Vetgirl Veterinary Continuing Education Podcasts

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we discuss paradoxical breathing in our canine and feline patients. As we all know, pleural space diseases like pleural effusion, pneumothorax and diaphragmatic hernias can sometimes be difficult to diagnose. You might not always hear obvious muffled heart or breath sounds, and often our veterinary patients aren't stable enough for radiographs right away. In one study of dogs with pleural effusion, almost 1/3 died during initial examination and diagnostics!1 Remember, we always want to rapidly identify and stabilize our dyspneic patients to maximize survival and patient comfort!

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we review the 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. Bonnie Hay Kraus, DVM, DACVS, DACVAA on her recent studies evaluating dosing, route of administration and use in veterinary patients. How does this apply to you? Should you use it routinely pre-operatively? Will it prevent aspiration pneumonia or nausea? Tune in and find out more about this anti-emetic!

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we interview Dr. Lisa Radosta, DACVB, who is a board-certified veterinary behaviorist at Florida Veterinary Behavior Services on the top mistakes that veterinarians make with veterinary behavioral disorders. Find out what mistakes you need to avoid, what medications you should be reaching for more, and how to appropriate communicate to your pet owners about behavioral problems!

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we review whether or not you should use fresh frozen plasma (FFP) in your critically ill veterinary patients. Do you use FFP in your practice? What clinical situations prompt you to consider its use? Bleeding patients? Patients with prolonged clotting times? Patients with hypoalbuminemia or pancreatitis? Before we discuss our use of FFP and the evidence (or lack thereof!) behind it, let's make sure we're all on the same page about what FFP is. It's plasma that has been separated from whole blood and frozen within 8 hours, and it contains not only our coagulation factors, but also anticoagulation factors, fibrinogen, albumin and alpha-macroglobulins. Once it's frozen, it can be stored for up to one year. [After which, it becomes expired plasma or frozen plasma (FP), which still has it's uses!]

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, Dr. Justine Lee, DACVECC, DABT and Dr. Garret Pachtinger, DACVECC review the role of a veterinary criticalist in your veterinary hospital. Whether you're an emergency critical care resident about to apply for jobs for the first time, or you're a veteran board-certified veterinary criticalist, find out what roles we have in the veterinary community.

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we review tracheal collapse. Tracheal collapse is found in smaller breed dogs, especially Yorkshire terriers, miniature poodles and Pugs and presents as airway obstruction with the classic “goose honking” cough. Possible contributing factors include:

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast sponsored by Aventix, Dr. Shelby Reinstein discusses why it is not just "bull" that brachycephalic dogs have more challenging eye conditions!

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we review the use of enoxaparin, a low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) in dogs with primary immune-mediated hemolytic anemia (IMHA). Do you see a lot of dogs with primary IMHA in your practice? Do you have an anticoagulation protocol that you like to use in treating them? Does it involve aspirin? Clopidogrel? Unfractionated heparin? What about LMWH?

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we interview Dr. Karen Bradley, who is one of the founders and former President of the Women's Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative (WVLDI). Their goal? To support women in seeking and achieving leadership, policy, and decision-making positions within all areas of professional veterinary activity. Check out some of their great resources here. For more information, check out their website here and their Facebook group here.

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we discuss treatment for immune-mediated thrombocytopenia (ITP) in dogs. Have you treated a patient with primary ITP? Did you use steroids alone, or did you try combination therapy with vincristine or human intravenous immunoglobulin (hIVIG)? Well, while treatment with immunosuppressive doses of glucocorticoids is the initial treatment of choice, and most patients will have platelet recovery within 1-15 days of starting treatment, adding treatment with vincristine or hIVIG has been shown to shorten platelet recovery time. In some peer-reviewed, scientific veterinary prospective studies, dogs with severe ITP treated with prednisone alone versus prednisone and vincristine, or prednisone alone versus prednisone and hIVIG, both combination therapies resulted in faster increases in platelet numbers and shorter durations of hospitalization. To date, though, there haven't been any studies looking at the efficacy of vincristine versus hIVIG as adjunct

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we discuss the appropriate use of antibiotics for dogs with septic peritonitis. In patients with sepsis, early antimicrobial therapy is one of the cornerstones of treatment, along with resuscitation and source control. In human medicine, a landmark study of patients with septic shock revealed that for every one hour delay in antibiotic administration for the first six hours after presentation, mortality increased by 7.6%!(1) In critically ill, septic patients, antibiotics should be started before culture and sensitivity results are generally available, right? Well, the questions remain in both human and veterinary medicine about how we should choose those antibiotics, and whether or not our choices matter.

