Vet Times

Tag: Vaccination

  • Supporting new grads: are you up to the job?

    Supporting new grads: are you up to the job?

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    As I discussed in my previous blog post, if you are a boss, partner or practice manager, it’s important to consider whether your practice is suitable for a new graduate, before taking one on. Perhaps you’re considering taking on a new grad for the first time, or maybe you’ve employed them before, but are struggling…

  • Calling in consults (reprise)

    Calling in consults (reprise)

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    This is a sequel of sorts to my post from early December, where I talked about the different strategies for calling in clients for consultations – the pitfalls, the advantages. It was well-considered and logical. Here’s an example of why, in general practice, logical and well-considered can be about as useful as the Dalai Lama…

  • Occupational hazards

    Occupational hazards

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    Before I started vet school, I attended a workshop for aspiring vets where students shared anecdotes about the various occupational ailments they had experienced or witnessed over the years. Despite having to defer the start my veterinary degree due to a horse-related incident, I got through university largely unscathed by veterinary-related disease. I contracted a…

  • Look after yourself this Christmas

    Look after yourself this Christmas

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    When an owner walks into your consult room with his or her pet for its annual vaccination and check-up, what are the basic questions you ask? How is Fluffy? Then, if the owner does not immediately launch into why his or her darling furry friend is “just not himself”, you’ll probably reel off a list…

  • Bonus culture

    Bonus culture

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    Things are changing in veterinary medicine, and quickly. Close your eyes for a few minutes, or – more accurately – take a few months off from general practice, and you can feel rather lost when you’re greeted by all the new products on the shelves. Except most of them aren’t new at all, they’re the…

  • SNAP FeLV antigen/FIV antibody test

    SNAP FeLV antigen/FIV antibody test

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    The past decade has seen a significant shift in the prevalence of both FeLV and FIV in most European countries. This, coupled with a better understanding of the viral dynamics of FeLV, will influence the interpretation of the results of in-house diagnostics tests of these viral infections. FeLV is an RNA virus that undergoes classic…

  • Tools of the trade

    Tools of the trade

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    Batman has his utility belt, Indiana Jones has his whip and crumpled fedora, James Bond has his gadgets, and Mickey Mouse has his… er… big white gloves(?). All iconic characters have their tools of the trade, without which they feel naked. Vets – who are, of course, iconic and “superheroic” characters themselves – have theirs,…

  • Anti-science

    Anti-science

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    I gently squeeze the cat’s abdomen. There isn’t much to feel, but the muscles tense and the cat looks at me reproachfully. A tiny bead of bloody urine appears at its vulva and drips on to the consult table. “I think we’re dealing with cystitis here,” I said. Of course, technically it’s probably feline lower…

  • Red in tooth and claw

    Red in tooth and claw

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    If you’d told me that at some point last year I’d be watching a group of killer snakes chasing an iguana, I’d have assumed you meant I had, once again, fallen asleep watching the Horror Channel. If you’d then told me it would be one of the most gripping and emotional pieces of television I…

  • The hard sell

    The hard sell

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    I’ve helped a lot of animals in my time, and I’ve made a lot of people’s last moments with their friends a little more bearable than they might have been. I get a lot of things wrong, but I get a lot of things right too – I was no God’s gift to the profession,…