In the rapidly advancing field of veterinary medicine, an increasing number of professionals are honing their expertise to meet the unique needs of our feline companions. Given their distinct behaviors and health challenges, cats require care from a practitioner who excels in general or specialty medicine and possesses a deep understanding of their physical and emotional needs.
In some astrological circles, 2025 is the Year of the Cat. We couldn’t agree more, so we pounced on it to showcase how the veterinary profession is trending with all things felines. And one thing is for sure: Quality veterinary care for cats is good for business, too.
The following pages will introduce you to nine extraordinary feline-focused professionals, each offering polished skills and different approaches for delivering exceptional care. From preventive health to end-of-life care to diverse settings, these experts are shaping the future of feline medicine, ensuring our beloved cats enjoy long, healthy and fulfilling lives.
We hope you enjoy our report. If not, be like a cat and push it off your desk!
Kelly St. Denis, MSc, DVM, DABVP (Feline Practice)
» Achieving Cat Friendly Certification When Dogs Are Around
The year after earning her DVM from the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College in 1999, Dr. Kelly St. Denis began locum tenens work at two feline-only practices in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. “The rest, as they say, is history,” she said about her decision to focus on feline-specific care. She eventually became a diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners in feline practice.
Dr. St. Denis launched Charing Cross Cat Clinic in Brantford, Ontario, in April 2007. “Through word-of-mouth, advertising and social media, Brantford residents began to understand the value — and existence — of feline specialists, and our client base grew over the next 13 years,” she said.
Then came COVID. Due to the pandemic’s economic and operational pressures, Dr. St. Denis shuttered her practice in September 2020. She wasn’t alone. According to some sources, as many as 70% of veterinary practices in the United States and Canada closed their doors — at least temporarily — early in the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Dr. St. Denis continued to hone and flex her feline expertise, publishing dozens of journal articles, presenting at scores of conferences and webinars, serving as a reviewer, editorial adviser or co-editor at feline veterinary journals, and providing monthly feline CE for veterinary professionals. She also served on multiple committees, boards and task forces of the American Association of Feline Practitioners (now called the FelineVMA) and the ABVP, earning international recognition and respect. She was instrumental in developing the FelineVMA’s Cat Friendly Veterinarian Certificate.
Today, Dr. St. Denis is a feline specialist at Parkside Veterinary Hospital in North Bay, Ontario. While the practice has a large dog patient population, she has nonetheless led it to earn and maintain Cat Friendly Practice certification through the FelineVMA.
“Providing a cat-friendly environment where there are sights, sounds and smells of dogs has been a considerable challenge compared to operating a feline-exclusive veterinary hospital,” she said. “But we have separate waiting areas, exam rooms and a ward. Within the cat-only spaces, we offer warmed blankets sprayed with Feliway, opportunities to hide and perch, and gentle cat-friendly interactions, including no restraint equipment, scruffing or full-body restraint. We engage cats with food, treats, and love and comfort from their caregiver. When cats have high levels of fear, anxiety and pain, we employ sedation and analgesics.”
Dr. St. Denis says to any veterinarian who is considering opening or working at a feline-only practice: “Do it. You will love the peace and calm and be astounded at how much more successful you will be with your feline patients and how much happier and contented your clients will be.”
Ashlie Saffire, DVM, DABVP (Feline Practice)
» Cats Are Not Small Dogs
Dr. Ashlie Saffire was an equine-oriented student at Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine when she realized she’d rather keep horses as her hobby and focus on small animal medicine as a career. She soon discovered an affinity for cats and pursued board certification in feline medicine.
After eight years at a feline-only practice, Dr. Saffire left the clinical setting to get more involved in organized medicine (specifically, the FelineVMA) and build her teaching and speaking portfolio. When she was ready to return to clinical practice, her husband was planning to purchase property to expand the burgeoning Faithful Friends Veterinary Clinic in Dublin, Ohio.
“Together, we decided that the new building would not only offer complete general care for dogs and cats but also include a feline specialty center with internal medicine, surgical and other feline-specific services,” said Dr. Saffire, who became co-owner and now heads the feline center. “We became AAHA accredited, gold-level Cat Friendly Practice certified, and all our doctors, nurses and assistants have FelineVMA Cat Friendly certification.
“Word soon spread that we were a cat-friendly practice and could handle any feline patient that needed care,” she said, crediting marketing techniques like testimonials, blogs and social media for the fast-track growth.
