DeHaven To Focus On AVMA PrioritiesApril 17, 2009 Ron DeHaven, DVM, administrator of the USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, was recently named the new executive vice president of the American Veterinary Medical Assn. Veterinary Practice News talked to Dr. DeHaven in June about his priorities. Here are excerpts of that conversation. Q: What will your priorities be as executive vice president? A: One of the things that attracted me to the position is the strategic planning that the AVMA has done. They’re recognizing issues that are up and coming, and in fact some of them are upon us. They want to direct the association’s energies in the areas of food supply veterinary medicine, the intersection between animal health and public health and animal welfare, and certainly from where I sit, I’m seeing an increased emphasis on the welfare of production farm animals. [AVMA’s priorities] are very much consistent with what I see are the major issues facing the veterinary profession, so those are areas where I will be focusing a lot of my time and attention. Q: You have more than 20 years’ experience with USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service. How will that help and influence you in your new role? …
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BrightHeart Enters Vet Industry With Acquisition, Hires BergmanApril 17, 2009 BrightHeart Veterinary Centers of Greenwich, Conn., has acquired Katonah Bedford Veterinary Center in Bedford Hills, N.Y., saying that the acquisition represents its initial entry into the veterinary industry and that it seeks to create a national network of veterinary hospitals focused on providing advanced diagnostic and treatment procedures for pets. Katonah Bedford Veterinary Center, which was founded in 2001 by Alan Green, DVM, combines a general veterinary practice with a full range of specialty services and a 24-hour emergency hospital. It currently has a staff of 21 veterinarians, including nine board-certified specialists, and sees more than 25,000 patients each year. BrightHeart has named Dr. Green as director of practice management for all hospitals in the BrightHeart network. With that move, Katonah Bedford Veterinary Center has named David Sachs, DVM, as hospital director. He was formerly assistant director of the hospital. In addition, BrightHeart has named Philip Bergman, DVM, Ph.D., Dipl. ACVIM, as chief medical officer. He will be responsible for all aspects of veterinary medicine within the BrightHeart organization, with oversight of each facility’s medical practices and performance. Dr. Bergman, who holds an adjunct faculty membership with the human cancer center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer …
September Proposed As ‘National Link Awareness Month’April 17, 2009 A connection between pet abuse and human violence was identified in the United States as early as 1894 by the American Humane Association, an organization with the goal of protecting children and animals from mistreatment. American Humane now calls this connection The Link, and the group is pushing to get September recognized as National Link Awareness Month. U.S. Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., recently introduced House Resolution 1046 to designate September as National Link Awareness Month to address The Link’s impact on abuse victims. The bill’s main points are to recognize that the link between animal cruelty and domestic violence is a national concern; and laws that recognize such link are critical in protecting countless domestic violence survivors and their pets. “This resolution would highlight the need for more attention and resources to be focused on how violence toward animals is indicative of other violent tendencies,” Davis said in a statement. “By investigating The Link further, information could be gathered that will help mitigate social violence.” The resolution is currently pending before the House Agriculture and Judiciary Committees with 19 co-sponsors, and American Humane is working with Davis to move the …
New Promotion At Elanco Animal HealthApril 17, 2009 Elanco Animal Health has promoted Bill Platter, Ph.D., to the position of manager of technical consultants for beef cattle. Dr. Platter will lead a team conducting post-product-approval research and providing technical services with a feedlot and stocker focus in the United States. Elanco has also hired Bill Mies, Ph.D., as a beef feedlot consultant—global beef group. He will work with Elanco’s marketing and sales teams, providing technical support to feedlots in North America and locations throughout the world. Elanco Animal Health, a division of Eli Lilly and Co., is based in Greenfield, Ind. <HOME>
Bluetooth Stops Spaghetti SyndromeApril 17, 2009 No veterinary hospital should perform anesthesia without patient monitoring. It has been postulated that most anesthetic veterinary emergencies occur not in the critical care patient but in the routine anesthesia when a compromise in monitoring occurs because the procedure is classified “routine.” It is easy to make an excuse to compromise monitoring, not monitor at all, or fail to chart variations in blood pressure and ventilation. Quality monitors allow the anesthesia technician and the surgeon to review blood pressure and ventilation parameters simultaneously. The surgeon can concentrate on the procedure while the nurse anesthetist charts the parameters and tells the values to the surgeon. Today, Bluetooth technology has helped eliminate the “Spaghetti Syndrome.” Michael Imhoff, MD, Ph.D., wrote of the problem in 2004 in the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia: “With advances in monitoring and life support, our most critically ill patients have become trapped in a sheer impenetrable net of wires and tubes, often resembling a plate of spaghetti. This problem is not only a nuisance for the caregiver but can seriously compromise patient safety when cables are inadvertently disconnected or infusion lines snapped off.” Mats Wallin, MD, Msc, and Samson Wajntraub, Msc, …
World Small Animal Congress Goes To IrelandApril 17, 2009The Veterinary Ireland Companion Animal Society will host the 33rd World Small Animal Veterinary Assn. Congress and 14th Federation of European Companion Animal Veterinary Assns. Congress in Dublin, Ireland, from Aug. 20-24. The 2008 associations' congress will include more than 200 lectures from 70 speakers. State-of-the-art presentations will cover topics such as antioxidant deficiencies in hospitalized dogs and cats, interpreting tests for thyroid disorders and genetic advances in neurological disease. A short program will be devoted to management topics such as stress and the veterinarian, human resource management, work-life balance and starting a small animal practice, among others. A look into why the veterinary and veterinary nursing professions have such a high incidence of stress and suicide will also be covered. The congress is looking for research abstract submissions for oral presentations. Deadline is April 1. Sponsors include Hill's Pet Nutrition of Topeka, Kan.; Fort Dodge Animal Health of Overland Park, Kan.; Nestle Purina of St. Louis; Bayer Animal Health of Shawnee, Kan.; Novartis Animal Health of Greensboro, N.C.; and Pfizer Animal Health of New York. For details, visit www.wsava2008.com.
