Kerrie-Lee Dobbie

Keri-Lee hails from Cape Town, South Africa. She graduated as a veterinary surgeon from the University of Pretoria, South Africa in 2010. Keri-Lee completed an equine internship at Bell Equine in Kent and then practiced as an equine vet for several years in England and South Africa.

Keri-Lee has enjoyed a varied career, working all over the world, from being vet to Her Majesty the Queen, to doing equine work in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, to safeguarding animal welfare on film sets in California, Cape Town, Budapest and China, to being part of a team performing health checks on cheetahs in Namibia. She worked in penguin research and rehabilitation for two years and volunteered with SPANA in Morocco.

In 2016 Keri-Lee returned to the University of Pretoria to work as a clinical lecturer in anaesthesiology and then undertook a residency in ophthalmology at the University of Pretoria and Johannesburg Animal Eye Hospital. She successfully completed the requirements to become a registered specialist with the South African Veterinary Council (SAVC) in 2020.

Keri-Lee worked as a locum in referral ophthalmology practice in the UK and spent much time in specialist practice in the USA. In 2020, Keri-Lee was responsible for the sole-charge running of the ophthalmology clinic in the veterinary academic hospital at South African´s only veterinary faculty. At the end of 2020, she moved permanently to the UK to establish the ophthalmology service at a large multi-disciplinary referral hospital outside London.

Keri-Lee has a professional interest in autoimmune retinopathies and enjoys performing corneal and intraocular surgery. She is also passionate about wildlife ophthalmology and has conducted research and performed outreach work in chimpanzees, rhinos and big cats. She has presented internationally and contributed to the academic literature in this field (her thesis was on the chimpanzee eye).