Meet our staff – Vet Staff
Vet staff | Nursing staff | Administration staff
Mandy Doan
Mandy worked in general veterinary practice for 10 years and has always had a special interest in feline medicine. She joined The Cat Clinic team in 2006 and she is excited to be working solely with cats.
Mandy enjoys preventative medicine and the benefits that good veterinary care has for both cats and clients. Mandy attained her Membership of the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists in Feline Medicine 2 years ago.
Mandy and her husband share their home with 3 cats, 2 dogs and 1 lorikeet. Soon they will be inviting 2 chickens to stay once they finish building the chicken coupe.
Fran Musca
Fran has been an integral part of The Cat Clinic since 2001 after moving house, home, husband and 3 cats from Western Australia to pursue the dream of working in a veterinary clinic exclusively for cats. She graduated from Murdoch University and spent some time working in veterinary clinics in Perth as well as the UK.
Fran feels she was led to The Cat Clinic through the plight of one very special cat, whom she brought to Brisbane as a patient whilst still working in Perth. Her cat Quando, went through the Renal Transplant Program at The Cat Clinic. Despite all heroic efforts, Quando’s time had come, but his legacy was to open the door for Fran to meet the people at The Cat Clinic and ignite her passion to work with cats only.
In 2003 Fran successfully gained Membership of the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists in Feline Medicine, a written and oral examination acknowledging a special interest in all things feline! Fran feels the best thing about her work is not only the interesting and challenging ailments that can befall cats, but more so having the privilege of getting to know individual cats, their individual families, and watching both their kitten and loving bond with their cat grow and flourish over the years.
Petra Boettcher
Petra graduated from Hannover Vet School in Germany in 1992 but has never actually worked in her home country. She can still do a consultation in German though if necessary! After spending 2 years in England in a mixed veterinary practice, she moved with her partner, who is also a vet, to beautiful New Zealand. She worked in Auckland in a large, progressive small animal practice for many years, interrupted by 3 years living and working in Melbourne. Petra has always been a cat lover and in 2005, when she was given the opportunity to work in the Auckland Cat Practice in New Zealand, it was a dream come true. She has dealt with cats only ever since. At the end of 2008, her partner’s work commitments brought her to sunny Brisbane. Initially, she was rather sad to leave behind the feline patients she had grown so fond of in Auckland. However, now that she has joined The Cat Clinic she feels it has been a very good move for her.
Her 3 demanding cats, Cricket, Earwig and Beetle, have also settled in very well but then they are used to moving internationally, having been to Melbourne before. Petra has since added to her brood, adopting a cute little devon rex called ‘Mozzie.’ Petra is interested in all aspects of feline medicine but enjoys most getting to know her patients and their owners and looking after them through their different life stages. She especially enjoys caring for those important family members, the older cats.
Alison Jukes
Alison started out as a casual at The Cat Clinic in 2008, and decided she loved working with cats so much, that she has joined the team on a full time basis.
Alison graduated from the University of QLD in 2006. She did an internship in a pet emergency centre in 2007, specialising in emergency and critical care. She has a keen interest in dermatology.
Alison and her husband share their home with a number of kitties who have been adopted from the clinic, including Moses, Delilah, Jonah and Samson, as well as 3 chickens and an assortment of tropical fish. When not working, she enjoys fishing, rockclimbing and classical music.
Mandy Roe
Mandy graduated in 1982 and has worked in a variety of veterinary practices over the years, including establishing and running a successful practice in Highgate Hill. She has been working part-time at The Cat Clinic for around 13 years now and has a special interest in Acupuncture.
Mandy is responsible for looking after her husband, son, two stepsons, two Labradors, two cats, two horses, two fish and fifteen chooks on a property at Sheldon.
Siti Abdul Khalid
Siti Izatul Hawa… or Siti for short, was born in Malaysia, did her high school in England then embarked on her veterinary journey in Australia. She has been at The Cat Clinic since graduating from The University of Qld in 2003, has completed a Master’s in Veterinary Science and has passed membership examination of The Australian College of Veterinary Scientists in Feline Medicine.
For the first few years, Siti did all the after hours emergencies and looked after the hospitalised cats while everyone else went home. She cant remember the last time she has touched any other animal species and thinks herself lucky to only ever have worked at The Cat Clinic.
Apart from her great love of cats, Siti enjoys reading and swimming and along with her sister, shares a home with three lovely cats, Kikyo, Sayang and Sulaiman.
Susan Gottlieb
Susan graduated from Veterinary Science at The University of Sydney in 2007. She then moved home to Brisbane to become an intern at The Cat Clinic in December of the same year.
She has had cats all her life and is very excited to be working at the clinic. When not at work, Susan spends her time cooking and baking vegan food, reading and scrapbooking. Her most important job at home is looking after her two cats Dim Sim and Sahara- and her bird Spock. Susan is looking forward to pursuing further study and training in Feline medicine.
