Vetgirl Veterinary Continuing Education Podcasts

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we review the prevalence of heartworm disease in cats in the United States and Canada. Now, you may think that heartworm disease is pretty rare, depending on where you live (or practice), but you need to know about this disease. What clinical signs are seen with it? How do you diagnose it?

We all know how difficult it can be to make a cat vomit when we actually need for them to vomit. Veterinary emergency hospitals are encouraged to stock formulations of apomorphine for inducing emesis in dogs, but sadly this medication doesn't seem to work in cats. The theorized reason behind the feline's lack of robust emetic response to apomorphine stems from anatomical differences in their chemoreceptor trigger zone receptors where they are believed to favor more of the alpha-2 receptors over the dopamine receptor abundance that dogs exhibit. For this reason, most hospitals carry xylazine, an alpha-2 adrenergic agonist more commonly used in large animal anesthesia. However, if you've ever tried to make a cat vomit using xylazine, their response is variable and many will not vomit when appropriate doses are used. Clinically, I've always felt like it only works half the time in my poisoned cat patients!

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we interview Dr. Deborah Silverstein, Associate Professor in Critical Care at University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine on a study called Retrospective evaluation of the prevalence, risk factors, management, outcome, and necropsy findings of acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome in dogs and cats: 29 cases (2011-;2013). In this study, the authors evaluated dogs and cats with Acute Lung Injury (ALI) or Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), and assessed overall prevalence, treatment, and outcome of these critically ill patients.

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we discuss other job opportunities available in veterinary medicine. If small animal, large animal, equine or mixed animal practice has you burnt out, know that you have opportunities in veterinary industry (e.g., pet food companies, veterinary pharmaceutic companies, etc.), teaching, consulting and even with the government. In this podcast, we interview Dr. Angela McIntyre, who works for the USDA FSIS on the front line of Food Safety.

In this VETgirl online veterinary CE podcast, we review the outcome and survival in dogs with sick sinus syndrome, a life-threatening bradyarrhythmia.

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we review the difference between dogs and cats in the veterinary setting. As the old saying goes… ”cats are not small dogs!” The question remains, what does that really mean? They can both be small. They can both be fluffy. Catch them at the wrong time and they can both bite! But what does it mean when we say, “cats are not small dogs”? What we are referring to is the medical response to disease as we compare our feline and canine patients. Our feline patients have unique physiologic responses to shock, medications, fluid therapy, and even neoplasia as compared to the canine patient. As a result, it is crucial that the veterinary team understands these unique feline characteristics!

How do you assess your feline patients for shock at the time of triage?

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we discuss aortic thrombotic disease (what we'll call ATD from now on). We know that patients with ATD develop this due to Virchow's Triad - the combination of vascular endothelial injury, altered blood coagulability and changes in blood flow. Common underlying causes resulting in vascular endothelial injury include trauma, dirofilarial infection, hypotension, vasculitis, inflammation, acidosis, hypoxemia, dextrose fluid administration, arteriosclerosis (more in humans), and immune mechanisms. Altered blood coagulability may be due to platelet dysfunction (or hyperfunction), or any factor along the coagulation cascade or fibrinolytic system that has gone awry. Lastly, changes in blood flow may be due to blood stasis (e.g., an enlarged atrium), compressive lesions, trauma, or turbulence.

Do you use a AlphaTRAK 2 glucometer in your veterinary clinic? In the veterinary emergency room, many of us utilize the veterinary handheld point-of-care (POC) glucometers to obtain rapid glucose measurements, as it only requires a tiny volume of blood. Not all hospitals have the benefit of having expensive lab analyzers and instead rely on the POC glucometers for glucose measuring. However, it's important to note that the accuracy of these POC glucometers can be affected by various factors such as the concentration of red blood cells present in the sample (e.g., anemia, hemoconcentration) and various medications. The POC glucometer utilizes a different mechanism by which to measure blood glucose levels than our traditional lab analyzers.

Normally, our small animal veterinary patients have a very small amount of fluid within their body cavities. We can not see this radiographically, and most novice users of the ultrasound machine would also likely miss this effusion. The main goal of this fluid is to lubricate the surfaces of the organs and body walls like motor oil for your car engine. This allows the organs to glide over each other without friction, avoiding inflammation. That is in health. However, in states of disease, we see effusion develop which needs to be identified and characterized for both diagnosis and targeted treatment. So, if you see a dog or cat with abdominal effusion or pleural effusion, rapid fluid analysis is imperative!

