Virus Hits Livestock Hard in Colorado, TexasAugust 15, 2014 Vesicular stomatitis, a contagious but rarely fatal livestock disease, has been diagnosed at nearly 190 locations across Colorado and Texas since the viral outbreak began in late May. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Wednesday that 76 new premises, or locations, have been identified since Aug. 6. The new cases involved 105 horses, five head of cattle and three previously disease-free counties. Two of the newly infected counties, Broomfield and Jefferson, are in Colorado, while the other is Williamson County, Texas. “Veterinarians have been very observant and diligent to report horses and other livestock that are suspicious of being infected,” said the Colorado state veterinarian, Keith Roehr, DVM. Livestock owners outside of Colorado and Texas should take precautions, said Elizabeth Davis, DVM, Ph.D., Dipl. ACVIM, a director of equine medicine and surgery at Kansas State University. “It’s an interesting disease because it does have pretty significant clinical signs,” Dr. Davis said. “Most commonly, it causes painful oral blisters in horses that can affect the mouth, muzzle and tongue. Additional signs may include lesions on the udder and/or around the top of the hoof where it meets the hairline. “Vesicular stomatitis also …
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iCVI iPad App Growing In PopularityAugust 13, 2014 Back in June, the iCVI iPad was launched. It was developed by the The Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases (IIAD), a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Center of Excellence, in partnership with the Texas Center for Applied Technology (TCAT) part of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station. The app, according to the IIAD press release, is a mobile Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (CVI) application, “which support[s] veterinary practitioners submitting animal health certificate records from the field.” According to the app’s description: “Veterinarians will find this tool valuable for generating Certificates of Veterinary Inspection for submission to state veterinary offices.” itunes/apple The iCVI app on iTunes is free. The features of the app, according to the app page, include: Offline/Online CVI creation CVI filtering Submission to state vet. offices via emailed PDF Offline/Online printing Import of animal data from CSV Multiple animal management conveniences Attachment of pictures “This new technology will help streamline the work flow for our veterinarians in the field,” said Bill Brown, DVM, Kansas animal health commissioner, in the IIAD press release. “We want to make sure that tools are …
Vets Stay Legal With Signing of Drug Mobility ActAugust 4, 2014 President Obama on Friday signed into law the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act, which permits practitioners to legally transport and dispense controlled drugs away from their registered offices and across state lines. The legislation, HR 1528, was introduced more than 15 months ago by the only veterinarians serving in Congress: Reps. Kurt Schrader, DVM, an Oregon Democrat, and Ted Yoho, DVM, a Florida Republican. “This bill will not only benefit all who practice large animal veterinary medicine but the farmers and ranchers who rely on them,” Dr. Yoho said. “This law will allow veterinarians to practice their profession without fear of unnecessary government intrusion.” The law permits what the Drug Enforcement Administration in recent years had considered a violation of the Controlled Substances Act—the administration of drugs by mobile, rural and wildlife veterinarians away from the practitioner’s registered workplace. DEA sent warning letters to some veterinarians, but no one was ever charged, the American Veterinary Medical Association reported. AVMA’s new president, Ted Cohn, DVM, thanked Obama and Congress for “allowing us complete access to the medications we need to fulfill our oath to society.” “The health and welfare of our nation’s wildlife, food …
Drug Makers, Compounders at Odds Over FDA OversightJuly 17, 2014 The Animal Health Institute, a trade group representing pharmaceutical manufacturers, is demanding that the Food and Drug Administration crack down on the illegal compounding of veterinary drugs, saying the practice puts animals at risk and jeopardizes the development of new medications. The appeal was made during a media conference call Wednesday and at a recent meeting in Washington, D.C., involving stakeholders and organizations such as the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Equine Practitioners and the American Animal Hospital Association. The Animal Health Institute is not asking for the elimination of all drug compounding. The group supports a pharmacist’s manipulation of FDA-approved drugs to meet individual patients’ needs and the occasional compounding of bulk, active ingredients under FDA’s discretionary powers. “The third type of compounded drugs … is dangerous and illegal,” said Richard Carnevale, VMD, the Animal Health Institute’s vice president for regulatory, scientific and international affairs. “These are dangerous drugs crafted by pharmacies acting as manufacturers and often promoted to veterinarians as a way to increase profits. “They are not looking to help Mrs. Jones’ cat,” Dr. Carnevale said of such companies. “They even offer disclaimers that they are not responsible for …
The Pros And Cons of Equine ProbioticsJuly 10, 2014 This article first appeared in the June 2014 issue of Veterinary Practice News. Probiotics have come to the equine market. Companies seem to be “throwing probiotics into everything,” said Joyce Harman, DVM, member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. “It’s sort of a hot item,” added Dr. Harman, owner of Harmany Equine Clinic Ltd. in Flint Hill, Va. “But that’s a good thing.” Efforts to make probiotics more widely available are being applauded by equine veterinarians like Harman, who has seen the overuse of antibiotics leave her patients’ digestive systems depleted of key bacteria. “Horses are given antibiotics at the drop of a pin,” Harman said. Patients in Harman’s area, Lyme country, may be particularly in need of probiotics, she said. Afflicted horses there tend to get placed on antibiotics for extended periods. In a typical case, Harman will get called out to check a horse that doesn’t look as well as it should, despite being on a good diet, or a horse that has weight loss, diarrhea or constipation with chronically dry stools or stools that have an excessive amount of water. One gelding was presented to …