Luciano Lazo
Luciano began his internship with The Cat Clinic at the start of 2011. Luciano graduated from the University of Queensland with honors in 2010. Born in Peru, he has lived in Australia since 2007. He has a passion for cats and reptiles, and hopes one day in the future to become a cat specialist, as well as a dedicated reptile hobbyist. Luciano plans to go and work in the U.S one day to join the family he has living there. He is very interested in surgery, as he likes nothing more than to get his hands dirty!
Luciano has 3 cats that he misses very much, as they are back home in Peru.
Jessica Rossi
Jessica travelled up from Victoria to pursue an internship at The Cat Clinic in 2011. She has been a mixed small & large animal vet in rural North Eastern Victoria since graduating from the University of Melbourne in 2006. Jessica is very excited about working with the team at The Cat Clinic, and hopes to further her training in feline medicine.
In her spare time Jessica enjoys reading, watching football (AFL of course) and collecting DVD’s. Jessica loves cats and shares her home with 2 very naughty black and white cats, Charlie and Ellie.
Elise Russell
Elise is our new intern for 2013. She graduated with honors from Melbourne University in December 2012, and received the student prize for small animal medicine. Deep down she always knew she would end up in a cat-only practice, so is very excited to be furthering her feline knowledge here in Brisbane and is eager to develop her ultrasound skills at Mt Gravatt. She has a soft spot for black moggies and has recently been reunited with her cat Roger, who has flown up from Melbourne and now enjoys spending his days observing all the exciting insects Brisbane has to offer.
In her spare time Elise enjoys discovering Brisbane’s cafes and restaurants, tending to her pot plants, going to the movies and listening to crackly vinyl. In the future she hopes to sit the feline membership examinations, and maybe one day acquire her other favourite pet; an alpaca!
Marcus Gunew
Marcus discovered his love for cats whilst still at The University of Sydney and upon graduating he moved to Brisbane to fulfil his dream of working at the largest Feline Only practice in Australia. Since arriving in 1997, Marcus has been responsible for the many changes and advancements within the practice that makes The Cat Clinic such a good place for sick cats to visit.
With a special interest in ultrasonography and endoscopy, Marcus is usually found diagnosing and treating our really sick cats. He became a Registered Specialist in Feline Medicine in 2009, but by far Marcus’s best life achievement are his 2 beautiful daughters, Georgia and Anna whom you may often see down visiting their dad and keeping an eye on all the kittens.
Away from work, Marcus thoruoughly enjoys spending time outdoors, and has become an avid runner. For several years now he has had a keen interest in distance running and trail running, even having competed in numerous triathlons. Marcus and his family share their home with 2 burmese cats, a beautiful little chocolate coloured lady named ‘Rosie’, and a handsome yet very cheeky red burmese boy named ’Mango’. There are also a number of chickens and a happy little Border Collie called ‘Oreo’ who has become a great running partner for her Dad.
Vic
As the grandfather of Feline Medicine in Australia and founder of The Cat Clinic, Vic Menrath is deserving of a special mention. Vic grew up in New Zealand before graduating from Veterinary Science at the University of Queensland in 1968. A passionate love for all things feline led to the establishment of the Creek Road Cat Clinic in 1980 – the first cat-only veterinary practice in Australia and the only one in the world outside of the USA at that time.
Vic became a registered Veterinary Specialist in Feline Medicine in 1982 and established the only Feline Renal Transplant unit in Australia which has been operational for over 10 years. His special interest remains in diseases of feline kidneys. His achievements are simply too great to list, but probably the best thing Vic ever did was recognise that cats were different to dogs and that they should treated differently to dogs.
Vic currently spends much of his time teaching veterinarians, supervising grandchildren, inspecting golf courses and sampling fine wines. Vic with his wife Helen and their children have been privileged to have been owned by and loved families of Burmese over the many years including a beautiful red Burmese named Hope, who was a very special little lady.
Rhett Marshall
Rhett graduated from The University of Queensland in 1998 and quickly discovered the benefits of working with cats and joined the team in 1999.
Rhett has recently completed a PhD in Feline Diabetes and has been credited with changing the treatment outcomes for cats with diabetes. He has authored many publications and presented his research findings overseas.
Rhett’s real passion though is for surgery and he spends lots of his time with surgical cases. In 2003 he passed membership examinations of the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists in Small Animal Surgery.
When Rhett isn’t saving the lives of our feline friends, he loves nothing more than spending all of his free time with his wife Esther and his 3 kids. He enjoys riding motorbikes and kicking the football around with his 2 young boys Ethan and Felix. He is also enjoying teaching them to be great ‘big brothers’ to their beautiful little sister Josette, who is already surprising Dad with her intelligence! He has 2 cats, Mickey Mouse and Phoebe, and the newest addition to the Marshall clan is an adorable little ‘groodle’ pup named ‘Gracie.’ Gracie is a very spoilt member of the family who gets regular haircuts to maintain her cute little nickname – ‘Pom-Pom Head!’
