The BSAVA and the Rabbit Welfare Association and Fund (RWA&F) have published a new guide to responsible use of antibiotics in rabbits.

The BSAVA says there unique opportunities and risks to the use of antibiotics in rabbits.

For example, antibiotic combination therapy, which is discouraged in dogs and cats, can be safe and effective in this species.

Also, careful selection of appropriate antibiotics, in terms of active substance, dose and route of administration, is crucial when treating rabbits due to the risk of enterotoxaemia.

The new guide gives advice on diagnosing bacterial infections, likely causal organisms and appropriate antibiotic and non-antibiotic management.

The guide covers dacryocystitis, ear disease, facial abscesses, enteritis, urinary tract disease, and upper and lower respiratory tract disease.

John Chitty, one of the authors, said: “Choosing an antibiotic for rabbits is not simple.

"Their diseases do not necessarily mirror those of dogs and cats, and they do have gut sensitivities to certain antimicrobials.

"However, like dogs and cats, there are situations where antibiotics are not needed where we once thought they were.

"This is especially important in reducing antibiotic usage in rabbits and, of course, in reducing use of critically important antibiotics in them as well.

"We hope this guide will help practitioners to see when antibiosis is needed, what choices are available and how to sample and select the most appropriate drug if needed.”

The new guide is free to all and can be accessed at bsavalibrary.com/protectme.

Woodley Veterinary Equipment has launched a range of eight veterinary stains.

The company says that the range offers a comprehensive product base to suit most requirements, and that they are all quick and easy to use.

The range is made up of the following individual stains for single test use:

• Veti-Neat Stain Gram
• Veti-Neat Stain Hemo
• Reticulocyte
• Sedimentation
• Fungi
• Semen
• Faecal
• Parasitology

Also available is the Automated Slide Stainer, which Woodley says is capable of precise, balanced slide stains for use with Haematology and Gram staining. Maintenance free and self-cleaning the Automated Slide Stainer is also programmable for individual preferences.

For more information, email: sales@woodleyequipment.com or call Woodley's customer service team on +44 (0) 1204 669033 Option 1. Alternatively visit www.woodleyequipment.com

Woodley Equipment Co Ltd has announced that it has been appointed by Synermed International as the exclusive distributor in the UK & Europe for the IR202 Series Near-Infrared Biochemistry reagents.

Woodley will supply regular maintenance visits, support and a monthly supply of reagents to IR202 analyser customers. 

For further information, visit www.woodleyequipment.com, www.synermedinc.com, email sales@woodleyequipment.com or telephone 01798 813659.  

BEVA has announced that this year, there will be a lecture stream at Congress dedicated to feet and farriery, aimed at vets, nurses and farriers, and designed to encourage teamwork between the three. 

The farriery stream will run all day on Saturday 14 September, with content curated by Dr Simon Curtis who is internationally renowned in the hoof-care world for his remedial farriery textbooks and lectures.

 Simon said: “Any historical, perceived divide between science of veterinary medicine and the craft of farriery is no longer in existence.

"The overlap is vast which means it is more essential than ever that vets, nurses and farriers understand each other’s roles in order to maximise their patient outcomes.” 

“Farriery isn’t sexy, but it beats everything else for improving soundness.

"It is impossible to maintain or regain soundness without farriery being considered as an integral part of the process. 

“The impact good farriery can have on a horse’s ability to tolerate conformational, work-related or other causes of lameness associated pathology is all too often overlooked by all parties, and this should no longer be the case.

"Vets and farriers must work as a team to avoid injury and facilitate recovery wherever possible.”

The sessions will cover things like the importance of trimming, the biomechanical effects of horseshoes, why heels collapse, chronic club foot, digital support and toe-trimming.

The farriery stream is part of 90+ hours of live and on-demand CPD on offer at Congress, with interactive discussions, debates and workshops, and an expanded stream for vet nurses.

https://www.bevacongress.org/programme 

BEVA members prices for Congress for all three days are £699 for vets (with concessionary prices available for those in their first three years of graduation or earning less than £25,000), £273 for nurse members for all three days and £300 for farriers and other allied professionals for all three days or £110 for one day.

