Click on any of our cat veterinarians below for more information:
Dr. Colleen Currigan
Dr. Holly Pohl
Dr. Elizabeth Czerwonky
Dr. Daphne Thompson
Dr. Colleen Currigan
Dr. Colleen Currigan, founder of Cat Hospital of Chicago, graduated with her undergraduate degree in Sociology from St. Mary’s College/Notre Dame, Indiana. She is a graduate of The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine in Columbus, Ohio.
Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Dr. Currigan has practiced her entire veterinary career with cats in the Chicagoland area, including from 1993-1998 with her own feline homecare practice. She is an active member of the American Association of Feline Practitioners (and currently serves as a Director on its Board), American Veterinary Medical Association, Chicago Veterinary Medical Association, American Animal Hospital Association, and Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association. Dr. Currigan also serves on the Board of Tree House Humane Society, a well known cageless feline shelter in Chicago that was founded in 1971.
| Dr. Currigan is pictured on the right and below working with a few of her hospital patients. |  |
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In her rather limited spare time, Dr. Currigan finds herself an avid Chicago White Sox baseball fan (with the Colorado Rockies a close second, and yes, she likes the Chicago Cubs, too, just not with the same fervor as the south side team!), and she is equally as avid in her loyalties to her Denver Broncos and Notre Dame football teams as well as the Colorado Avalanche and Chicago Blackhawks hockey teams. She also enjoys Chicago art and street festivals, life in general in Chicago, Colorado skiing, bicycling, hiking anywhere, entertaining, traveling, and quiet evenings at home with her cats, Kramer and Dennis.
Dr. Holly Pohl
Dr. Holly Pohl is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Veterinary Teaching Hospital, and joined Cat Hospital of Chicago in early November, 1998. Prior to her relocating to Chicago, Dr. Pohl had spent the past several years in Connecticut at an AAHA (American Animal Hospital Association) member 24-hour full-service hospital, assessing critical care patients, developing treatment plans, coordinating referrals and training, and providing continuing education for support staff. Dr. Pohl is happy to be limiting her veterinary practice to cats for over a decade.
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Dr. Pohl is pictured here in one snapshot holding hospital resident, Bella. In another view, she is providing TLC to inpatient “Joey.” In the third view, she is her desk writing up her charts (with feline assistance, of course!).
In addition to her patient caseload, Dr. Pohl has played a key role in continuing education for our support staff. She is an excellent educator and she appreciates the importance of an educated staff. She is an active member of the American Association of Feline Practitioners, American Veterinary Medical Association, Chicago Veterinary Medical Association, and the Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association.
Dr. Pohl shares her home with her cat, “Maddie”. Dr. Pohl was traveling through Madison, Indiana in August of 2007 when she found a hungry stray kitty hanging around her motel room. From that day on, “Maddie”, as she is now so aptly named, was no longer a stray. She has settled well into Dr. Pohl’s home, has warmed her way into Dr. Pohl’s heart, and is busy training Dr. Pohl in how she wants things to be run in her home!
Dr. Pohl’s hobbies/interests include Chicago Art and Street Festivals, gardening, and music. She is an avid walker and a trivia expert. She follows University of Wisconsin sports and Green Bay Packer Football.
We’re thrilled to have Dr. Pohl at our hospital, as are her always growing number of loyal clientele!
Dr. Elizabeth Czerwonky
Dr. Czerwonky (“Dr. Z”) graduated from University of Chicago in 1996 and then from veterinary school at the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2001. She came to Cat Hospital of Chicago in July 2001 with two cats- Señor Guapo and Beeb. Unfortunately Señor Guapo died of heart failure in September of 2005. Shortly after her move to Chicago, Dr. Z acquired her third cat, Irving Magic. He was a four week old kitten that had been hit by a car and had severe damage to his right front arm. The arm was amputated (courtesy of Dr. Ewald) and he’s been great ever since. Dr. Z is married to Dr. Will Fischbach, an emergency veterinarian at Animal Emergency and Referral Center in Northbrook. In addition to Beeb and Irving Magic, they have two more cats, Isabella and Noodle Pony, and two dogs, Fiona and Reggie. Their most recent addition was a baby human. Dr. Z now spends most of her free time reading and playing with her daughter, feeding her pets, scooping litter boxes, and cleaning up fur and hairballs, but in any remaining time she enjoys walking, traveling, singing, finding new places to get gelato, and trips to the dog beach.
Dr. Czerwonky is a member of the American Association of Feline Practitioners, American Veterinary Medical Association, Chicago Veterinary Medical Association, and the Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association.
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Here are two pictures of Dr. Czerwonky. In the top picture, she is talking to a cat owner about laboratory results, and in the bottom one, she is performing a patient exam.
Dr. Daphne Thompson
Dr. Daphne Thompson joined Cat Hospital of Chicago in August of 2009. She brings to us a wealth of experience at feline-only veterinary facilities. Prior to joining Cat Hospital of Chicago, she spent three and a half years at Calgary Cat Clinic in Alberta, Canada, and five years at Cat Hospital at Towson (Md). As an undergraduate, she externed at The Cat Clinic in York, Maine and served as a technician/assistant at Cats Only Veterinary Clinic in Columbus, Ohio which introduced her to practices that focused exclusively on cats and convinced her that she wanted to work at that kind of facility.
Dr. Thompson earned her DVM from The Ohio State University in 2000, where she and Cat Hospital’s Dr. Elizabeth Czerwonky worked together at the veterinary teaching hospital when they were students. She has bachelor’s degrees in pre-medicine and history from the University of Dayton, and she is currently working toward certification in veterinary acupuncture through The Chi Institute of Chinese medicine. She is fully trained and awaiting final certification in veterinary acupuncture. She also has some training in food therapy and is in the process of being trained in herbals.
Born in Holland and still fluent in Dutch, Dr. Thompson moved to the U.S. when she was four and grew up in the Midwest. Among her diverse interests are hiking, Celtic dance, photography, reading, horseback riding, baking and cooking for parties. A travel enthusiast, Dr. Thompson’s favorite places to visit include Prague; Bruges, Belgium; and Western Ireland. An admitted sucker for classic tabbies, she shares her home with three cats. (One of her cats is a former feral tom that she trapped by accident back in the 1990s when trying to catch batches of wild kittens when she was with a no-kill shelter group). She also admits to a weakness for giraffes and frogs. Dr. Thompson thrives on complex feline medical cases. Together, her three cats receive medications that occupy one entire cabinet and required a two-page spreadsheet!
Dr. Thompson is a member of American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP), American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and several state and provincial medical associations. In 2004, she served on the AAHA committee that drafted feline practice guidelines.
Dr. Thompson performing a neurologic examination on a patient