Comforting Cancer Patients With CAMApril 17, 2009 Short of finding a cure for their animal with cancer, oncology clients want ways to reduce their animal’s suffering. While some elect euthanasia, many would consider otherwise if provided effective options. Maximizing comfort and minimizing pain usually requires multimodal analgesia due to the unique challenges that cancer pain poses.1 Typically, this involves a combination of conventional and complementary and alternative medical intervention.2 The American Cancer Society and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network cancer pain practice guidelines ask that clinicians recommend nonpharmacologic measures if pain remains uncontrolled despite pharmacologic management and re-evaluation.3 Pain Complexities What makes cancer pain complex? One reason concerns the physiology of tumor pain itself. Chemical interactions between cancer cells and sensory neurons appear to contribute to tumor pain. Researchers recently showed that increased numbers of voltage-gated calcium channels mediate mechanical hyperalgesia in a fibrosarcoma cancer model.4 Other issues also make cancer pain unique.Dogs post-amputation require special attention to the myofascial and spinal restrictions they will develop along their back, neck and remaining limbs. Patients receiving radiation therapy need pain relief for the glandular disruptions in head and neck cancers and severe tissue reactions in general. Chemotherapy can pose a variety of …
Can Animals With Diabetes 'Go All-Natural'?April 17, 2009 Nearly half of human diabetic adults surveyed in the U.S. in 2002 used some form of complementary and alternative medicine.1 These approaches included herbs, chiropractic, yoga, acupuncture, homeopathy, biofeedback, chelation, energy healing, Reiki therapy, massage, hypnosis and more. A Canadian study indicated that people spent as much money on supplements as they did on prescription medications.2 Thus, veterinarians managing patients with diabetes now have one more key component to include in their client education meetings. Specifically, veterinarians need to find out whether the animal is receiving any herbal mixtures, as these could conceivably alter blood glucose levels and offset insulin requirements. At a seemingly unstoppable rate, herbals and nutraceuticals are growing in their numbers and claims including products promoted for diabetics. It is no wonder, then, that clients are beginning to ask about non-drug insulin alternatives. The prospect of giving their animal once- or twice-daily injections can be overwhelming, either emotionally or from a time-management perspective. However, no insulin alternatives deliver benefits proven to be as effective or reliable as insulin, and clients integrating these options should monitor their animal's blood sugar levels closely.3 Otherwise, uncertain outcomes could expose an animal to uncontrolled …
AVMA Urges Care In Proposition 2 ImplementationApril 17, 2009 With the passage of California's Proposition 2, the American Veterinary Medical Assn. is urging care—and the advice of veterinarians and animal welfare scientists—in the proposition’s implementation. The Standards for Confining Farm Animals requires that calves raised for veal, egg-laying hens and pregnant pigs be confined only in ways that allow these animals to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely. Supporters, including the Humane Society of the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Assn., maintain that the proposition is “a modest measure that stops cruel and inhumane treatment of animals.” But the AVMA, which opposed the initiative, said that while admirable in its goal to improve the welfare of production farm animals, it would likely compromise several other factors necessary to ensure the overall welfare of the animals, especially with regard to protection from disease and injury. “We agree that more attention needs to be paid to the behavioral well being of production animals,” Gail Golab, DVM, head of the AVMA’s Animal Welfare Division, said today in a statement. …
Editors Announce 2006 Eklin Challenge WinnerApril 17, 2009 It is official, snakes have dominated the Eklin Challenge for the past two years. This year’s grand prize winner is the snake that ate a snake that ate a mouse submitted by Laura Chenault, DVM, and Scott Johnson, DVM, of the Animal Emergency Clinic of Northwest Austin in Austin, Texas. Their patient was a 5-year-old female boa constrictor named Princess who shared the house (but not a cage) with a pit viper. Princess’ owners took her to the emergency clinic after they found her loose in the house curled up inside the pit viper’s cage. The viper was nowhere to be found. The winning X-ray clearly shows that Princess had eaten the pit viper who had recently eaten a mouse meal. Drs. Chenault and Johnson will share the grand prize, a Canon Digital Rebel XT single-lens reflex camera courtesy of Eklin Medical Systems of Santa Clara, Calif. This year, Veterinary Practice News and Eklin recruited some of the best veterinary radiologists in the country to judge the “You Found What?” annual radiograph contest. Judges included Rachel Schochet, DVM, of Southern California Veterinary Imaging in Culver City, Calif., Brian Poteet, DVM, Dipl. ACVR, of Gulf Coast …
