Vetgirl Veterinary Continuing Education Podcasts

In this VETgirl online veterinary CE podcast, we interview Dr. Lauren Sullivan, DACVECC, an Assistant Clinical Professor at CSU. She reviews this common infectious disease affecting immunocomprised, poorly vaccinated puppies, and discusses etiology, clinical signs, treatment, and some new updates in veterinary medicine. In a recent study at CSU, the use of outpatient therapy with canine parvovirus can still yield a good prognosis. Check out this VETgirl podcast for more information and get your street medicine on!

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, Dr. Lisa Radosta, DACVB from Florida Veterinary Behavior Service discusses litterbox size preference in domestic cats. As inappropriate urination is the #1 feline behavioral disorder, help your clients by educating them on what exact size box is appropriate for the average-sized cat.

In today's VETgirl podcast, we review the importance of performing a venous blood gas in the vomiting patient. Why? Because when we see a hypochloremic, hypokalemic metabolic alkalosis, we should be ruling out an obstructive gastrointestinal (GI) foreign body. Previously, the presence of a metabolic alkalosis has been associated with a upper GI (e.g., pyloric) foreign body. Why? Because of protracted vomiting and loss of chloride, which deletes the body of an anion. In order to maintain electroneutrality, when a sodium (Na+) moves, a negatively charged anion must exchange with it. While this is typically chloride, if the body is chloride deplete, it absorbs bicarbonate (HCO3-) instead, resulting in the classic metabolic alkalosis. Normally, dogs reabsorb 98% of their gastrointestinal secretions per day. Once a GI obstruction is present for more than 24 hours, resorption in the bowel proximal to an obstruction results in increased secretion of Na+, K+, and water into the lumen. Historically, proximal GI obstru

In this VETgirl podcast, Dr. Lisa Powell, DACVECC reviews a study out of Tufts University assessing the time of antimicrobial administration in the treatment of septic peritonitis and overall survival. Does it matter when you reach for a vial of antibiotics in your emergent or critically ill patients? The goals of this study were to determine whether creation and implementation of a canine abdominal sepsis protocol decreased time to antimicrobial administration in dogs with septic peritonitis. What did this study find? Overall, the median time from diagnosis of septic peritonitis to antimicrobial administration was 6 hours in the preprotocol group (PRE), and 1 hour in the postprotocol group (POST) (P = 0.001). 25% of the culture and sensitivity results were negative in the PRE versus the POST group (17.6%). 15% of the time, the wrong empirical antimicrobial was selected in the PRE group (compared to 8.8% of the time in the POST group). Overall, the survival to discharge was 60% in the PRE and 70% in the POST,

In today's VETgirl online veterinary CE podcast, Dr. Anusha Balakrishnan from the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine reviews how to handle the respiratory emergency in dogs and cats. In this 30-minute podcast, she reviews approach, signalment, oxygen therapy,

In this VETgirl podcast, we review patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) and the long-term outcome. Should you be recommending your puppies for PDA closure? PDA is a congenital cardiac anomaly that allows for left-to-right shunting of blood from the descending aorta to the main pulmonary artery (in most cases). This results in volume overload to the left sided cardiac chambers, and ultimately, congestive heart failure, if left untreated. Left sided cardiac dimensions are usually significantly reduced following PDA closure and outcome is generally considered good in dogs but published data on long-term outcome is limited and factors affecting this outcome have not been well investigated. So what's the outcome? Before my client spends a few thousand for a coil, is it worth it? So, Saunders et al out of Texas A&M wanted to evaluate the long-term outcome, and the factors affecting this outcome, in a large group of dogs with PDA. In this study, they retrospectively evaluated 520 dogs (with the majority of them -

) in dogs. Traditionally, the PF is used to evaluate the severity of acute lung injury (ALI, < 300) or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS, < 200). But can we use our pulse oximetry as a non-invasive way of obtaining assessment? This study found that in dogs spontaneously breathing room air, the SF and PF radio had good correlation. This suggests that you can use your pulse oximeter instead, which is helpful especially in cats and small dogs (where it may be harder to obtain an arterial blood gas sample). Further studies are warranted however, to validate this relationship and to assess the ability of SF to predict outcome in critically ill, hypoxemic patients. References: 1. Calabro JM, Prittie JE, Palma DA. Preliminary evaluation of the utility of comparing SpO2/FiO2 and PaO2/FiO2 ratios in dogs. J Vet Emerg Crit Care 2013;23(3):280-285.

Today's VETgirl podcast is an interview with Dr. Jeremy Campfield, an emergency veterinarian from southern California. He's a blogger for DVM360 at Death to Debt, and recently lectured as an IGNITE speaker at NAVC 2015. In today's podcast interview, he discusses his views on how to pay off the overwhelming, massive debt associated with veterinary school. Here, Dr. Campfield reviews a few key tips on how to pay off your veterinary school loans. Please note that Dr. Campfield is not a financial advisor, and the opinions expressed here are his own!

