Zebu’s Illness Was Tough Nut to CrackDecember 18, 2014Sluggishness, inappetence and constipation were the clinical signs. Acorns were the cause. A miniature zebu, the world’s smallest cattle breed, is recovering at home after University of Florida veterinarians treated the animal for kidney failure, which they believe was brought on by his taste for acorns. The zebu, named Brutus, underwent hemodialysis in what the university stated may have been the first time for a bovine patient with acute disease. The life-threatening episode began Nov. 18, when 1-year-old Brutus was brought to the Gainesville, Fla., hospital. “He’d had a two-day history of lethargy, not eating and constipation,” said Rob MacKay, BVSc, Ph.D., Dipl. ACVIM, a professor of large animal medicine. “When he arrived at UF, his vital signs were stable, but he was not having the stomach contractions that move food from the stomach into the intestines, and he wasn’t producing urine. He also was lethargic and trembling.” Blood work and ultrasound revealed acute kidney injury, Dr. MacKay said. The “aha!” moment came during a discussion with owners Mark and Rachel Duncan of Ocoee, Fla. “It was revealed that there were oak trees in Brutus’ pasture and that they had seen him eating acorns,” MacKay said. “Unfortunately, unbeknownst to his …
SPONSORED CONTENTOne dose protects for 12 months.One ProHeart® 12 (moxidectin) injection puts compliance in your control. + Get started
Midwestern Teaching Hospital Off to Early StartDecember 18, 2014Midwestern University’s inaugural class of veterinary students won’t start their training rotations for two years, but the on-campus Companion Animal Clinic is open for business. The 111,800-square-foot teaching hospital, one of the largest in the United States, began scheduling appointments Dec. 1 and opened its doors Tuesday. The clinic, now staffed by faculty members, offers primary and specialty care for small animals, including services in internal medicine, dentistry, surgery and diagnostic imaging. Available to patients are 14 examination rooms, four surgical suites, two specialty suites and a physical rehabilitation area with an underwater treadmill. The initial 102 students who enrolled in the College of Veterinary Medicine will begin supervised rotations at the clinic in the spring of 2017. Still to come on the Glendale, Ariz., campus are a 70,000-square-foot large animal hospital, called the Bovine and Equine Center, and a necropsy and pathology center. The small animal hospital “will offer the highest-quality veterinary care provided by our academic faculty veterinarians,” said Kathleen H. Goeppinger, Ph.D., Midwestern’s president and CEO. “We have worked hard to build state-of-the-art technology in all areas of the facility to educate our students to become highly skilled and compassionate veterinarians in the future,” Goeppinger …
Lincoln Memorial’s New Center Focuses on Animal Health in Appalachian RegionDecember 18, 2014Lincoln Memorial University College of Veterinary Medicine (LMU-CVM) has formed an animal health center in the Appalachian region. The Center for Animal Health in Appalachia, located at the DeBusk Veterinary Teaching Center in Harrogate, Tenn., and Lee County, Va., will host an annual conference on animal and public health issues in Appalachia each October starting in 2015. “Our veterinary school is devoted to the mission of improving animal and human healthcare in the Appalachian region,” said Glen Hoffsis, DVM, dean and vice president of Lincoln Memorial University College of Veterinary Medicine. “The team we’ve assembled for [the center] will be instrumental in achieving this vital public mission.” The center plans to fulfill its mission through the following initiatives: Host conferences, workshops and training programs. Provide veterinary students with the opportunity to earn a Rural Animal Practice Certificate, combining: a. in-house and hands-on training in mixed animal medicine, surgery, veterinary business practices and communications, b. public health training in one health, drawing in part on Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia resources including diagnostic laboratories and LMU-CVM facilities, c. clinical placements in private and public practices in Appalachia and d. focused training in mixed animal veterinary business practices. Hold community educational programs for …
20-Year-Old LifeLearn Unveils New IdentityDecember 17, 2014LifeLearn Inc., which provides educational and marketing resources for the veterinary industry, has gotten a makeover with a new logo and website and the tagline “Knowledge unbound.” The logo’s colors—blue, green and orange—weren’t random choices. Rather, blue was selected to show “confidence, intelligence and trust,” orange to represent action and green as a symbol of the Canadian company’s “roots and continued growth,” LifeLearn reported Dec. 12. “The three-tiered ‘E’ not only incorporates LifeLearn’s core pillars of business, but it also visually represents how LifeLearn serves as a catalyst to elevate the animal health industry with actionable knowledge—to move forward, upward and through to deep understanding in action,” according to the company. The rebranding is the latest development from a company that for 20 years “has been committed to enhancing the veterinary community with educational and communication tools,” said James Carroll, the president and CEO. “This rebrand more accurately reflects our evolution and unifies our value proposition across the wide spectrum of clients we serve, ranging from single-doctor veterinary practices to large animal health corporations,” Carroll said. In other news, a new language-recognition computer program called LifeLearn Sofie allows veterinarians to type in a question and receive “relevant, objective and …
4 Vet School Faculty Joining National Academy of InventorsDecember 17, 2014Four veterinary school professors on Tuesday were named fellows in the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), a status awarded to academic researchers who, according to the organization, “have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.” Some 414 professionals representing research universities, government agencies and nonprofit institutions and working in fields as diverse as computer engineering and transplantation science are fellows of the Tampa, Fla.-based NAI. The newly chosen veterinary members are: X.J. Meng, MS, Ph.D., MD, a university distinguished professor of molecular virology at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. Yasuko Rikihisa, MS, Ph.D., a university distinguished professor of veterinary biosciences in Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. George E. Seidel Jr., MS, Ph.D., a university distinguished professor in the Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology Laboratory at Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Janet K. Yamamoto, Ph.D., an immunology professor in the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. The new class of 170 fellows will be inducted March 20, 2015, during a ceremony at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. Dr. Meng studies emerging and re-emerging viral diseases that impact veterinary and …
