VPN Plus+ ExclusiveIt's Not Always in Their Heads: Identifying Red Flags for Physical Disease in the Behavior HistoryOctober 25, 2024In this session: A significant proportion of pets referred to veterinary behavior practices have an underlying physical disease either causing or contributing to their clinical signs. In most cases, once those physical illnesses are treated the behavior concerns resolve or improve significantly. Kelly Ballantyne, DVM, DACVB, addresses how to recognize red flags for physical disease in the behavior history and develop a complete differential diagnosis list allows veterinarians to arrive at the correct diagnosis and implement the most appropriate treatment.
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Animal behavior minor offered in Arkansas collegeMarch 8, 2024The program is reportedly the first in the state and will be offered to undergraduate students of the Lyon College starting fall 2024
VPN Plus+ ExclusiveBehavior in motion and what it means for the professionJune 11, 2021By Patty Khuly, VMD, MBASetting our sights on how animals outwardly behave is a fundamental concession to the fact we keep pets for our pleasure, as well as for our own emotional needs. However, that does not mean veterinarians should disregard emotion, as we have done.
Separation anxiety: Treating dogs in the wake of COVID-19August 19, 2020It behooves all of us in the veterinary profession to help prevent and overcome pet behavior problems before they result in irreparable damage to the human-companion animal bond.
With great power, comes great responsibilityJanuary 2, 2020Steve Dale has a new job: Avenger. Not the Marvel comic book superheroes you’re familiar with, mind you. He saves the day by being a veterinary mythbuster.
Veterinary behaviorists question "scruffing"August 20, 2019Animal care professionals may want to reconsider the way they handle their feline patients.
UF study says hearing loss in stranded animals causes behavior changesApril 10, 2018Several years ago, University of Florida aquatic animal veterinarian Michael Walsh, DVM, a clinical associate professor of aquatic animal health at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine, noticed a concerning pattern of two stranded dolphins after they had been rescued. Both dolphins returned to the beach once they had been released back into the wild. While Dr. Walsh worked to rehabilitate the animals, he noticed they exhibited numerous behavioral problems. A hearing test at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla., revealed one of the dolphins was completely deaf (the second dolphin couldn't be tested), which led Walsh to wonder whether the problem of animals adapting to new environments might be hearing related and more common than initially thought. When Megan Strobel, DVM, then a first-year UF veterinary medical student, went to Walsh, her faculty mentor, in 2013 to discuss a possible research project, he suggested that she might compare hearing capacity and behavior changes in wild and facility-housed dolphins. The result of their collaboration, which also involved numerous other individuals and organizations, was a study that appeared in the Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine. The study found that stranded animals with hearing deficits showed markedly different behaviors than animals …
Could noise sensitivity in dogs be a cry for pain relief?March 26, 2018 A study conducted by animal behavior scientists from the U.K. and Brazil found that dogs that show fear or anxiety when faced with loud or sudden noises could actually be in pain. The researchers examined cases of dogs that had developed sensitivity to variations in noise volume, pitch, and occurrence, and found they also had associated musculoskeletal pain. The undiagnosed pain could be exacerbated when auditory stimuli makes the dogs tense or jump, placing extra stress on muscles or joints that already are inflamed, causing further pain, according to the study. That pain is then associated with a loud or startling noise, leading to sensitivity to noise and avoidance of situations where they had a previous bad experience, such as at a local park or in a loud room at home. According to the researchers, veterinarians should give any dog with a behavior issue a thorough physical exam to determine that if pain is a factor, it can be diagnosed and treated, and the behavior issue can then be addressed. In the study, all dogs that experienced pain and were treated showed improvement in behavior. Pain, behavior issues, and the onset of pain "Although the average ages of the …
How Fear Free training decreases on-the-job veterinary injuriesFebruary 13, 2018I think it’s safe to say we’re the only profession with a 100 percent accident rate and, worse yet, a reoccurring one. As with any malady or disease, we are trained to look at cause and effect.