The cat clinic earned accolades soon after it launched, bolstered by Dr. Saffire, who was previously recognized as a Columbus Business First “40 under 40” honoree.
The new facility has a cats-only isolation ward, a hospitalization area featuring spacious kennels with shelves and soundproof doors, a treatment area, and exam rooms. Feline-specific equipment includes endoscopy, point-of-care diagnostic equipment, Doppler and HDO blood pressure monitors, dental equipment, small blood collection catheters, and feline-sized scales. It also has a dedicated ward for radioactive iodine patients.
In addition, Dr. Saffire is involved in multiple clinical trials and research studies.
“Feline medicine is significantly lagging behind canine medicine, but, finally, there are many companies and organizations increasing funding for research,” she said.
Notably, she has kept a hand in organized medicine. She serves as the FelineVMA president and is an avid proponent of feline-only practices.
“Numerous data shows that cat-friendly practices improve feline care, increase disease detection through more appropriate diagnostics, and reduce workplace injuries,” she said. “The most important thing [in caring for feline patients] is understanding that cats are not small dogs.”
Julie Cole, DVM, DACT, Ph.D.
» Rewriting the Feline Script for Care
After briefly retiring following 30 years in practice, Dr. Julie Cole and her veterinarian husband, Dr. Chris Shacoski, realized they wanted to do more professionally. “Seeing the problems cats face in our field, we decided to create a feline health center designed from the ground up with only cats in mind,” Dr. Cole said. “Many people asked, ‘Why only cats?’ like we were crazy for putting cats first. We overcame this by rewriting the script about how cats can and should be cared for.”
And rewrite the script they did. Cat Tales Feline Health Center opened in Davis, California, in December 2024, incorporating the most current Fear Free and Cat Friendly know-how. “From the scents, wall colors and sounds to the way we handle them, it’s all about the cat,” Dr. Cole said.
The feline-friendly features include multizone ventilation to minimize odors, dimmable lights, well-equipped exam rooms so cats don’t have to be moved about the hospital, play structures instead of cabinetry, no ringing phones and cat condos for longer-stay comfort. “Also, all our imaging and analyzers are specifically designed for cats,” she said, citing a linear ultrasound probe for feline gastrointestinal studies as one example.
“We use sevoflurane anesthesia to reduce risk,” the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine graduate said. “And we’ve implemented such leading-edge treatments as those for feline infectious peritonitis and SGLT inhibitors for cats with diabetes. And we offer genetic testing to identify cats with genes related to polycystic kidney disease, cardiopathies and clotting factor disorders.”
Another distinctive innovation at Cat Tales is the Tabby Tea Cat Lounge and Adoption Center. “It’s been a marketing coup that showcases how we don’t just care for sick cats but all cats, even those without homes,” Dr. Cole said. “It gives the public a place to commune with healthy, happy cats looking for someone to bond with, and it helps increase adoptions.”
Cat Tales has a CE budget for staff members. “To keep up with the significant medical advances occurring more frequently, it takes a culture of growth that includes everyone,” she said.
Dr. Cole and her husband aim to build a model feline practice and motivate other veterinarians to do the same. “Feline-centric care has reached its moment in time,” she said. “Cats are being recognized as just as important as dogs in providing love and companionship, and our profession is primed and ready for rapid growth in cat-centered veterinary practices.
“The benefits to cats and their people are obvious, and clients are starting to realize that stress-free cat care is possible. Knowing their cats’ fears and anxieties are addressed means less-stressed humans with a final result of happier, healthier cats.”
Diane Eigner, VMD, MBA, CVPM, CHPV, CFP
» Feline-Only Care Is One Way to Avoid Burnout
The first cat-only practices were established in the United States in the 1970s. Dr. Diane Eigner has been a cats-only practitioner for more than 40 years, making her one of the early adopters of the species-specific specialization.
She decided to focus on feline-specific care when she started at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine after working at a practice that limited its patients to those under 20 pounds. Upon graduation, she spent nearly two years on the staff at a feline-dedicated practice, then decided to go out on her own, founding The Cat Doctor in Philadelphia in 1983. She served as the practice’s medical director until she sold it in 2016.
“In hindsight, my biggest challenge in starting The Cat Doctor was that I had no practice management experience,” she said.
The practice thrived for 33 years nonetheless, and she capped her successful run by earning an MBA from Temple University in 2015.
