Louise Rees

Louise trained in primary care practice, at Morden Vets and at Henley-on-Thames, before moving into referral work. She joined The Ralph referral hospital at the very beginning, helping to set it up, and stayed for three years.

Referral work meant training across every part of a specialist hospital, and it is where her own specialism took hold. She works in feline and canine dentistry and orthodontics, and holds ISFM dentistry qualifications alongside her RVN registration and a BSc (Hons) in Equine Science.

Dentistry is one of the least visible parts of pet health and one of the most common. It is also, for most owners, invisible until it is painful, which is a large part of why she is drawn to it.

Ask her for a story from referral practice and she will tell you about a small terrier who fell from a fifth floor. The dog needed to get to the Royal Veterinary College, and there was no time to arrange anything conventional, so Louise travelled in the back of the owner's car keeping the dog under anaesthetic on the back seat for the whole journey. The terrier survived. She is still, reasonably enough, proud of that one.

For HowPets she writes about cats: choosing a first one, and the practical business of letting a kitten outside safely. Her advice tends to run against the grain of what people expect. She will steer a first-time owner towards a mixed-breed cat over a striking pedigree, on the straightforward grounds that a moggy is the cat she sees least often in a consulting room.