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we interview Dr. Tina Wismer, DABT, DABVT, Medical Director at the #1 Animal Poison Control Center, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center, based out of Urbana, Illinois. Here, she shares the top 5 poisons affecting dogs and cats, including what clinical signs you may see and how to treat them. We'll also discuss some helpful hints when it comes to calling the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center - like having the patient signalment and exposure information ready, along with having the pet owner initiate the first phone call to create a case number. Dr. Wismer will also discuss the differences between cholysteramine and activated charcoal, talk about new updates in veterinary toxicology, and discuss why your veterinary clinic should be utilizing their expertise and services!

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we discuss how to write a good discharge for your pet owners. While we're often busy in general practice, emergency practice, or specialty practice, it's so important that we write clear, concise discharges for pet owners. Here, Dr. Justine Lee, DACVECC, DABT and Dr. Garret Pachtinger, VMD, DACVECC review all the pertinent information you need in your discharges! Help promote better client communication and education with these simple tips.

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we interview Dr. Alicia Niedzwecki, DACVECC, on a recent study that she performed entitled Effect of oral 3% hydrogen peroxide used as an emetic on the gastroduodenal mucosa of healthy dogs. In this study, Dr. Niedzwecki performed a prospective study aimed to investigate the effects of 3% hydrogen peroxide on the gastrointestinal mucosa in healthy dogs when ingested in amounts we routinely use for emesis induction. What'd they find? Maybe we shouldn't be using hydrogen peroxide in our veterinary poisoned canine patients after all, as evidence of esophagitis, gastritis and gastric ulceration can be seen. This study supports that hydrogen peroxide is not as benign as perhaps we once thought. While the authors' take away from this study was that the use of hydrogen peroxide shouldn't be recommended for at-home use in pet owners unless the benefits outweigh the risks, the toxicologist in me is going to take a little bit of a different take on it. VET

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we review the significance of lactate levels in hypotensive cats in the ICU. Can lactate be a prognostic factor for survival?

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we interview Dr. Jenna Gettings, DVM MPH, who is a Post-Doctoral Fellow with the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) on her recent paper A Bayesian spatio-temporal model for forecasting the prevalence of antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi, causative agent of Lyme disease, in domestic dogs within the contiguous United States. While this is mouthful, find out what you need to know about the Lyme prevalence data and the practical implications that this may have for veterinarians. Based off some pretty complex stats and math, this paper forecasts that Lyme disease is expanding geographically. More importantly, why do we care as health care professionals, and does this affect our treatment as veterinarians? Tune in to learn more!

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we review the importance of anemia or hemoconcentration on blood glucose measurements when using point-of-care (POC) gluometers in our veterinary patients.

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, Dr. Justine Lee, DACVECC, DABT and Dr. Garret Pachtinger, VMD, DACVECC, discuss some helpful tips and tricks on how to survive your veterinary internship and veterinary residency. While you have to work hard during this upcoming year (or next two to three years), there are some easy tips to survive this learning period! You can do it! Any hints that you guys have? Share below!

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we review the chronic use of maropitant in veterinary medicine based on the most recent, cutting edge veterinary studies that have been done. In this podcast, we interview Dr. Jessica Quimby, DVM, PhD, DACVIM and Dr. Craig Clifford, DVM, DACVIM (Oncology) on their chronic use of maropitant in cats with chronic renal failure (CRF) and oncology patients, respectively. Can you use maropitant long-term without any problems?

In today' VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we interview Dr. Mary Gardner, CoFounder of Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice. She discusses quality of life in veterinary medicine, along with the decision to euthanize versus when to consider hospice care.

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we discuss whether or not we should be using 3% hydrogen peroxide (H202) as an emetic agent in dogs. With most of our pets' toxin ingestions occurring outside the veterinary hospital, we, as veterinary professionals, must use our best judgment when making recommendations to pet owners regarding how best to help their pet. If the pet has ingested a toxic substance or an overdose of medication, and you know the best course of action is to prevent further absorption by way of emesis, what do you recommend to the client? Does your hospital induce emesis with apomorphine or with hydrogen peroxide? Do you sometimes recommend to clients to induce emesis at home? Or do you just direct them to the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center instead?