The following year, Dr. Eigner launched The Cat Whispurrr. It’s a breed apart within the cats-only practice category in that she focuses exclusively on providing seriously ill cats with end-of-life comfort care and peaceful passings in their homes. Hers is a mobile practice based in Barnegat, New Jersey.
Dr. Eigner was certified as a veterinary hospice and palliative care practitioner in 2017 by the International Association of Animal Hospice and Palliative Care. She also is certified as a Cat Friendly Practitioner by the FelineVMA and follows the organization’s Cat Friendly Practice handling guidelines.
When asked about the marketing initiatives that work best for her as a practice owner, she said simply, “Referrals.” To that end, she has built and maintains a network of specialists to whom she refers complex cases and a roster of appreciative clients who pass along her name to cat-owning family, friends and neighbors.
Dr. Eigner partially credited her longevity as a veterinarian to her focus on feline-only care.
“It’s one way to stay in love with veterinary practice and avoid burnout,” she said.
To others who might consider a similar path, she responded, “Please do it!”
Jamie Rauscher, LVT
» Caring For Cats in the Most Effective and Compassionate Way
Licensed veterinary technician Jamie Rauscher is a part owner and the manager of the Animal Hospital of Towne Lake and the adjacent Cat Clinic of Woodstock, both in Georgia. “Our practice added a cat clinic in 2007 to provide feline patients and their owners with an environment that was more cat friendly,” she said.
The addition was right up Rauscher’s alley. “I love cats. Like — whoa! — I am a total cat person.”
But more than simply loving cats, she oversees the operations of a practice committed to caring for cats in the most effective and caring ways possible. For starters, Cat Clinic’s feline patients have a dedicated lobby and feline-only exam, treatment and boarding areas away from canine patients and the attendant dog noises.
“All our Cat Clinic staff are Cat Friendly and Fear Free certified,” she said. “We also use the most current medications.”
Rauscher holds certifications in the human-animal bond, hospice and palliative care, RECOVER, and Peaceful Euthanasia. Her leadership role is well-earned, too. She is the immediate past president of the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America after serving four years as president, and she assumed the presidency of the Georgia Veterinary Technician and Assistant Association in 2025. She also serves as the technician representative to the FelineVMA and the American Association of Industry Veterinarians.
Her high-level positions illustrate the potential for veterinary technicians in feline-only practice management.
“I would remind technicians that they have the opportunity to stay in the veterinary field and make a professional-level livable wage,” Rauscher said. “We are valuable to the workforce and integral to our clinics’ success.”
Tammy Sadek, DVM, DABVP (Feline)
» An Uberspecialist in the Feline-Only Space
“Growing up, we had dogs, cats, horses and ducks, but my fascination with cats increased as time went on,” said Dr. Tammy Sadek. “By my senior year in veterinary school at the University of Minnesota, I knew I wanted to start my own cat practice.”
After working a year in a mixed animal practice and another two years with small animals, Dr. Sadek went on to own two feline-only practices and a cat boarding facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kentwood Cat Clinic, Cat Clinic North and the Cottages at Cat Clinic North. She faced challenges early on.
“Getting bank financing was impossible,” she said. “Many people thought a cat-only practice would never be successful. But I was able to borrow from my parents and in-laws and opened in a strip mall leasehold. Through hard work and luck, I was able to pay off the startup loans early.”
After selling her practices, Dr. Sadek carved out a clinical niche. In 2015, she founded Cat Hyperthyroid Radioactive Iodine Services, which provides veterinary hospitals with a medical iodine program and radiation safety services. She works with her client hospitals to treat hyperthyroid cats in the most cat-friendly ways, skills she honed at her former gold-level Cat Friendly practices.
“For example, cats don’t wait in the lobby when they arrive,” she said. “Instead, they stay in the exam room until ready for their treatment. Avoiding moving cats from one place to another is essential in reducing stress.”
Dr. Sadek serves the profession in leadership roles as the immediate past president of the FelineVMA and, since 2019, as a board member.
Moreover, she was motivated by her early startup experience to become a registered investment representative, working with the veterinary profession to increase financial literacy.
She’s also a fierce proponent of educating cat owners. “While I now focus my educational efforts on sharing information with clients regarding their hyperthyroid cat and its treatment,” she said, “educating cat owners on the environmental, social and emotional needs of cats is often as important as discussing optimizing their nutritional and preventive care needs. We want the cat and the client to be happy and healthy.”
