Small Animal Monday Schedule
Skin Flaps Surgery
Dr. David Upchurch, DVM, DACVS
When it comes to closing a large wound or a skin defect left after a mass removal, it’s good to have skin flaps in your pocket (okay, not literally). Skin flaps can be made in most areas of the body, are large enough to cover many defects that can’t be closed in other ways. They require no special equipment, are not near scary anatomic structures, and, if they fail, you still typically have alternatives. So why aren’t you using them? In this session, we will talk about how to perform skin flaps from the planning stages through the execution. We will discuss the potential complications of skin flaps as well as discussing the common types of skin flaps that you should be able to practically utilize in clinical practice.
Goal Standard vs Gold Standard
Dr. Brooke Davis, DVM, Clinical Assistant Professor Shelter Medicine
Modern Systemic Flea Control: Eradication of Infestations and Assistance in FAD Management
Dr. Michael Dryden, DVM, MS, PhD, DACVM
This seminar will highlight several of the important advances in our understanding of flea biology that have had direct impacts on development of control programs, including the parasite-host relationship of C. felis, differences in male and female develop times, the critical concept of premises biomass and host acquisition. In addition, major changes in product development and implementation of flea control programs occurred following advances in our understanding of the residual speed of kill and reproductive break-points of insecticides. Data generated in in-home investigations have repeated demonstrated that the systemic isoxazolines can effectively eradicate flea infestations and provide rapid reduction in pruritus and improvement in clinical signs of Flea Allergy Dermatitis (FAD).
The Quagmire that is Giardiasis
Dr. Michael Dryden, DVM, MS, PhD, DACVM
While giardiasis is common it certainly is not routine. Questions concerning what the best diagnostic test and the most effective treatment persist. Issues concerning zoonotic potential and public health implications are difficult to ascertain. This seminar will provide an update on the diagnosis, control and zoonotic potential of giardiasis in dogs and cats.
“True Colors”: What Practitioners Need to Know About New (And Some Not So New) Oncology Diagnostics and Treatments
Dr. Kimberly Reeds, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Oncology)
In a world of new diagnostics and emerging treatments, it’s easy to lose sight of it all. What’s evidence-based, what’s marketing confusion, and what actually changes outcomes for the patient in front of you? Cyndi Lauper promised to show us true colors, and that is exactly what this session aims to do. Practitioners are increasingly caught between client expectations, industry marketing, and genuine clinical uncertainty about what belongs in their practice.
This session is designed to cut through all that noise. Rather than a comprehensive discussion of everything shiny and new in veterinary oncology, we will focus on the diagnostics and treatments generating the most questions (and the most problems?) in everyday practice. We will take an honest look at certain tests, including cancer screening panels, and ask the questions that marketing doesn’t answer: What do these tests actually detect? How reliable are they? And, what happens when patients arrive at the specialist with a diagnosis based on results that weren’t fully understood?
We will also spend significant time on the diagnostics and treatments general practitioners should be using but may not be, including flow cytometry, BRAF testing, and bisphosphonates. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for evaluating any new diagnostic or treatment before incorporating it into their practice.
Don’t You (Forget About Me)”: The Owner’s Journey Through an Oncology Referral
Dr. Kimberly Reeds, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Oncology)
For the oncology patient, the one thing they can’t afford to be is forgotten. Not by their general practice vet, not by their oncologist, and not anywhere in the space between them.
Cancer is one of the most emotionally charged diagnoses a pet owner will ever receive, and the journey from a suspicious mass to an oncology appointment, and beyond, is filled with moments where an owner’s experience can either be seamless or deeply frustrating. Most of the time when it does go wrong, nobody intends it to happen. The gaps that affect owners aren’t usually the result of poor medicine; rather, they’re often the result of handoffs that were never clearly defined and conversations that were never explicitly had.
This session walks through the owner’s journey one moment at a time, from the day something is found in your clinic to the day you’re managing their pet’s chemotherapy at home. For each moment, we’ll look at what the owner experiences when things go well versus when they don’t, and what practical tools can make the difference. Along the way, we’ll address diagnosis before referral, staging and diagnostic workups, shared patient responsibilities, post-chemotherapy patient management, and navigating the line between true oncologic urgency vs. emergency and owner anxiety.
The goal is (somewhat) simple: to ensure that every owner who moves between your clinic and ours feels supported, informed, and never forgotten.
When Can We Use Radiation Therapy for My Patients
Dr. Chieko Azuma, DVM, PhD, DACVR