Practice passes are also available.

Cats Protection is urgently calling for compulsory microchipping of all pet cats.

The feline welfare charity says that two in three cats taken into its care are not microchipped, costing the organisation over £190,000 to microchip them. In addition, the charity says it ends up dealing with around 40 ownership disputes per year - the majority of which involve cats handed in as strays that are not microchipped.  

The charity says unchipped animals are a major drain on its resources, which are already stretched looking after over 7,000 unwanted cats at any one time.

Peter Hepburn, Cats Protection's Chief Executive said: "I cannot stress enough how important it is for cats to be microchipped. The heartache and upset that a lost cat can cause is immense, as is the suffering to the cat. It could be so easily solved by a tiny 'chip that is no bigger than a grain of rice.  

"When a cat comes into our care, the first thing we do is look for some sort of identification, including scanning for a 'chip. In a lot of cases, there is no 'chip so then we have no option but to trawl lost and found registers and to advertise the cat as missing. However, this is a very time consuming process with no guarantee that we will ever locate the owner, despite the best efforts of our volunteers and staff.

"It is a heartbreaking experience when an owner loses their beloved pet and is never reunited with them. Making sure a cat is easily identifiable is vital to increase the chances of a happy reunion so, if compulsory microchipping was brought in, many of these problems would be solved."

The Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF) has unveiled a new brand identity and fresh new website design to kick-start its 30^th anniversary celebrations.

According to the charity, market research had shown that most respondents thought its old logo was unrecognisable. The new one aims to strengthen the charity's identity by making it more visually appealing and by representing the wide range of species the charity covers in its research funding, information leaflets and its advice to vets.

The new website remains at www.bva-awf.org.uk and combines the new logo with a fresh design to help guide vets, researchers and the public to the relevant resources and information quickly.

New features include a revised grants section which now includes a list of past and present projects and advice to guide potential grants recipients through the application process. To emphasise the Foundation's reliance on donations and legacies the donation button has been made more prominent and the new site also contains case studies which help veterinary students work through welfare dilemmas.

The charity's unique selling point and strapline 'The charity led by the veterinary profession' is also clearly displayed to further strengthen the AWF brand. 

AWF Chair Dr Tiffany Hemming said: "We have tried to make the site as appealing, well-structured and easy to navigate as possible to show off all our areas of activity and to encourage use of our excellent resources.

"In the year of our 30^th anniversary I am pleased to have this fresh new image to help us stay in people's minds where animal welfare is concerned, whether it is a veterinary practice wanting to provide clients with easy-to-understand leaflets, a researcher looking for funding or a member of the public who has heard of our initiatives and resources.

"We have more exciting plans in the pipeline to celebrate AWF at 30 so visit the website and look out for more information."

BVA President Peter Jones added: "With a strong new brand and website I hope AWF becomes an increasingly popular destination for vets in particular and for the general public with its simple and practical advice for everyone concerned with animal welfare.

"I also hope that the profession will find renewed enthusiasm for its own animal welfare charity which needs to attract donations to continue its work to promote animal welfare through research, education and debate."

The BSAVA has announced that its next Congress (Thursday 24th March – Saturday 26th March in Manchester) will be a hybrid event, with delegates being able to attend in person, or online through an interactive virtual platform.

BSAVA’s new Congress Programme Committee Chair, Paul Higgs MRCVS (pictured right) said: "The new venue provides an opportunity to really shake up the content. It’s the first time BSAVA Congress delegates will have met in two years and we want to deliver an unforgettable experience."

"We’ve thought long and hard about what delegates want and need, as well as the way people like to learn, integrating those approaches within the programme. Delegates will find few long-format lectures, instead there will be lots of opportunities to participate, to discuss, to do and to experience."

