They Ate WHAT?! - A Look Behind The ContestSeptember 5, 2014 Veterinary Practice News editor Marilyn Iturri created the “They Ate WHAT?!” contest in 2006 to showcase the humorous situations veterinarians and pet owners can face as well as the clinical advances available through digital radiography. The 2014 contest was sponsored by Trupanion, a pet insurance company in Seattle, Wash. This year the first place winner, a frog that had eaten 30 rocks from inside his cage, was submitted by Shawn Messonnier, DVM of Paws & Claws Animal Hospital in Plano, Texas. Tim Gossman, DVM, of Gulf Breeze Animal Hospital took home the second place prize with his entry of a German shorthaired pointer that had swallowed a shish kabob skewer. The submission by DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital of a Great Dane who had eaten 43.5 socks was not only the third place winner, but also took the internet by storm. The competition was a hit with readers from the start. Some trends have been apparent from the first year. Veterinarypracticenews.com A dog who ate a shish kabob skewer took home the second place prize from Trupanion. “This year’s entries featured some of our old standards, such as …
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You Asked For It: More Crazy X-RaysSeptember 5, 2014 The 2014 annual "They Ate WHAT?!", sponsored by Trupanion, was a huge success, and one of the entries even took the Internet by storm. We received a lot of entries and couldn't fit them all into the magazine. Check out some of the other entries we received. A Cat Ate What?! Matthew Schroeder DVM Crossroads Veterinary Hospital Painesville, Ohio Veterinarypracticenews.com The contents of Allie's stomach. A 2-year-old female spayed feline presented with vomiting and inappetance of 1 week duration. Abdominal palpation revealed an indistinct soft tissue mass in the cranial abdomen which required radiography. Radiographs revealed a stomach full of mineral opacity linear foreign material. Small intestines look moderately twisted and potentially plicated. Rest of abdomen within normal limits. Abdominal exploratory resulted in the removal of many large black hair-tie type rubber bands coated w/ fabric from the stomach. The owner recalled that the family was missing a large number of elastic headbands. Further examination revealed five to 10 large-sized black elastics that had been consumed by the feline patient. She made a …
Pet Insurer VPI Adopting Nationwide NameSeptember 5, 2014 Veterinary Pet Insurance Co. (VPI), which covers more than 500,000 U.S. pets, is getting a new name: Nationwide. Parent company Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. announced Tuesday that a family of subsidiaries selling everything from automobile and farm insurance to mortgages and financial services will be rebranded over the next 18 months. Headquartered in Brea, Calif., VPI is the nation’s oldest and largest pet health insurer, offering a variety of plans to the owners of cats, dogs, birds and exotic animals. The company was founded by Jack Stephens, DVM, and issued its first policy in 1982. Dr. Stephens later left to start a competitor, Pets Best Insurance Services of Boise, Idaho. Nationwide aims to bring all its businesses, ranging from VPI to Nationwide Insurance, under the same corporate brand and an updated logo. “We’re a company that has a much larger footprint than most people realize,” said Steve Rasmussen, CEO of the Columbus, Ohio, parent company, which did nearly $24 billion in business in 2013. “Nationwide is in all 50 states and features more products and solutions than our competitors, but customers in many areas aren’t aware of our strength, offerings and …
Great Dane Eats 43½ SocksSeptember 4, 2014 Follow Veterinary Practice News on Twitter at @vetpetnews DOVELEWIS EMERGENCY ANIMAL HOSPITAL The Great Dane who ate 43 1/2 socks has taken the Internet by storm. I woke up this morning and turned on the radio. The Kevin & Bean morning show on KROQ was sharing a news story, as the show does every morning. But this time my ears perked up and a smile spread across my face. The morning show hosts were talking about a story from Veterinary Practice News. Bean, one of the deejays, shared our They Ate WHAT? contest results, mentioning the DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital in Portland, Ore. entry. This annual contest is sponsored by Trupanion, a pet medical insurance company in Seattle. The DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital submitted a radiograph of a Great Dane who ate 43½ socks. The 3-year-old male was brought in for retching and vomiting. The radiographs showed a great deal of foreign material and a distended stomach. Exploratory surgery resulted in the removal of all the socks. Apparently this wasn’t the first time the Great Dane tasted socks. The owners, who wish to …
Patent Focuses on Alleviating Pain in Cattle Undergoing Dehorning, CastrationSeptember 4, 2014 A U.S. patent was recently awarded to the Kansas State University Research Foundation for technology that aims to alleviate chronic pain and improve performance of cattle undergoing dehorning or castration. The patent is for research conducted while at Kansas State University by former faculty member Hans Coetzee, BVSc, Ph.D., Dipl. ACVCP, now a professor of clinical pharmacology at Iowa State University, and Butch KuKanich, DVM, Ph.D., Dipl. ACVCP, associate professor of anatomy and physiology at Kansas State University. The patent covers administering meloxicam alone or administering a combination of meloxicam and gabapentin to help alleviate acute and chronic pain and improve the performance of cattle. Researchers found that combinations of meloxicam and gabapentin improved the welfare of cattle by reducing the severity of lameness. Meloxicam alone improved weight gain after dehorning and reduced the incidence of bovine respiratory disease after castration. “Once meloxicam was orally administered to beef cattle prior to these common procedures, the cattle gained more weight and had slower incidence of bovine respiratory disease because it allowed them to be more comfortable and less stressed,” Dr. KuKanich said. A significant benefit of this patented technology is that it reduces reliance …
Dr. Catherine Nunnery Joins Penn Vet’s New Bolton CenterSeptember 3, 2014 Follow Veterinary Practice News on Twitter at @vetpetnews. Catherine Nunnery, DVM, has joined Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center as Large Animal Ophthalmologist. She will begin seeing cases on September 3. Dr. Nunnery will lead the experts in New Bolton Center’s Ophthalmology Service in providing complete ocular examinations, diagnostics and treatment, and performing surgeries for lid lacerations, deep corneal ulcers or perforations, periocular tumors and cataracts. Nunnery’s areas of research include equine ophthalmology, equine glaucoma, new surgical techniques for equine corneal disease, and pharmacology and ocular drug delivery. Prior to joining New Bolton Center, Nunnery served as president and ophthalmologist of Equine Veterinary Vision Inc., an ambulatory large animal ophthalmology practice in Maryland and Virginia. She was also a staff ophthalmologist at VCA Veterinary Referral Associates in Gaithersburg, Md. “I am excited to join the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center to continue the legacy began by Dr. Mary Utter of providing excellent large animal ophthalmic care and education,” Nunnery said. Nunnery will be joining New Bolton Center’s Nikki Scherrer, DVM, resident in ophthalmology, and Kathryn Wotman, DVM, a board-certified ophthalmologist.
