The Welfare Of Show Dogs & The Role Of The Vet

This is what I want to cover. You will notice that I have not put legislation on here that’s because I have only got 10 minutes and I could spend an entire 10 minutes winging about the state of legislation and its poor enforcement. So I want to concentrate really on the veterinary aspects of improving pedigree welfare. Little bit of background first. Firstly we can’t even decide how many dogs there are in this country and this I think raises a significant issue about a whole level of surveillance of disease but there are roughly 8 – 10 million dogs.

The Colourful Consultation

The colourful consultation is a concept developed by veterinary surgeon, Brian Faulkner, whose particular interest lies with the science of psychology and its effect on veterinary consultations. ‘The Webinar Vet’ organised Mr Faulkner to lead a veterinary webinar advising vets on how to achieve a successful consultation based on this concept.

The Talented Mr Keniry

To the people who knew him, Mike Evans was a personable man and a competent veterinary surgeon. Yes, there had been that time when he had botched surgery on a cat, killing it, for which the practice had had to compensate the owner, and it was true that he sometimes seemed a little “rusty” with his fundamentals, but for the employees and clients of the Taunton practice where he had worked for two years he was easy to work with and good with animals.

UK Government Rejects Proposal To Add Staffordshire Bull Terriers To List Of Banned Dogs

PETA, the notorious animal rights activist group, likes to stir up controversy from time to time. While they have undoubtedly done good in bringing public attention to animal abuse in various forms, they’ve previously drawn ire for a number of stances that have been misguided at best and underhanded at worst, such as trying to convince people that drinking milk causes autism (and you thought the anti-vaccine people were bad enough).

Some Thoughts on Demodicosis - Part 1

I was fortunate to attend the World Dermatology Congress in November 2008 in Hong Kong. These gatherings are always fantastic opportunities to meet with colleagues and learn new ideas in the field of dermatology. I want to report on some of the lectures as well as give my own thoughts on the subject. I am a private practitioner and hopefully my way of doing things is helpful for you in general practice.

Questions Answered From The Leptopspirosis Webinar Part 4

Q34: Is human disease also treated with doxycycline? C: I am not sure if doxycycline is used in all cases, but I was once treated preventively with doxycycline myself (I got the flu shortly after being in contact with a dog with leptospirosis, so I was treated while test results were pending, which came back negative).

Questions Answered From The Leptopspirosis Webinar Part 3

Q27: Could you tell me more about serotypes in Asia, more specific Indonesia. And is L4 available in this area? Dutch vet based in Jakarta. C: Challenging question! I cannot find any data on serovars causing disease in dogs in Indonesia. I could find some data in humans: –       A very good recent study mentions multiple serovars in South-East Asia: “There were negligible differences in predominate serogroup representation by geographic location, as evident from the various acute jaundice studies. The predominance of Hurstbridge serogroup, against a background of jaundiced disease, varies with previously documented findings from Indonesia. In an outbreak of jaundiced disease in South Sumatra (Indonesia), Australis, Grippotyphosa and Icterohaemorrhagiae were the most frequently recognized serogroups.

Questions Answered From The Leptopspirosis Webinar Part 2

Q16: Do you get dogs that solely show respiratory signs or would you always expect to see some evidence of renal or liver issues too? C: See question 8.   Q17: Did you run clotting factors before doing the biopsy?C: Yes, I always check a platelet count and coagulation times before all liver biopsies.

Questions Answered From The Leptopspirosis Webinar Part 1

Following on from the fantastic webinar presented by Catherine Bovens on Leptospirosis there we just too many questions to get through on the  live webinar so Catherine has very kindly gone through and answered them all.  Some of the questions are more relevant for Michelle Townley from MSD to answer so we will upload those answers when we have then.

Shoulder Lameness In The Dog

Forelimb lameness in the dog is commonly encountered in general practice and, most of the time, diagnosing these cases is relatively easy; the dog with a torn nail or an obvious site of pain. But sometimes cases can prove more challenging. In my experience dogs with shoulder lameness fall into this ‘challenging’ category and trying to ascertain that pain is associated with the shoulder seems to be the hardest part. Despite lameness and orthopaedics not being my favourite subject, I jumped at the opportunity to improve my skills in this area by tuning into last week’s veterinary webinar covering ‘shoulder lameness in the dog’

Shelter Medicine - Changing The Way We Think

Having just returned from 2 weeks in the South of France I eagerly ventured back to ‘The Webinar Vet’ to seek out a webinar I had missed. ‘Shelter medicine’ led by Dr Rachel Dean caught my eye and led to a very welcome return to CPD.  Shelter medicine was not an area of veterinary medicine focused on during my university years but Rachel explained that there is an increasing level of interest with one of the first lectureships in shelter medicine being provided by Nottingham University.