He added: “For general practice vets and nurses, we’re offering an immersive experience designed to support the skills required in first opinion practice yet rarely provided in a lecture alone. And while the CPD will provide ample opportunity to learn about the clinical aspects, delegates will also have the opportunity to immerse themselves in true-to-life case management events in a dedicated space to help reflect those paraprofessional skills that are so critical to first opinion practice.”

Delegates will also be able to drop-in to practical sessions and perfect a technique such as undertaking cytological examination, reading radiographs and performing endoscopy in as little as 15 minutes. For the first time, the practical sessions will be included within the ticket price. 

BSAVA will also be giving delegates the opportunity to meet and pick the brains of the speakers in a dedicated space in the exhibition during lecture breaks.

Although some sessions will be more aligned to veterinary nurses, all sessions will be open to both vets and nurses. Paul said: "Nurses are increasingly looking for opportunities to expand their knowledge, horizons and skillsets, while many vets want to, and would benefit from, learning from our excellent nurses. The programme will reflect this."

The BSAVA Programme Committee is also going to incorporate practice management within the programme. Paul said: "Vets and nurses aren’t isolated from the fact practices are businesses and the decisions they make have a financial impact."

“Everyone in the profession has something to give and BSAVA Congress 2022 is a chance for everyone to come together to hear people you’ve never heard before, see things you’ve never seen and do things you’ve never done."

Tickets will be on sale late October. To find out more visit: https://www.bsavaevents.com/bsavacongress2022/en/page/home. 

RCVS Council member and Chief Veterinary Officer Professor Nigel Gibbens has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year’s Honours list for 2016.

Professor Gibbens (pictured right), who was appointed by the Privy Council to RCVS Council in 2008, has been recognised for his services to the veterinary profession and animal welfare.

Over on the other side of the world, Professor Norman Williamson, Chair of the Veterinary Schools Accreditation Advisory Committee of the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council (AVBC), has been appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, following an application supported by the RCVS.

Professor Williamson has been working with the College as part of the veterinary education accreditation process, taking part in university visitations both in the UK and abroad. 

Bradley Viner, President of the RCVS, said: "Many congratulations to Professor Nigel Gibbens for his appointment as a CBE. As CVO, Nigel has made great strides in shaping and influencing animal health and welfare policy throughout the United Kingdom and strengthening the relationship between the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the College and the profession at large.

"As an organisation we were also very happy to write in support of the application for Professor Williamson to become an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit and it is gladdening to see that his contribution to international cooperation in veterinary education has been recognised."

Photograph courtesy RCVS

RCVS Knowledge has launched a new initiative to support the veterinary sector in delivering contextualised care.

The initiative seeks to understand the barriers and enablers to delivering contextualised care in companion animal practices, and to set out what contextualised care looks like when done well.

As part of the initiative, RCVS Knowledge is gathering perspectives from across the veterinary community and from pet owners to design a roadmap for the profession.

The work started last week at the National Forum for Contextualised Care in London, which brought together more than 60 people from across the veterinary sector, including leaders from veterinary associations, veterinary educators, students, practice staff, veterinary charities and rescues, pet insurers, regulators, representatives from corporate and independent practices and animal owners.

RCVS Knowledge will now be working with an independent research partner to conduct focus groups, surveys and interviews to gather a representative range of views from across the sector and pet owners.

The work will culminate in a summit in the summer that will use the findings of the research to design recommendations on:

• How veterinary professionals’ and pet owners’ perspectives and circumstances can be better brought together in reaching decisions about the most appropriate care for the individual animal.
• The barriers and enablers to implementing contextualised care in practice. 
• What needs to be done, and by whom, to support veterinary teams to deliver contextualised care and shared decision-making as part of good-quality veterinary care.

Sally Everitt, Clinical Lead – Evidence at RCVS Knowledge said: “Contextualised care is the way of delivering veterinary care that acknowledges that there are different ways to approach the diagnosis and treatment of an animal, depending on the circumstances of the individual animal and their caregivers and the context in which the care is delivered.

