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As 4/20 day approaches, Pet Poison Helpline used its most recent Toxin Tail to warn veterinary professionals and pet parents ahead of the unofficial cannabis holiday 

Gertie the Goose accidentally consumes marijuana joint 

This useful practice can elevate the standard of feline care and allow earlier detection of chronic disease.

Muscle condition scoring in cats

Fellow Safetycall International employees experienced the helpline’s services firsthand

Pet Poison Helpline comes to the rescue for employees’ pets

Lovey presented to the clinic lethargic, with inappetence but consuming plenty of water, and a bulge on her abdomen when lying down

Case study: Splenic mass in 8-year-old labrador retriever 

Videos

Joya Griffin, DVM, DACVD, offers advice for veterinarians with cases of unusual skin disease in cats

Approaching unusual feline skin disease cases

Surgeons at Washington State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital removed a pheochromocytoma from a 12-year-old dog named Jessie

Rare tumor removed from canine patient in Washington

Veterinary surgeons have only been able to replace feline hips in recent years 

3-legged cat undergoes complex total hip replacement procedure

The FDA recently approved 2 oral SGLT2 inhibitors that are a suitable option for many newly diagnosed cats. 

From needles to pills: transforming feline diabetes care 

dvm360 is the authority of veterinary medicine news, expert insights, animal health and pet care products, research, and regulations for veterinary professionals.


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Clinical

A veterinary social worker can play a crucial role within a clinic. Similar to a human social worker, they work within the hospital as a liaison between the client and veterinary professional, providing support during difficult decisions, offering crisis intervention in challenging situations, and more.

 Through their role, they help ensure a hospital runs smoothly and the staff members within its walls feel supported, seen, and heard.

On this episode of the Vet Blast Podcast, host Adam Christman sits down with Stephen Kochis, DVM, chief veterinary officer at Oregon Humane Society (OHS), and Kelly Bremken, MSSW, VSW, the first veterinary social worker at OHS, to discuss the highs and lows that come with being a veterinary social worker, how important veterinary social work can be to a community practice or shelter setting, and what the duo thinks the future of veterinary social work will look like.

Along with their work involving veterinary social work, OHS has been honored as one of the 2023 dvm360 Hospital Design360 Award winners. Check out the 

 and all that the OHS is doing to help provide care to pets in need in all different scenarios. OHS also recently took in more than 

 from the Maui Humane Society to help find them forever homes while providing more room in Maui for pets lost or injured from the wildfires.

Below is a partial transcript. Listen to the full podcast for more.

What's great for me and I think a lot of the staff is like, you know, Adam, you and I we were trained to be good doctors, we know the medicine [and] we know how to help the pet but we don't always know how to help the person with the issues that are sort of impacting their ability to either take care of the pet or treat the pet or you know, whatever else might be going on in their life.

So, for our team like we can, in these more emotionally charged or issues or where there's cases where there are other factors at play like fleeing domestic violence, [homelessness], substances, whatever it is, Kelly comes in and takes the human part and we focus on the pet and the medical part. Then, you know, it just shares the weight of the whole process across the people who are experts in dealing with all the different aspects of this. Sometimes, Kelly is just a conduit, like a caseworker reaches out to her and says, ‘Hey, I have a patient that needs their pet to get spayed and vaccinated to get into assisted living’ or whatever and then she talks to me, we get it on the schedule, then boom, it's done.

What is a Veterinary Social Worker? Ohio State University. Accessed August 23, 2023. https://vet.osu.edu/vmc/companion/our-services/honoring-bond-support-resources-pet-owners/what-veterinary-social-worker

Learn more about what it is like to be a veterinary social worker and the crucial role they play in veterinary medicine

Exploring veterinary social work

Shelters United launched its' Veterinarian of Record online education program with support from a grant

New training program aims to help build veterinarian partnerships with animal welfare organizations

Reseachers find more humane solutions to be viable alternatives to euthanasia for managing overcrowding and other issues

Moving past the pound model in shelters

To close out day 3 of Fetch Long Beach, Kris Otteman, DVM, ABVP, CAWA, shared with attendee’s common unpopular opinions within shelter medicine 

Unveiling unpopular truths in shelter medicine

Day 2 of Fetch Long Beach kicked off with Kwane Stewart, DVM, sharing the path his career took to land him where he is today 

Honoring a lifelong pledge

Innovative treatment has saved more than 250 cats from disease previously thought to be untreatable

Nonprofit shelter collaborates on lifesaving FIP treatment 

Housed in a bus, the new veterinary clinic offers services to patients and clients with barriers to care and to shelters.

Rowan University launches mobile veterinary clinic

The Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine at Rowan University in New Jersey aims to welcome its' first class of students in fall of 2025. In the meantime, faculty and staff have launched a shelter medicine and community outreach program on a bus. The new mobile veterinary clinic recently stopped by the Atlantic City Convention Center in New Jersey, during dvm360's 

First veterinary school in New Jersey is now accepting applications 

Kirsten White, DVM, a clinical assistant professor of shelter medicine and community engagement, discussed the mobile program's purposes, in an interview with 

. This video and the transcript below is part of the interview:

: The reasoning behind having a mobile unit is accessibility. There are many barriers to care, and some of that is proximity or access to transportation. Many people are not as mobile as others, and it makes it hard for people and their pets to get to care. That's a problem in human medicine, and it's also a problem in veterinary medicine. So, part of the reason to be a mobile clinic is that we can bring clinics to more places versus people trying to get to clinics. 

The other thing is the gap between being able to access care and then not being able to keep your pet. So, the other big reason to have a mobile clinic and to try to bridge that gap between full, public, for-profit primary care and veterinary medicine is that that is not an accessible service to everybody as well. If we can help people stay with their animals—because there's a documented benefit to being with the family that loves you,—regardless if your family has all the money in the world or all the transportation or all the education, or whatever your barrier may be, that doesn't mean you're not a good pet owner. So, if we can help those communities and those populations of people that are great pet families but need help with the health care, that'll keep more pets out of shelters and with their families. Because the shelter should be a place where you have to take your pet if there's no other option. That's part of our job, to help the shelters and help people stay with their pets.

Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine celebrates 50% completion

The new mobile clinic is a program of the university's Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine, which is scheduled to open in fall 2025.

Education

Rowan University takes veterinary services on the road

Shelter Medicine

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