Major Expansion Underway at D.C. HospitalDecember 17, 2014A Washington, D.C., veterinary hospital that employs 43 doctors will more than double in size when an 8,000-square-foot addition opens in 2015. Friendship Hospital for Animals, accredited by the American Animal Hospital Association, is adding a second floor and enlarging its 6,000-square-foot first floor. Seven exam rooms and three surgical suites are being constructed to help with a caseload of more than 60,000 patient visits a year. The first phase is scheduled for completion in late winter and the final piece by springtime. Friendship, which opened in 1936 and occupied its current building in 1960, offers primary care, specialty services and around-the-clock emergency medicine. The hospital bills itself as the only veterinary facility in Washington to employ full-time, board-certified specialists in surgery, critical care, internal medicine, radiology, oncology, neurology and clinical pathology. The hospital director, Peter S. Glassman, DVM, who launched the practice management system VetInsite in 2000, said the time was right for an expansion. “With 43 veterinarians and a total team of 176 operating under such physical constraints, Friendship was simply running out of the ability to provide the quality of care which our clients demanded,” Dr. Glassman said. “Doubling the size of our facility permits …
University of Glasgow Adds Penn State to Joint Vet School ProgramDecember 16, 2014Students in the Department of Animal Science at Penn State will soon have the opportunity to enroll in the University of Glasgow School of Veterinary Medicine’s FEEPASS program. FEEPASS stands for Facilitated Early Entry Program for Animal Science Students. Under the program, students will complete the first three years of their undergraduate degree at Penn State. Their senior year will then be completed at the University of Glasgow, which equates to their first year of veterinary school. After successfully completing their senior year, they will receive a B.S. degree from Penn State while continuing to pursue their veterinary degree at the University of Glasgow. The program, known at the 3+1+4 system, was offered for the first time to universities in the United States in 2014. While the total time spent in school is the same as the traditional vet school route, eight years, there is a distinct advantage in having a guaranteed entry into vet school, according to Penn State. “We are thrilled to offer our students this innovative opportunity to study veterinary science with Glasgow’s internationally renowned program,” said Tracy Hoover Ph.D., associate dean for Undergraduate Education, who helped work out the details of the articulation agreement. “We are …
AKC Foundation Honors 6 Research FundraisersDecember 15, 2014Six organizations that over the past 20 years combined to donate more than $3.3 million to the American Kennel Club’s Canine Health Foundation have been named Distinguished Research Partners. Recognized Dec. 11 during the foundation’s Canine & Cocktails event in Orlando, Fla., were the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, the Irish Setter Club of America Foundation, the Newfoundland Club of America Charitable Trust, the Collie Health Foundation, the Golden Retriever Foundation and the American Boxer Charitable Foundation. The amounts raised by the groups to assist with canine research ranged from the Irish Setter Club’s $131,100 to the American Boxer foundation’s $1,180,130. “These clubs and organizations are making a lasting impact on canine health,” said Shila Nordone, MS, Ph.D., the Canine Health Foundation’s chief scientific officer. “Their donations … are supporting research that addresses some of the most prominent health concerns for our dogs. We are tackling cancer, subaortic stenosis, hypothyroidism, degenerative myelopathy, epilepsy, bloat and cardiomyopathy. “Together, we are working to provide better treatments and more accurate diagnoses for all dogs.” The Canine Health Foundation, a grant-making institution, will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2015. The foundation also honored Thomas A. Grabe, publisher of The Canine Chronicle, with …
PetSmart to be Sold for $8.7 BillionDecember 15, 2014PetSmart Inc., one of the largest U.S. pet store chains, has agreed to be taken over by an investment group in a transaction valued at $8.7 billion. The tentative deal is expected to have no effect on the more than 800 Banfield veterinary hospitals that operate inside PetSmart stores. “Banfield Pet Hospital has an agreement that governs its relationship with PetSmart which, by its terms, is not affected by a change in PetSmart ownership,” the Portland, Ore., veterinary chain noted. “Banfield will continue to operate its hospitals as usual.” The sale, announced Sunday and subject to the approval of PetSmart shareholders and regulators, is led by the London-based private equity firm BC Partners and two other investors: Quebec-based La Caisse and New York-based StepStone. Longview Asset Management of Toronto, Canada, has held a 9 percent stake in PetSmart and will vote in favor of the transaction, PetSmart reported. The sale is priced at $83 a share, a significant jump from mid-June, when PetSmart stock was trading at under $58. “This transaction is a testament to the strength of the PetSmart brand and franchise and reflects the dedication and commitment of our 54,000 associates to serving our customers and …
Virginia Tech Relocates Center for Public and Corporate Veterinary MedicineDecember 13, 2014The Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech has moved its Center for Public and Corporate Veterinary Medicine to Blacksburg, Va. The center was previously located in College Park, Md. “The move allows the center to have a closer relationship with the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program in Blacksburg with greater access to students pursuing the public and corporate veterinary medicine track,” said Valerie Ragan, DVM, director of the center. Dr. Ragan took the helm of the center in 2009 following more than two decades of experience in public and corporate veterinary medicine. She and Bess Pierce, DVM, who was previously an associate professor of community practice in the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, are joining the college’s Department of Population Health Sciences. They will continue the center’s work to teach courses, advise students, coordinate senior veterinary student clerkships, assist veterinarians wishing to transition into public practice and develop programs to advance the veterinary profession in government, industry and the nonprofit sector. The move to the Department of Population Health Sciences will also strengthen the center’s connections with the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Master of Public Health programs and advance the college’s commitment to One Health, …