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we discuss diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Do you see cats with DKA in your practice? Does DKA really stand for "Diabetes Kills Animals?" (No.) What do you usually tell owners about their prognosis and what do you base that information on? While we know that DKA is a complicated form of diabetes mellitus (DM) and we often tell owners that it usually happens due to some other complicating concurrent disease or condition, we don't actually know a lot about those diseases or conditions, and whether or not they contribute to the patient's outcome.

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we interview Dr. Nyssa Reine-Salz, DACVIM, a board-certified veterinary specialist in internal medicine. She is an internal medicine consultant for Merck Animal Health, and an endocrinologist who consults on complicated diabetes mellitus cases. In this podcast, we review the types of insulin commonly used in veterinary medicine.

Have a dog presenting to you with abdominal pain and vomiting? In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we discuss the diagnostic accuracy of canine pancreatitis tests. Specific tests that are often used to test for canine pancreatitis are the Spec cPL and the SNAP cPL test; however, these tests must be interpreted carefully.

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we interview Dr. Nyssa Reine-Salz, DACVIM, a board-certified veterinary specialist in internal medicine. She is an internal medicine consultant for Merck Animal Health, and an endocrinologist who consults on complicated diabetes mellitus cases. In this podcast, we review the common mistakes to avoid in management of diabetes mellitus in your canine and feline patients.

In today's VETgirl veterinary continuing education podcast, we review whether Vitamin D plays a role in heart disease in dogs. Vitamin D deficiency, as determined via serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations, is associated with worsened cardiac function, heart failure symptoms, and prognosis in human heart failure patients. Supplementation of vitamin D in such patients improves cardiac function and improves prognosis. A 2014 study in dogs demonstrated that serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations are lower in dogs with CHF secondary to either CVHD or DCM than in normal dogs. So, Osuga et al out of Japan wanted to evaluate if an association exists between vitamin D status and all stages of CVHD, as well as investigate if any association exists between vitamin D status and echocardiographic parameters of cardiac structure and function in these canine patients.

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we discuss clinical findings and survival in cats with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). Is it a death sentence?

In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we interview Heather Prendergast and Ken Yagi, both veterinary technician extraordinaires, on the terminology of "veterinary technician" versus "veterinary nurse." First, what's the difference, and why is there so much push back from the human nursing community on this? Learn all about the current credentialing and standardization (which varies state by state) that is currently being reviewed. NAVTA is currently working with several organizations (such as AVMA) to create an updated national credentialing and standardization. Check out the results of a veterinary technician survey that was originally released by NAVTA here. More importantly, during National Veterinary Technician Week, what better way to support your right-hand-veterinary-technician-extraordinaire-staff by supporting this movement?

In today's VETgirl veterinary continuing education podcast, we review the use of certain sedatives such as dexmedetomidine on cardiac function (based on echocardiography) in dogs. We know that alpha-2 agonist sedatives provide dose-dependent sedation by reducing the central nervous system's sympathetic outflow. The alpha agonist properties of these drugs also have significant cardiovascular effects - specifically vasoconstriction - which results in an increase in vascular resistance and potential for reflex bradycardia. Dexmedetomidine, a readily available alpha-2 agonist in veterinary medicine, has been documented to cause bradycardia, systemic hypertension, hypothermia, and reduced cardiac output with administration. Given these cardiovascular effects, it is possible that these drugs may significantly alter echocardiographic parameters of cardiac function if used for sedation for echocardiography (thus resulting in artifactual results). So, Kellihan et al out of University of Wisconsin wanted to evaluate th

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we discuss the prevalence of immune-complex glomerulonephritis (ICGN) in dogs. Is it always due to glomerulonephritis? Or is it due to amyloidosis? Why should we care? First, we should care as glomerular injury is common to many renal diseases. Both primary and secondary glomerular disease is commonly seen in dogs. Primary glomerular disease refers to diseases where the glomerulus suffers the initial injury, while secondary glomerular disease refers to those diseases in which the glomerulus is secondarily injured. Based on the ongoing WSAVA Renal Standardization Project, primary glomerular disease in dogs is divided into 3 main groups: immune-complex glomerulonephritis, amyloidosis, and non-immune-complex glomerulonephritis. You can download the guidelines here, btw. Non-immune-complex glomerulonephritis is a diagnosis of exclusion, if neither immune complexes nor amyloid is demonstrated, but primary pathology is noted in the glomerulus.