Hazel Carney, DVM, MS, DABVP
» Still Purring After All These Years
Dr. Hazel Carney’s LinkedIn profile refers to her as “One of the oldest living cat-only doctors left in captivity.” That’s because she has treated only felines for behavioral and medical issues for more than 40 years. In 1982, she opened the 13th registered cat-only practice in the United States and was the senior clinician there for over a dozen years. She later worked as a feline medicine and behavior specialist at Westvet in Boise, Idaho, and since 2021 has applied her skill set as a part-time referral feline behavior clinician at Gem Veterinary Clinic in Emmett, Idaho.
Why focus on feline care? “My cat in vet school had house-soiling behavior and developed the skin condition from which my husband and I isolated the first feline wart (Popova) virus,” she said. “Both were conditions that stumped the clinicians at Colorado State,” where she earned her master’s in physiology and biophysics and her DVM.
“When we euthanized my cat after many years of trial and error, I promised that I would dedicate my career to learning and sharing as much about feline behavior and medicine as possible,” she said.
Dr. Carney helped develop the cat-friendly concept in veterinary practice and has written several guidelines on feline well-being and medicine. She has been an active member of the FelineVMA since 1983, serving on the public relations, membership and guidelines committees. She is currently the organization’s president-elect.
To veterinarians considering opening or working at a feline-only practice, she advised: “Do it! But limit your caseload to the number of patients you can fully care for, and charge for your brain and time so that you feel rewarded without getting burned out.”
Julie Liu, DVM
» House Calls for Feline Behavioral Health Issues
A general practice veterinarian since 2009, Dr. Julie Liu orchestrated her previous clinic’s certification as a Cat Friendly Practice because of her affinity for felines. “The longer I practiced,” she said, “the more I felt that feline behavioral needs weren’t getting met in the clinic setting. And the time constraints of general practice appointments don’t always allow a behavioral concern to be fully addressed.”
To improve access to behavioral care while enabling cats to be evaluated at home, Dr. Liu launched My Family Cat in 2023. Her mobile behavioral practice “allows me to assess the cat’s environment much more comprehensively, observe body language and interactions, and dedicate the time to an in-depth consult,” she said.
The Austin, Texas, practice owner and University of Minnesota graduate became Fear Free certified shortly after the program’s launch. Her house calls are a study of Cat Friendly and Fear Free techniques.
“My appointment confirmation email recommends stocking the cat’s favorite treats and toys and creating a calming home environment by playing quiet classical music,” she said. “When I’m parked, I text the client so they can open the door without my needing to ring the doorbell and scare the cat. If the primary complaint is a conflict between two cats, I ask the client to confine one cat first to help the other cat feel calmer while I evaluate them. I don’t attempt to perform my exam until after I tour the home because I want my patient to get comfortable with a visitor.”
Dr. Liu finds feline-only care extra rewarding. “Cats sometimes have the reputation of being mysterious and behaving unpredictably, but once you learn their body language and feline-friendly ways of approaching them, you can see them visibly relax.
“From the business perspective, cat parents also search for veterinary practitioners who ‘get’ cats. They don’t want to see their cat stressed and traumatized. When a cat parent talks to someone who understands cats, it builds trust and gets them on board with recommendations. This helps generate revenue, build relationships and provide better medical care for the cat.”
Amanda Kennedy, DVM, DABVP (Feline)
» “I’ve Always Thought That Cats Deserve Better”
“Once you work at a feline-only practice, you will never want to go back to a regular small animal practice,” said Dr. Amanda Kennedy, the medical director at Just Cats Veterinary Clinic in Guilderland, New York, a gold-level Cat Friendly practice. “Feline-only clinics are quiet and calm. It’s usually a very dedicated cat owner who seeks out a feline-only practice. If you’re passionate about feline health, there is no better place than being surrounded by other doctors, staff and clients who feel the same way.”
Dr. Kennedy knew she wanted to be a feline-only clinician while enrolled in the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. “In vet school, most of our small animal education focused on dogs, with cats being mentioned for maybe the last 10 minutes of an hour-long lecture,” she said. “I’ve always thought cats deserved better — a veterinarian who understands their unique behaviors, illnesses and physiology. Cats should not be treated as small dogs.”
That belief fueled her pursuit of board certification in feline health. “It was one of the best things I’ve done for my career. It’s allowed me to specialize in my favorite species and become an expert resource for other veterinarians. I get to work up complex medical cases instead of referring them out, solve behavioral problems, and do surgery and a ton of dentistry. I feel lucky that I get to do it all.”
