That’s a popular saying in veterinary medicine today. I grew up with kitties. That’s not to say I didn’t love the dogs around me, growing up, it was just obvious to me early in my life that cats were the species for me. During one of my first professional stops on my way to being a veterinarian, I had the honor and pleasure of first becoming a veterinary technician. It was then that I realized that there was a definite gap among veterinary professionals regarding their understanding of the different requirements needed to achieve maximum comfort levels for cats vs dogs in a hospital setting. This started my journey of becoming a full blown cat advocate and my passion only grew throughout veterinary school. While at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine I started to take a very special interest in low-stress handling and feline medicine, ensuring that I could best serve my cat patients and spread the word of how rewarding working with cats can be!

To keep up with cat related veterinary medicine, I frequently refer to the American Association of Feline Practitioners, aka the AAFP (not to be confused with the family medicine organization American Academy of Family Practitioners, also AAFP). They are a great resource for veterinary professionals wanting to keep up with the latest practices in feline medicine and feline friendly handling. They are also the organization responsible for certifying cat friendly practices. This is a process developed to keep a veterinary visit with your cat at the lowest stress levels possible. For practices that find it difficult to meet every criteria on the list for cat friendly practice certification, AAFP also offer certifications for individual veterinarians and staff members. I am proud to be a certified cat friendly veterinarian. Achieving this involved multiple hours of cat behavior and continuing education. I also go to the AAFP conference every year to hone my skills while staying up to date on the latest and greatest topics on feline medicine. The 2023 conference was all about diabetes and digestive issues. The focus of the 2024 session is dermatology, cardiology and diagnostics. For me, feline medicine is fascinating. I am so thankful there is an ever growing  group of educated people realizing that these amazing creatures deserve just as much attention as our canine friends. 

My future goals include becoming a true feline specialist. This involves writing case reports, exhaustive continuing education and finally sitting for an exam that is held by the certifying organization: the American Board of Veterinary Professionals (ABVP). Becoming a ABVP-Feline specialists is not very common. There are only 84 in the whole country!  It is a tremendous amount of work to meet their criteria and the process required to achieve the certification is rigorous. 

The best part of all of this learning is that while cats are not small dogs when it comes to medical requirements, feline friendly handling techniques have helped me so much in my process of treating dogs as well! Allowing the patient to have control over their bodies, offering positive reinforcement, and if needed, trying again with sedation to ensure that the appointment goes smoothly. These are the pillars of not only feline friendly handling but low stress handling for any patient. 

My professional career started long before I was a veterinarian. I have an undergraduate degree in Zoology from University of New Hampshire as well as Certified Veterinary Technician degree. Being a veterinarian is the most rewarding career I can think of. I get to spend my time with magical creatures and learn something new very day. 

Dr. Jennifer Finnerty, DVM