem” was published for students. She is the author or co-autor of numerous scientific and professional articles and is also involved in lecturing and teaching. In addition to her clinical work, she is engaged in teaching small animal surgery.
She strives to make surgical education more accessible to veterinarians in practice and those interested in further postgraduate education, and therefore organizes numerous educational events in this field.