VetPrac welcomes Dr Kat Crosse to the education team for the Fix the Face workshop in September 2019. We think she’s the perfect choice for this workshop – she’s currently doing a PhD in airway disease in brachycephalic dogs AND she has a great teaching philosophy!
Kat hails from the UK, and originally intended not to do any small animal work. She can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to be a vet. Her first job was mixed, but mostly large and equine. It became increasingly clear to her, however, that the frustrations of never quite reaching a diagnosis and a lack of ability to treat her large patients made her small animal work seem more and more enjoyable. A moment of “being an idiot on her skis” and tearing her cruciate, with subsequent crate rest with toilet walks only, meant she spent a lot more time in the small animal part of the clinic. It was only then that she started to foster her interest in surgery, and was soon volunteering for “ops days” 5 days a week.
When studying through her residency at Massey University, she found huge holes in the understanding of airway disease in brachycephalic dogs. At the same time the population of these dogs was increasing exponentially. She had too many questions that she couldn’t find answers for and she had too many dogs clearly suffering who needed the veterinary profession’s help. The aim of her PhD is to really try to identify what the difference is between the good and bad brachycephalic dogs and by using airway flow dynamics, assess what is the best way to improve their airways.
When teaching, Kat loves the background work of trying to distil the most complex of theories and practices into succinct and easy to understand lessons. “It takes a lot of work to be able to explain something complex in simple terms, and I like the fact this pushes me to really understand the things I am teaching.”
Since finishing her residency at Massey University and becoming a diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2016 she has worked as a small animal surgeon at Massey University. One extremely worthwhile project at Massey that was coordinated by Kat was a charity outreach clinic in Samoa. She took veterinary students to Samoa, where they performed desexing of local animals. She loved working there and could see the benefits to the Samoan community and the students alike. Unfortunately, the project became a victim of slashed funding. Kat welcomes any donations to allow the project to resume – she would happily take the students back to Samoa if she could access $20,000 per year.
Kat fills her spare time to the brim with either mountain biking, yoga, painting, crafting, hiking, planning pranks on my colleagues, hanging out with her dog Fennel…. the list goes on!
So, if you’re registered for the workshop, take advantage of her superior educational skills, quiz her about her PhD findings, but above all, watch out for her pranks! It should be a fun workshop!
Kat can be contacted at [email protected]