Zoetis Releases PEDv Vaccine to Veterinary MarketSeptember 3, 2014 A second vaccine formulated to fight porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv), a disease that has killed millions of U.S. piglets, has been awarded a conditional license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The manufacturer, Zoetis Inc., reported today that the two-dose inactivated vaccine was licensed for use in healthy pregnant pigs and will be sold to veterinarians and pig farmers beginning this month. The vaccine generates antibodies that female pigs transmit to their newborns, the Florham Park, N.J., drug maker stated. First diagnosed in the United States in April 2013, PEDv has spread to 30 states and has killed more than 7 million piglets. Spread through feces, the disease causes severe diarrhea and vomiting, and it carries a mortality rate of up to 100 percent of infected young pigs. “Rapidly emerging infectious diseases such as PEDv not only threaten animal health but also the livelihoods of farmers,” said Catherine Knupp, DVM, MS, executive vice president and president of Zoetis Research and Development. Harrisvaccines’ PEDv vaccine beat Zoetis’ formulation by more than a year. A vaccine called iPED was introduced in August 2013 under a USDA emergency program, and Harrisvaccines’ renamed Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea …
Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine Welcomes Class of 2018September 3, 2014 The Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine welcomed the Class of 2018 with a “white coat” ceremony on Aug. 21. The event, which follows four days of orientation activities, marks an important transition in their lives since students are considered part of the profession in veterinary medicine, according to Cyril Clarke, BVSc, Ph.D., dean of the veterinary college. “This important event marks and celebrates the induction of trainee veterinarians into a very distinguished profession, a profession that was founded on service to society and advancement of medical knowledge,” Dr. Clarke said. The white coat is a symbol of the science-based nature of the profession as well as a reminder that students have been given the rare opportunity to become veterinarians, Clarke noted. About 250 family, friends, faculty and staff members, and guests attended the ceremony where the students received a white laboratory coat and a stethoscope. Representatives from the Virginia and Maryland Veterinary Medical Associations were also in attendance. More than 1,400 prospective students applied for 120 available seats, representing the third-largest applicant pool in North America, according to figures from the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges. Many of the students also …
NCSU to Host 23nd Annual Dog Olympics Sept. 13August 30, 2014 The Companion Animal Wellness Club at North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine will host the 23nd Annual Dog Olympics from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 13. The event will include canine demonstrations, a free microchip clinic and a special “custom cart” Paralympics Parade for dogs with spinal cord injuries, among other activities. The Dog Olympics is a charitable event that celebrates the human-animal bond and raises money for local animal rescue groups, according to the university. The event will be held on the “Hearth” of the NC State Centennial Biomedical Campus located at 1060 William Moore Drive in Raleigh near the intersection of Hillsborough Street and Blue Ridge Highway. Supporters include: K9 Solutions, Doggy Design, Purina, Hill’s, Dr. Dana Lewis—Lap of Love, Veterinary Surgical Referral Practice, Royal Canin and Sleeping Dogs Pottery. For details, visit the website.
Michigan State University Co-Hosts 10th Annual Marek’s Disease SymposiumAugust 28, 2014 More than 150 veterinarians, researchers, students, technicians and industry professionals from 21 countries attended the 10th International Symposium on Marek’s Disease and Avian Herpesvirus in late July. The symposium was co-hosted by Michigan State University and the Avian Disease and Oncology Laboratory. Marek’s disease was once the most economically devastating disease in the poultry industry, according to the university. In its acute form, it can wipe out up to 80 percent of a flock of chickens. Research, the development of effective vaccines and breeding lines of chickens resistant to the disease have been an enormous success, the university further noted. But new and more virulent strains continue to emerge. “Marek’s disease is one of the best success stories in all of animal agriculture,” said Richard Witter, DVM, director of the Avian Disease and Oncology Laboratory from 1976 to 1998. “If vaccines were to fail, the existence of the poultry industry as we know it would be in jeopardy.” The symposium hosted 12 keynote and invited speakers, including participants of the panel “Perspectives on Marek’s disease breakthroughs since the 1960s.” The panel was filmed, along with individual interviews, and will be …
