Kathy Mitchener, DVM

Dr. Kathy Mitchener graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine in 1985. She entered private practice for a short time and was asked to rejoin the university staff in January of 1986 to do a residency in oncology and internal medicine. After completing this program she moved to Memphis and started her private practice in oncology. In the mid 80’s oncology was a new and evolving field and her efforts in cancer medicine slowly grew until it encompassed the majority of her medical work. She opened Angel Care Cancer Clinic for Animals in February of 2004.

Dr. Kathy’s work with animals has not been limited to the practice of oncology, her efforts have also included twenty years of dedication tot he human animal bond. She was one of the founders of a program dedicated to providing high quality animal assisted therapy in Knoxville while she was a resident in oncology. The program is one of the largest and most recognized of its kind in this country and is called HABIT (Human Animal Bond in Tennessee). After moving to Memphis she founded an animal assisted therapy program called HEART which provided high quality programs to area nursing homes for a number of years. Outside of practice her work has also been dedicated to helping her colleagues in the profession to develop a greater understanding of the human animal bond and just how much animals mean to the people with whom they share their world. Dr. Kathy worked to help the Tennessee Veterinary Medical Association develop a Human Animal Bond Foundation and a Hall of Fame for Animals. She assisted the Memphis Shelby County Veterinary Medical Association to found the Pet Loss Support group as well. An internationally known lecturer, Dr. Kathy has spread the word of Compassionate Cancer Care to veterinarians as close as her own city and as far away as Europe. In 2004 she was awarded the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Bustad Companion AnimalAward for her work in the human animal bond and cancer care.

In addition to practice she is a single mom with three children she believes are her greatest inspirations, Nathan (15), Matt (13) and Sarah (10). She is an avid dressage rider and her “horse-partner” is Rosie, a hungarian warm blood. (Source)

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