Gerhard Oechtering studied veterinary medicine at the Free University of Berlin, graduating in 1983. He later became a senior lecturer in surgical intensive care and anaesthesiology at the Veterinary School of Justus Liebig University in Giessen. Since 1994, he has served as Professor and Head of the Department of Small Animals at the University of Leipzig. In 2008, he was a visiting professor at the University of Tennessee. In 2002, he established a multidisciplinary research group focusing on brachycephaly in dogs and cats. In 2005, his department established a specialized ENT unit. His special interests are interventional ENT surgery, with a focus on endoscopic nasal tumour surgery and laser surgery. He has been invited to speak on ENT topics at several European and American colleges and is also recognised as a national specialist in small animal oto-rhino-laryngology.