Napa Valley – California 2026

Dr. Katy Townsend is a board-certified small animal surgeon, tenured Associate Professor and section head at Oregon State University. She grew up in Australia and earned her veterinary degree from The University of Sydney with first class honors. She initially went into general practice before completing a small animal rotating internship at The Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, in the United Kingdom. She then moved to the USA and completed her small animal surgery residency at The Ohio State University and became a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2013. She stayed on as faculty for two years at Ohio State University until she moved to Oregon State University for a faculty position in 2014.

Since then, Katy has worked exclusively in soft tissue and surgical oncology, leading the Oregon State surgical team. Katy enjoys challenging soft tissue and oncologic surgeries with a focus on endocrine surgery and mast cell tumors. She has a clinical research interest in sentinel lymph nodes with relation to mast cell tumors and has authored over 40 peer reviewed publications, 7 book chapters and is currently authoring and editing a small animal endocrine surgery textbook.

She has a strong interest in surgical education, particularly in providing practical surgical education and practical tips to general practitioners. She regularly teaches wet labs to veterinarians who want to excel at surgery in general practice.

She lives in Corvallis, Oregon, with her husband, two kids and two female orange cats called Guigamoo and Bru, and in her spare time loves to hike, backpack, travel, ski and has recently taken up the guitar again after a 30-year hiatus.