It’s not just the opportunities to flex her clinical muscles that she finds so rewarding in a dedicated feline practice. “Our entire practice is designed specifically for cats, including counterlike exam table surfaces, hide boxes in exam rooms, soft cage blankets and towels, and cat-sized surgery and dental tables,” she said. “We also utilize medications to reduce stress in our patients for appointments, surgical procedures and dentistry. We offer house calls for cats that are too stressed to come into the clinic.
“Cats have such wonderful and unique personalities if you are quiet and patient enough to get to know them.”
THREE MORE LIVES
Ellen Carozza, LVT, VTS (Clinical Practice-Feline)
» Achieving VTS Certification in Feline Medicine
“I’ve always believed that if a veterinarian can achieve a feline-only diplomate status, technicians should have that opportunity, too,” said Ellen Carozza. Joining forces with two other feline-focused veterinary technicians, Paula Plummer and Jan Yaroslav, they made it happen.
Thanks to their advocacy, the option for veterinary technicians to specialize in feline medicine was conceived in 2017, culminating with the first three technicians earning their VTS (Clinical Practice-Feline) in 2022. The National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America continues to oversee the VTS program and sets the standards for feline specialization, which includes advanced training and a rigorous exam.
Carozza’s background illustrates the advanced level of expertise that the credential reflects. After graduating from SUNY Delhi in 1996, she has worked in many sectors of veterinary medicine. She currently is a consultant for The Cat LVT, a licensed veterinary technician business in northern Virginia that specializes in feline medicine. She also is president of the Chris Griffey Memorial Feline Foundation, which is dedicated to helping animal rescues and shelters with critical neonatal and pediatric patients. In addition, Carozza lectures on the critical feline neonate and safe restraint and anesthesia techniques for cats.
“Feline-centric people just think and function differently around cats and tend to work more cohesively with the species,” she said. “So, a feline specialty technician is far more than just a pair of experienced hands. We become a longer extension of the clinician to allow a hospital to provide exceptional care to the patient, education for their clientele, and participate in more depth with the cases seen.”
Dr. Petra Cerna, Ph.D., DACVIM (SAIM), MANZCVS (Medicine of Cats), CertAVP
» Advancing Feline-Only Care Through Education
“I have been breeding cats and was in love with them since I was a kid,” said Dr. Petra Cerna. “I wanted to learn more about them to understand and help them more.” She wasn’t kidding.
After graduating from the University of Veterinary Sciences in the Czech Republic in 2018, where she also obtained her doctorate in 2023, she completed two internships in the United Kingdom, then a small animal internal medicine residency at Colorado State University in 2023. Today she is a diplomate in small animal internal medicine through the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. She is also completing a second Ph.D., this time at Colorado State in feline infectious peritonitis.
Dr. Cerna has acquired a tremendous depth of feline-specific expertise and shares it as an educator. She teaches veterinary residents at Colorado State, and she founded Crazy Cat Vet, a provider of feline medicine continuing education for veterinary professionals, cat breeders and cat caregivers.
“There is so much need for more feline research,” Dr. Cerna said. “I want to change that by not only conducting research but also by teaching students about cats and feline medicine.”
Kara Burns, MS, LVT, VTS (Nutrition), VTS-H (Internal Medicine, Dentistry)
» Feline-Focused Research Helps the Profession Fulfill Its “Why”
“Most veterinary health care practitioners entered this profession to help pets stay healthy, live as long as possible and with the best quality of life possible,” said Kara Burns. “This is our ‘why.’ And what makes it possible to live our ‘why’ is research.”
Burns cites feline infectious peritonitis as a case in point. “It was once considered a terminal diagnosis, but research has produced effective treatment,” she said. “In fact, research funded by the EveryCat Health Foundation has been the source of many of the important discoveries about the feline coronavirus, leading to the breakthrough treatment now available in the U.S.”
EveryCat Health Foundation is a nonprofit organization focused on feline health research. It awards grants for cutting-edge research in feline medicine, ranging from clinically applicable proposals to long-shot investigations with game-changing potential.
Burns is the organization’s president-elect, reflecting her commitment to advancing feline health. In addition to the leadership post, she is the first technician on the FelineVMA board of directors, the past president of the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America and the first technician to be president of the Pet Nutrition Alliance. She also serves as editor in chief of Today’s Veterinary Nurse and is an internationally sought-after speaker on topics such as nutrition, leadership and technician utilization.
EveryCat Foundation’s mission — to benefit every cat, every day — arguably informs all that Burns does: to benefit every cat, every day.