Veterinary Voices

Veterinarians share their LA wildfire stories

Whether treating pets for smoke inhalation, finding homes for displaced animals or donning a firefighter suit to protect a clinic, veterinarians are very much in the thick of the wildfire disaster gripping Los Angeles.

This story was published on Jan. 24, 2025.

Show notes:

Two veterinary organizations are collaborating to raise funds assisting animal care professionals and animals impacted by the fires. To learn more, visit the VIN Foundation campaign page.

Controversial culling methods spotlighted in draft guidelines

Debate over the ethics of applying ventilation shutdown, a controversial method of killing livestock through heat stroke and suffocation, is again rising to the fore amid the publication in the United States of a new set of professional guidelines for killing animals en masse.

A highly anticipated update to the American Veterinary Medical Association's Guidelines for the Depopulation of Animals has been published in draft form and made available to the association's more than 100,000 veterinarian members. They have until Jan. 30 to comment on the draft ahead of the completion of a final version later this year.

This story was published on Jan. 21, 2025.

Sham veterinarian caller 'Dr. J' returns

Dr. J is back.

The purported colleague who left voicemails at odd hours for veterinarians across the country in 2023 is back with the same message: He's retiring and wants to pass along patient files.

But return callers can't reach him. They suspect it's some sort of robocall spam, but to what end? Cybersecurity experts have an idea.

This story was published on Jan. 16, 2025.

Veterinarians strive to save sea lions from toxic algae

In California last summer, a bioengineer named Richard Novak and his family spotted a dead sea lion on the beach near Santa Barbara. Then, they saw a second sea lion dying and a third looking disoriented. Novak reached out to area rescue groups, which, he learned, had become woefully familiar with calls like his. What happened next was not so typical.

This story was published on Jan. 14, 2025.

Renewed push for Kentucky veterinary school hits rough water

Following an unsuccessful attempt to get the go-ahead from Kentucky lawmakers last year, proponents of opening a veterinary school at Murray State University plan to try again in coming weeks. Pushing their plan over the finish line will require overcoming a wave of skepticism.

This story was published on Jan. 9, 2025.

Remote teaching in US veterinary schools: Comments invited

The American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education accredits veterinary medical programs that provide in-person instruction, but it is not authorized by the federal government to accredit programs that use remote instruction, including hybrid approaches. It's considering whether to pursue that authority.

This story was published on Jan. 7, 2025.

Whatever happened with …?

As another year came to a close, the VIN News Service revisited some notable stories from the recent and not-so-recent past. Learn what happened when three practitioners in upstate New York decided to fill an emergency care void in their off hours. Find out where insects are showing up as an ingredient in pet food. Learn how an innovative veterinary vocational program is growing. And catch up on the spread of a lethal rabbit disease in North America.

This story was published on Dec. 26, 2024.

Links to original stories:

• Veterinarians revive ER service after Thrive hospital closes
• There's a fly in my kibble! Insect-based pet food takes off
• Clinic to serve needy pet owners, veterinary students
• Southwest US faces lethal rabbit disease outbreak

Britain's Royal College expects veterinarian shortage to ease

A shortage of veterinarians in the United Kingdom will gradually ease over the next decade, bringing the supply of practitioners almost into line with demand for their services, according to an assessment commissioned by the country's official regulator for the profession.

Produced by the Institute for Employment Studies on behalf of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the report also predicts that the U.K. will experience a considerable oversupply of veterinary nurses, whose role is similar to that of veterinary technicians in the United States.

This story was published on Dec. 20, 2024.

Show notes:

• Link to 2024 RCVS Workforce Modelling Report

 

Nonprofit seeks to boost sustainability in veterinary realm

The Veterinary Sustainability Alliance is a nonprofit that aims to provide resources on environmentally sustainable practices for the profession in the United States and Canada.

Among the first tools the VSA debuted is a veterinary-clinic-specific carbon calculator to help North American practices quantify their greenhouse gas emissions.

This story was published on Dec. 16, 2024.

Research challenges notion of 'hybrid vigor' in dogs

More than a century ago, the famed naturalist Charles Darwin discovered that cross-pollinated maize plants were taller and more fertile than their self-pollinated counterparts. The observation gave rise to the concept known as hybrid vigor, whereby a richer assortment of genes makes an organism hardier.

But the idea that hybrid vigor makes crossbreed and mixed-breed dogs inherently healthier than purebreds is looking questionable, judging from several scientific studies.

This story was published on Dec. 10, 2024.