In this VETgirl podcast, we review the diagnostic yield of cytologic analysis of pericardial effusion in dogs. Is it worth submitting fluid analysis and cytology for your hemorrhagic sample? The most common causes of canine pericardial effusion include neoplasia and idiopathic effusions. Coagulopathies, left atrial rupture, and septic pericarditis are much less common. Among neoplastic causes, cardiac hemangiosarcoma (typically right atrial or right AV groove) occurs most frequently followed by heart base tumors (chemodectomas), mesothelioma, and lymphoma. Prognosis for neoplastic causes is highly dependent on tumor type. Cytologic analysis is considered highly useful in providing a definitive diagnosis of infectious causes and cardiac lymphoma, but is of limited value in identifying other neoplastic causes. This is in contrast to the relatively high diagnostic ability of pericardial effusion cytology to identify neoplastic etiologies in humans (likely because of the types of neoplasia seen in humans). Additi

In this VETgirl podcast, Dr. Lisa Powell, DACVECC reviews a study out of Canada that reviews the effects of tetrastarch, a synthetic colloid fluid on hemodynamic and laboratory variables in both healthy dogs and dogs with systemic inflammation. The goal of this study was to evaluate the response of administering equal volumes of isotonic crystalloids (0.9% saline) and synthetic colloids (e.g., tetrastarch) on hemodynamic and laboratory variables in dogs. This study looked at two population of dogs: healthy dogs and dogs with systemic inflammation. This study also evaluated several parameters including heart rate (HR), blood pressure, PCV, total protein (TP), lactate, and colloid osmotic pressure (COP) measurements. So, what'd they find? Overall, the administration of colloids was associated with a larger improvement in HR, systolic blood pressure, and mean blood pressure. Dogs with systemic inflammation also had similar increases in systolic blood pressure and decreases in PCV, TP, and lactate after administ

In today's VETgirl podcast, Dr. Nathan Lee, a board-certified radiation oncologist, reviews all you need to know about radiation therapy (RT) in veterinary medicine. What are the side effects and pros or cons? How much does it cost? What's the difference between traditional RT and stereotactic radiation therapy (SRT)? What tumors does it work best for? Get your veterinary continuing education through our tech-savvy VETgirl podcasts and webinars!

In today's VETgirl podcast, Dr. Lisa Powell, DACVECC, reviews pneumomediastinum in cats. This original study was published by Thomas et al out of University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, and characterizes the incidence, causes, presenting complaint, clinical course, and outcome of cats diagnosed with pneumomediastinum. So what did this study find? 69% of cats had a secondary (e.g., obvious inciting) cause, with 38% of the cases having had endotracheal intubation and positive pressure ventilation (PPV). In approximately a quarter of the cases, trauma was the cause, while in 4% of the cases, a tracheal foreign body caused the pneumomediastinum. Interesting to note? The clinical signs and diagnosis of spontaneous pneumomediastinum was due to emesis in 6 of 14 cats. Regardless, this study found that the prognosis is good with supportive care, so a) don't give up on these, and b) stop over inflating your endotracheal tubes under dental procedures. References: 1. Thomas EK, Syring RS. Pneumomediast

In today's veterinary online podcast, we interview VETgirl's COO Dr. Garret Pachtinger on some recent veterinary studies about anticoagulant rodenticide (ACR) toxicosis. How should we test for it? Should we run a prothrombin and when? Should we automatically treat with Vitamin K1 therapy? Tune in to find out more!

In today's VETgirl podcast, we interview Dr. Amie Koenig, an Associate Professor at University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine on her recent publication in JAVMA entitled "Formulation and validation of a predictive model to correct blood glucose concentrations obtained with a veterinary point-of-care glucometer in hemodiluted and hemoconcentrated canine blood samples."

In this VETgirl podcast, we review subaortic stenosis (SAS) in dogs, and whether or not the affect of certain cardiac medications (e.g., specifically beta-blockers) affect the overall survival. Subaortic stenosis, more commonly causes SAS, is a common congenital cardiac condition in dogs; it is characterized by a fibrous ring/ridge of tissue below the aortic valve, causing narrowing of this region and secondary pressure overload to the left ventricle. The severity of SAS is determined by the left ventricular-to-aorta pressure gradient (PG), with severe pressure gradients considered to be ≥ 80 mm Hg. In general, the prognosis for mild to moderate SAS is generally considered significantly better than for severe SAS with minimal treatment initiated for the former group. In cases with severe SAS, prior data is limited to a single, small study that reported a 19 month median survival.1,2 As a result, the overall long-term prognosis for severe SAS has been considered to be poor. Treatment of severe SAS has been