Meet Our Staff

Veterinarians

Dr. Kathleen Deckard
VETERINARIAN / OWNER

Dr. Kathleen Deckard is a native of Jacksonville, Florida. She received her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine in 1999 from the University of Florida then immediately joined a large veterinary practice and remained there for the last 16 years. In 2014, she began her dream of building Pets R Family Veterinary Hospital to service the community in which she lives and provide excellent compassionate care for the pets in the St. Johns area.

Dr. Deckard enjoys challenging medicine cases and has a special interest in Dermatology. Her years in practice have enabled her to become proficient at soft tissue surgery including cystotomy, intestinal surgery, splenectomy, and tumor removal. She also has advanced training in abdominal ultrasound. She has a special way of making owners and their pets feel comfortable.

When she is not caring for her patients, she enjoys spending family time with her husband and her two children. The rest of her family includes her three dogs, Captain, Fitzgerald, and Isabelle. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, fishing, dancing, roller blading, and tennis.

Dr. Natalie Hashey
Associate Veterinarian

Dr. Kayla Hutton
Associate Veterinarian

Dr. Kayla Hutton was born in upstate New York before moving to Saint Augustine, Florida, as a young girl. She spent her summer vacations volunteering in various animal hospitals across St. John’s County, which really sparked her passion to become a veterinarian. Dr. Hutton thrived in school and graduated from the International Baccalaureate program at Nease High School (Go Panthers!), then headed off to Gainesville, Florida, to pursue her dream of becoming a veterinarian. There she first completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science. Her subsequent acceptance into the UF College of Veterinary Medicine was a dream come true! She graduated with Summa Cum Laude with a certificate in Veterinary Business Management.

While completing school, Dr. Hutton spent her free time as a member and captain of the Florida Visual Ensemble, which is the visual aspect of the University of Florida Fightin' Gator Marching Band. There’s nothing quite as exhilarating as performing in The Swamp in front of 90,000 fans! She also worked at the University of Florida Small Animal Hospital in a research study on muscular dystrophy. There, she helped a colony of golden retrievers combat the disease with various gene therapies. This research will one day help young children with muscular dystrophy, and Dr. Hutton is proud of her contributions to this study.

Dr. Hutton’s passion lies in client education, and she spends the majority of her day making sure each of her clients has a good understanding of what is going on with their pets. She also has interests in surgery, ultrasound, and cytology.

Dr. Hutton and her husband are fortunate to have 3 amazing furry family members: Parker (a golden retriever), Roo (an AussieDoodle), and Mushu (a domestic shorthair cat). In her free time, she loves to garden, work on home improvements, snorkel, and scuba dive.

Dr. Alysha Salapack
Associate Veterinarian

Dr. Salapack is a born and raised Florida girl who had dreams of becoming a veterinarian since she was little. She grew up at the beach and was very active in sports growing up. She obtained her undergraduate degree from Florida State University in 2010, then her veterinary degree from the University of Florida in 2019. Her interests include small animal medicine of dogs and cats, but her true love is veterinary diagnostic imaging. She has been married to her husband Brandon, and together they share a family of 4 cats (Roo, Momma, Titten Little, and Eleanor) and a green-winged macaw (Davi).

Dr. Scarlet Motycka
Associate Veterinarian

Dr. Scarlet Motycka was born in Lansing, Michigan, but grew up in Orlando, Florida with her older brother and sister. She attended the University of Florida where she earned dual bachelor’s degrees in both microbiology (1997) and animal science (2001), working between that time as a veterinary technician. She then went on to earn her doctorate from the University of Florida-College of Veterinary Medicine in 2005. Dr. Motycka has spent her career as a small animal clinician in the Jacksonville and St. Augustine area, primarily as a relief veterinarian and including 3 years working in emergency medicine. As a lifelong pet owner herself, Dr. Motycka embraces the human-animal bond and treats her patients with the level of care she would give her own pets. She truly understands that pets are family members too. She and her husband of 11 years, Brian, have a beautiful 4 year old daughter named Elise. The three of them reside in Nocatee with their 4 rescue cats. When Dr. Motycka is not practicing veterinary medicine, she enjoys travel, movies/television, reading, playing games and most of all, quality family time.