Australian vet and TV presenter Dr Katrina Warren answers five fast questions for Noosa Today readers.
1. What inspired you to become a vet?
“I’ve loved animals for as long as I can remember and throughout school I dreamt of a career that allowed me to work with all types of animals on a daily basis. I really enjoyed doing science-based subjects at school so studying Veterinary Science seemed like a natural progression for me.“
2. How did you get into TV presenting?
“I worked in a vet clinic for a short while but didn’t enjoy the sad side of euthanising animals and always found myself in tears. I decided to look for a job that more about education – teaching pet owners about how to keep their pets happy and healthy. I was lucky enough to land a job as a researcher on the TV show, Totally Wild. This role soon evolved into a presenting gig and it really was the dream job for me. I got to promote all the positive aspects of pet ownership and pet care while being lucky enough to travel around Australia.“
3. Why did you decide to partner with PetSafe?
“I am passionate about responsible pet ownership and keeping our pets safe. PetSafe is running a campaign for cat owners to promote the many benefits of keeping our cats indoors (such as avoiding car accidents, infectious diseases, and fights with other animals as well as protecting our wildlife). These important messages align with mine and I am keen to help people transition to keeping their cat indoors instead of allowing them to roam.“
4. Why would you recommend the new self-cleaning litter box to cat owners?
“We know that one of the reasons people often don’t want to keep their cat indoors is because they don’t like the smell of a litter box or having to clean it out daily. The new self-cleaning litter box may be helpful for some people to overcome this issue and not have their litter box as a barrier to their cat’s safety.“
5. What is the most common question you get asked by pet owners?
“For cats, it would be ‘why is my cat not using its litter box – cats are fastidiously clean and a wee or poo outside the box indicates something is bothering them. There can be many reasons for this including underlying medical condition, type of litter, cleanliness of the litter box, location of the litter box and stress.“
“For dogs -probably, how to stop their puppy chewing everything. The bad news is this is a natural puppy behaviour and something most puppies will grow out of. The good news – you can set up good chewing habits from the start and teach a puppy they are only allowed to chew on certain safe toys by always giving them the item they are allowed to chew. It is important to make sure the puppy is always confined in a pet or crate when you can’t actively supervise them so they don’t have the opportunity to chew on the wrong thing.“