"The term has been used increasingly over the past year, and is now the subject of much debate, alongside other aligned terms such as ‘spectrum of care’ and ‘pragmatic medicine’.

"However, we need to better understand what constitutes good-quality contextualised care, and the barriers and enablers to its delivery in practice.”

Katie Mantell, Chief Executive of RCVS Knowledge, said: “As an independent charity with a mission to advance the quality of veterinary care, we believe RCVS Knowledge is well-placed to bring together all parts of the veterinary community to seek consensus on what good-quality contextualised care looks like and how it can be delivered in practice.

"Our aim is to take a collaborative, robust approach to co-producing a roadmap for contextualised care that will support its widespread delivery for the benefit of animals, the veterinary professions and animal owners.”

To be updated about the progress of this work, and to hear about opportunities to take part in the focus groups, interviews and surveys to follow, sign up to receive RCVS Knowledge’s monthly email newsletter intheKNOW.

The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has welcomed the Kennel Club's confirmation that, from January 2010, all dog owners and breeders wishing to participate in the Kennel Club/BVA Canine Health Schemes (CHS) for eye disease and hip and elbow dysplasia will be required to have their dogs permanently identified with either a microchip or tattoo.

BVA President Nicky Paull said:  "This move has been introduced at the express wish of the veterinary profession through the BVA and we are delighted that the Kennel Club has taken our view on board.

"In November, following discussion at our Ethics & Welfare Group, we called, along with an independent review of the breeding of dogs, for the permanent identification of all registered pedigree dogs.  The inclusion of this requirement for participation in the Canine Health Schemes is hopefully the first step."

The British Veterinary Association is calling on its members to consider standing in the upcoming elections for the organisation's primary representative body, BVA Council.

According to the association, there has been overwhelming support for changes to the Council structure which will see it slimmed down to 41 members, including 12 regional representatives for the UK. For the first time all UK members will have a directly elected representative on Council.

The BVA is now looking for members to stand as regional representatives in the 9 English government regions, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

• Nominations open on 1^st November and close on 15^th December 2010
• Elections will be held between 10^th January and 18^th February 2011

Ideal candidates must be committed to promoting the ideals of the BVA and the veterinary profession in general and have a willingness to devote time and effort to representing the members in their region. The BVA is developing an online communication structure to help regional representatives reach their members quickly and easily. Representatives will be expected to gather views and ideas to ensure there is a genuine two-way communication process between BVA Council and the wider membership. Regional representatives will also receive dedicated BVA staff support.

The BVA has written to every member with a copy of the role profile and details of how to nominate themselves. Any UK BVA members can nominate themselves for their region with a supporting statement of up to 500 words. All details are available on the BVA website www.bva.co.uk/councilchanges .

The Council will continue to be served by representatives from the BVA's specialist divisions, the chairs of the BVA's five standing committees, two recent graduates, three past presidents and the BVA's three officers. In addition there will be representatives from BVA Scottish Branch and BVA Welsh Branch and two non-voting representatives from BVNA and VPMA.

Harvey Locke, President of the BVA, said: "We want BVA Council to really drive our Association but it can only do that with representatives who are willing to communicate directly with the members in their region, bringing opinions and ideas to meetings and feeding back afterwards.

"Members should not rule themselves out of veterinary politics by saying they are 'just an ordinary vet'. We are looking for anyone who is committed to improving the BVA and who has good communication skills. It doesn't matter what your background is, it's about what you can offer to members in your region."

Andrew Parker, Cornwall Veterinary Association representative on BVA Council, added: "It is a privilege to be a member of BVA Council representing the diverse views of grassroots vets. There is certainly a time commitment, but it is a very rewarding and enjoyable experience and I see it as a way of giving something back to the profession which has given me a privileged working life.

"It is also a fantastic way to meet other veterinary surgeons from a wide range of backgrounds to share thoughts and ideas both on a political front and clinically. I would urge anyone with an interest in the future of our profession and our Association to stand as a regional representative."