Fetch Charlotte 2025 wrap up

From March 14-16, 2025, veterinary professionals, dvm360 staff, and other industry leaders headed to Fetch Charlotte for a weekend full of learning, networking, and fun! Even though the conference has come to a close, the dvm360 coverage of the event has not. Dvm360 had created this list of videos, articles, and other conference events here to provide an inside look at what was going on at Fetch Charlotte, including a photo gallery!

Dvm360’s full Fetch Charlotte coverage is available here as well!

Attendees listening to a keynote address during Fetch Charlotte (Image courtesy of Walter L Brown Jr, BS, RVTg, VTS (ECC))

Interviews

Critical thinking and anesthetic monitoring

During an interview with dvm360, Amanda Shelby, RVT, VTS (Anesthesia; Analgesia), shared the importance of considering a patient’s history, comorbidities, and anticipated complications along with monitoring equipment readings to achieve patient safety and optimal anesthetic management.

“Yeah, so in a clinical situation under anesthesia, or in a patient that's sedated, or one I'm getting prepared to put under anesthesia, as soon as we induce a patient, or even when we give a medication, the three key things that, you know, we don't need to make this super complicated, the three key things: does it have a pulse? Is it breathing?” Shelby said during the interview.

“What is its level of anesthetic depth? And that probably relates more to already being unconscious. But is it going to jump up and leave the table, or are we on a pathway towards undesirable outcomes from there? It's attaching monitoring equipment and learning about what that monitoring equipment tells you and perhaps what it doesn't tell you, and then always being able to reach under there and look at your patient,” she continued.

Understanding pharmacodynamics in amphibians

Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM, director of animal health and chief veterinarian at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, North Carolina, explained Pharmacodynamics and its relation to amphibians, which was part of this lecture at the conference.

“Pharmacodynamics in amphibians, again, very, very evolving field of study. So pharmacodynamics refers to the study of how drugs affect the body, including the mechanism of action, and the relationship... between the drug concentration and the effect of that drugs. So it's enhanced by a lot of different factors. So metabolism: amphibians have a low metabolic rate, and this is going to affect how the drugs are processed and eliminated, so got to take that into consideration,” Minter explained during the interview.

A surgeon's approach to owner communication

Brian Sutherland, DVM, DACVS-SA, in a preconference interview, explained that when talking to clients about their pet that needs surgery, it can be a scary process for them, so transparency is crucial. Throughout the interview, Sutherland explained that the risk benefit he does for himself in regards to the patient, he shares with them to help them be fully educated and informed on the procedures their pet may be getting.

“I think my general approach is to be as open and honest as possible with owners. These are often challenging and sometimes high-risk procedures, and I think owners need to be very, very well educated on that. And a lot of times these procedures are things that aren't performed very often. And so despite someone being, you know, the most experienced, like my mentor in Colorado, one of the most experienced heart surgeons in the world for veterinary patients, still there are things that he has not done hundreds of, you know. So there are definitely certain procedures where we don't do that often and have less experience with and I think it's very important that we're...open and honest with owners about that,” Sutherland expressed.

When to perform a crown amputation vs a full true tooth extraction

In an on site interview with Heather Duncan, DVM, DAVDC, founder and CEO of Crown Veterinary Dental Specialists in Charlotte, North Carolina, provide insight into when a crown amputation is needed instead of a full true tooth extraction as well as an overview of the procedure and how it should be done.

“So a time that you could do a crown amputation, versus true extraction of a tooth is when you see that there is no root structure left. So we don't have anything that looks like a root. There's no periodontal ligament traceable around that root. There's no root canal, you know, chamber, anything, left in that root. That's when you can do a crown amputation for a tooth. You're still going to lay your mucogingival flap like you would normally. You're going to remove as much as of a root that there is, even if there's a little one up at the top, and then do your crown amputation. And then you're going to release a tension-free flap, suture that back into place, just like you would a regular extraction,” Duncan explained to dvm360.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, chief veterinary officer, dvm360, taking selfies with attendees during the 2025 Fetch Charlotte conference.

Articles

Advances in veterinary oncology: From a melanoma vaccine to genetic testing

To kick off Fetch Charlotte, Phil Bergman, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Oncology), shared some of the recent and relevant advances in veterinary oncology to the attendees, including a new, highly effective drug for nausea and vomiting; a vaccine for melanoma; and a pharmacogenetic test related to ‘white feet don’t treat.’

“...it’s easy for clients to know what overt vomiting is, but if you ask them, ‘Did Fluffy have any nausea over the last 3 weeks?’ invariably, they'll say ‘no.’ But if you actually arm them with what nausea looks like in the dog, then all of a sudden they say, ‘Yes, oh yeah, I do remember Fluffy walked up to the food bowl, kind of licked their lips, walked away—kind of like the waterfalls we have when we're nauseous,” said Bergman during his session.

Chronic kidney disease in cats: Hypokalemia, signs, the exam, and staging

In older cats, one of the most common diseases they face is chronic kidney disease, making it an important thing for veterinary professionals to understand. During his lecture at Fetch Charlotte, Christopher G. Byers, DVM, DACVECC, DACVIM (SAIM), CVJ, provided attendees with a comprehensive lecture on these diseases in feline patients, which included understanding signs of hypokalemia in patients with CKD, the clinical presentation of the disease, and more.

Understanding phobia and anxiety in patients

Christopher Pachel, DVM, DACVB, CABC, owner and lead clinician at the Animal Behavior Clinic in Portland, Oregon, took the stage at Fetch Charlotte to educate attendees with an overview of noise phobia and anxiety in canine patients. Through the article, dvm360 highlighted Pachel’s points on intervention strategies that professionals can use to help mitigate emotional and physical stress of these patients.

“Individual differences in learning history and experiences, socialization, and stimulus exposure context can significantly influence the development of these and other coping strategy variations,” Pachel said to attendees during his lecture. . In helping an animal manage their fear, phobia or anxiety, he noted that “there isn't a one-size-fits-all [solution] here.”

Veterinarian follows a call to dermatology

On day 2 of Fetch Charlotte, Joya Griffin, DVM, DACVD, star of television’s Nat Geo Wild unscripted show Pop Goes the Vet with Dr Joya, shared how one of her first patients and their need for an “extreme makeover” led her down the path of veterinary dermatology. Throughout the lecture, Griffin took attendees on the same journey she went on during her career, begining as a child growing up in Ohio and living across the street from her science teacher, who was also a veterinarian.

“He was really an integral in my life and my development as a young student,” Griffin said. “And then I also had the example of a Black veterinarian in Dayton, Ohio, who we would take our pets to, and they would do our vaccines for us. And that was really kind of a great experience too…Seeing that really allowed me to see the possibility for myself in veterinary medicine, and so my parents supported me, and they pushed me forward.”

Did you miss Fetch Charlotte, or were you there and missed sessions you really wanted to attend? Do not worry, Fetch Charlotte will soon be available on Fetch on Demand! Fetch On-Demand delivers expert-led veterinary continuing education on your schedule. With CE on your own terms, you can access top-tier sessions anytime, anywhere—whether at home, in the clinic, or on the go.