Treating Equine Pain Starts With Identifying ItJune 10, 2014The first step in treating a horse in pain is to recognize that pain. It’s a common-sense first step, but it’s so important that Anthony Blikslager, DVM, Ph.D., Dipl. ACVS, professor of equine surgery and gastroenterology at the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University, drives home the point whenever he talks about equine pain treatment. Pain identification ranks as a high priority for the vet school at NC State, so much so that it has developed a behavioral pain scoring system to help veterinarians determine whether a horse is in pain. The scale takes into account a number of subtle hints to enable practitioners to determine how much pain a patient may be experiencing. Is a horse willing to lift its feet freely when asked? Does the horse face its stall door watching its environment, and keep its head position above its withers? Yes to all? That’s a 0 on the pain scale. On the other end of the scale, a horse that doesn’t move, is unresponsive to another horse and is unwilling to lift its feet when asked to do so would rate a 3. “When you add it all up, you now get a much …
Tips for Better Equine RadiographsJune 3, 2014 One of the biggest mistakes veterinarians make when buying digital imaging equipment for their equine practice is not taking the time to learn the software and the accompanying image processing and tools. That’s according to J.K. Waldsmith, DVM, president of Vetel Diagnostics and owner of The Equine Clinic, a full-service hospital, both in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Dr. Waldsmith and other professionals place lack of understanding before and after making a digital radiography equipment purchase on top of the list of possible mistakes equine practices can make. Failing to ensure the following are also errors, Waldsmith said: a good environment for radiographs; proper electrical service where needed; proper staff; proper patient restraint; not having high speed Internet to transmit images and get technical support. Another misstep is neglecting to check in with practice insurance providers about the new equipment, he said. “Make sure you are covered [before] the DR system gets dropped,” Waldsmith advised. “Make sure your policy covers the cost of loaner systems while yours is being repaired. “In my experience there is a greater need for the veterinarian to take the time to understand the technology, and how it can benefit …
Acupuncture, Chiropractic offer more OptionsMarch 13, 2014 Holistic practitioners say that while therapies like chiropractic and acupuncture are still largely misunderstood in the veterinary community, they are gaining popularity with a growing number of horse owners who are looking for options beyond Western medicine. “Acupuncture and chiropractic are excellent, particularly in performance problems with horses,” said Joyce Harman, DVM, MRCVS, owner of Harmany Equine Clinic Ltd. in Flint Hill, Va. Many performance issues that horse owners present to Dr. Harman are nondescript. Owners typically come to her for the horse “not being quite right, not being quite sound,” she said. An overtly lame horse may need conventional medical intervention, but it’s the subtle lameness problems that originate in the back, spine or soft tissue that Harman said are great candidates for chiropractic or acupuncture. For example, a horse may appear stiffer when turning in one direction than another; might not pick up leads properly, or it won’t swap leads out, or it can’t maintain a lead; it might not be good at coming out of the starting gate; it doesn’t travel straight; it has a bad attitude. All those issues could stem from the same problem. “The underlying issue is …
First Woman Equine Veterinarian Reflects On Her CareerMarch 20, 2013 From her first paid operation to deodorize a pet skunk to becoming the first woman to build an equine surgical hospital, this world-famous “horse doctor” has done more in her lifetime than many. M. Phyllis Lose, VMD, may no longer be practicing, but she is far from retired. This active, energetic woman, who graduated from University of Pennsylvania veterinary school in 1957 and became the first woman equine veterinarian, has stayed right up with developments in veterinary medicine. Her dog, Oscar, stars in a movie being filmed at Universal Studios Orlando. “Bowed tendons used to be a two-year sentence for a horse,” said Dr. Lose, whose name rhymes with “dose.” “The developments they’ve made with stem cells almost make me want to go back into practice.” After about 50 years in practice, Lose closed her Berwyn, Penn., hospital several years ago to pursue her dog Oscar’s movie career in Orlando, Fla. More about that later. She admits she only recently developed a love for dogs—her first passion is taking care of horses. When she graduated from Penn, Lose was one of two women in a class of 50. At the …
How One Of Our Colleagues Changed The Bovine WorldFebruary 6, 2013After stumbling upon the excellent movie “Secretariat,” I came across another amazing movie: “Temple Grandin.” Here are some highlights. In 1966, Temple spent the summer of her aunt’s farm in Arizona. She was rather distraught by the way cows were being guided toward a chute: they were beaten, yelled at, poked at. This obviously led to mightily stressed cows. But the second they were squeezed in a chute, they seemed to relax. “It gentles them," as a wrangler told Temple. So she built a "squeeze machine," also called a “hug machine.” It is believed that pressure soothes nervousness by releasing molecules, such as endorphins. Interestingly, swaddling babies, using pressure vests in kids with special needs or putting a Thundershirt on a pet, all stem from the same concept: constant, gentle pressure seems to have a calming effect. In 1970, when Temple Grandin observed cattle being treated for parasites in a “dip” at a feedlot in Arizona, she was horrified that one to two drowned out of every 300 animals treated. After researching the topic, she invented a new design with …
