Sharon Coleman, head veterinarian and owner of North Roanoke Veterinary Hospital, was sanctioned in June for the seventh time by the Virginia Department of Health Professions.

Only one other veterinarian in Western Virginia has as many consent orders on file, according to a state database. That doctor was last sanctioned in 2005.

Coleman was fined $2,000 and required to take exotic pet treatment classes two years after administering inappropriate medicine to a guinea pig named Menchi, who subsequently died. The board also sanctioned Coleman for failing to perform the proper diagnostic test on a dog with pneumonia, or to provide other treatment options.

"We do the best we can," Coleman said. "It's just not quite as perfect as we want it to be, but that's life."

According to the VDHP's online database, the order is one of seven that Coleman has received since 1997. The orders include a 30-day license suspension, reprimands and thousands of dollars in fines. Each consent order lists a handful of violations. Coleman, who has been licensed since 1986, has 21 violations total, some of which are minor.

The violations, according to documents, include practicing veterinary medicine without the proper license, allowing unlicensed workers to perform euthanasia procedures, performing surgical procedures on different animals with the same instruments between sterilizations and improperly disposing of animal carcasses.

The most recent order was for violations that occurred between 2003 and 2005.

"When you see a large number of patients, I think there are going to be a number of people over time that will be dissatisfied in one way or another," Coleman said in a telephone interview.

Statewide, about 5 percent to 10 percent of veterinarians are repeat offenders, according to Elizabeth Young, executive director of the State Board of Veterinary Medicine

In western Virginia, about 10 percent of vets have orders filed against them, according to the database. Of 269 veterinarians in an area that stretches from Alleghany County south to Wythe County, and Giles County east to Bedford County, 27 have consent orders on file and 12 have more than one order against them. The database dates to 1972.

Most of Coleman's more serious infractions, which resulted in compromised care of an animal, occurred in the late 1990s, a time when Coleman said she had problems with her employees.

"It's a witch hunt, it's a big-time witch hunt," said her office's longtime manager, Carrie Adkins.

Adkins also said that the most recent violations were unfair and uncalled for and that Coleman was penalized for one of the violations for something that Adkins herself did wrong.

In general, violations are more prevalent in Tidewater and Northern Virginia than in the Roanoke Valley, where there are fewer practitioners.

Statewide, the most common violations are care violations, Young said. The fact that the most serious infractions are the most frequent does concern the board, she added.

As for the four years between when the infraction occurred and when Coleman was sanctioned, officials said that investigating a practitioner is a long process.

The board must first receive a complaint from a pet owner. A team investigates the claim and determines whether the complaint is valid. The vet is notified and meets with two representatives from the board. In a proceeding much like a court case, the veterinarian either makes arguments against the claim or admits guilt.

The board then decides what kind of action to take. If the allegations are serious enough to have a license suspended, the matter goes before the entire board.