Dechra Veterinary Products is offering CPD sessions as podcasts for the first time, as part of a new series of presentations on canine hyperadrenocorticism.

The Cushing's Challenge series, which will also be available as webcasts with supporting notes, is designed to challenge vets to update their knowledge on the syndrome.

There will be six presentations released on the company's online learning resource, The Dechra Academy, starting this month.

Dechra Veterinary Products Brand Manager, Craig Sankey said: "Although Cushing's is a common canine endocrinopathy, it can be challenging to diagnose and can mimic non-adrenal disorders. Test results can also sometimes be inconclusive which is why we've developed this series of CPD sessions to support veterinary professionals who want to update their knowledge.

"The Cushing's Challenge series will be the first time Dechra has used podcasts to deliver CPD, which can be downloaded and listened to on any MP3 player. They can also be viewed on a PC or tablet as a webcast with each of the presentations varying in length, from around 12 to 25 minutes long. By offering the presentations in both of these formats, we are able to offer flexible support to help busy veterinary professionals with CPD.

"The first episodes will focus on pathophysiology, clinical signs and routine lab tests with successive presentations released in the coming weeks. The next two in the series will cover diagnostic tests and then differentiation tests."

CPD certificates will be available at the end of the series via email.

The free-of-charge CPD is accompanied by client support materials for practices as part of Dechra's new Vetoryl campaign.

The Cushing's Challenge CPD is available at www.dechra.co.uk/academy,

The RCVS is seeking the views of veterinary surgeons, veterinary nurses and members of the public about proposals for a new Royal Charter which would clarify and underpin the role of the College and give it formal recognition as regulator of the veterinary nursing profession.

The new Charter, approved at a meeting of RCVS Council in November, would replace the 1967 Supplemental Charter, with the most far reaching change being a proposal to make veterinary nursing a formally regulated profession on a similar footing to veterinary surgeons. Veterinary nurses would become associates of the College and have the post-nominal letters RVN. The List and the Register of Veterinary Nurses would also be effectively combined, meaning that the 1,100 listed veterinary nurses would join the 10,500 already on the Register.

Under the proposals registered veterinary nurses would continue to need to fulfil certain responsibilities, including abiding by the Code of Professional Conduct and completing an average of 15 hours a year of continuing professional development, and would be subject to RCVS disciplinary procedures.

What's new is that individuals struck off from the Register for serious professional misconduct would no longer be able to give medical treatment or carry out minor surgery under veterinary direction.

As well as changes to the regulation of veterinary nursing, the proposed Charter would also more clearly state the role and remit of the RCVS, for example, in advancing standards through the promotion of continuing professional development and the Practice Standards Scheme.

Professor Stephen May, a member of RCVS Council who led the Legislation Working Party that developed the new Charter proposals, said: "The proposed new Charter represents an historic opportunity to affirm the role of the RCVS, and to provide a modern framework for the future regulation of the professions. I call on veterinary surgeons and nurses, together with other interested stakeholders, to read the consultation documents and support our proposals."

Speaking about the need for change, RCVS President Neil Smith added: "The consultation paper explains why it is time to replace the 1967 Charter with a new version which sets out the role of the College. The present Charter doesn't explain what objects the RCVS should set out to achieve, and it is silent about veterinary nurses. The remit of the College should include being the regulator for the veterinary nursing profession, and we want a new Charter to recognise registered veterinary nurses.

"We hope that the new Charter will provide a solid basis for the work of the College for years to come. We would urge members of the professions and the public to let us know what they think and help us to make sure that we have got it right."

The consultation paper, which contains further details about the proposed Charter, is available to download at www.rcvs.org.uk/consultations. Those who wish to have their say must respond to b.myring@rcvs.org.uk with their comments by Friday 7 February 2014.

The RCVS will also be organising a meeting and a webinar during the consultation period for those who wish to ask questions about the proposals. Those interested in attending a meeting should email b.myring@rcvs.org.uk. The webinar will be held early in 2014 - further details will be on www.rcvs.org.uk in due course.

MSD Animal Health's equine division has launched a new series of materials to support its Keeping Britain's Horses Healthy Campaign.

For veterinary practices, there's a Vet Reception Pack designed to help receptionists educate owners why they should vaccinate and the benefits of preventive healthcare.

For yards, there are posters giving guidance and advice on prevention of Infectious Respiratory Disease and the steps which should be taken to control a potential outbreak. They can be tailor made for an individual yard.  

Peter Young, MSD Animal Health Equine Business Manager said: "Our first wave of support materials focused very much on equine vets and owners - helping raise awareness of the importance of preventive healthcare and driving owners towards vets for advice. This phase of materials helps support yard owners and receptionists, aiming to fill some of those communications gaps where advice and guidelines on individual horse's vaccination requirements and yard protocols can play a vital role in preventing the spread of disease and controlling outbreaks."  

Keeping Britain's Horses Healthy is a national campaign to educate horse owners on endemic infectious disease, vaccination, herd immunity and the importance of preventative healthcare. It includes a range of educational materials for veterinary surgeries and direct to owners. The campaign is supported by a national PR, advertising and social media programme, together with a dedicated website www.healthyhorses.co.uk.  The website, aimed at driving owners back to their veterinary practices, includes a vet finder, exclusively for equine practices, and healthcare information.  

For full details of the launch programme, talk to your account manager, call 01908 685685 or visit www.healthyhorses.co.uk. 

Dechra Veterinary Products has launched the Healthy Ears Combi Kit, designed to help pet owners administer treatment for otitis externa correctly.

The kit contains a guide to effective ear cleaning, an illustrated step-by-step instruction guide on how to administer the Canaural, and a diary and consultation pack so owners can engage with the diagnosis and treatment of their pet’s ear infection.

The Healthy Ears Combi Kit comes in a resealable wipe-clean bag and is available free of charge from veterinary wholesalers.

Dechra Brand Manager Claire Morgan said: "The new kit will give owners more confidence in the important role that they play in their pet’s ear health and encourage them to engage in the treatment plan, thereby supporting veterinary professionals in the cycle of care.

"As well as serving as practical storage for the products, it acts as a reminder to dispense CleanAural as well as Canaural, as the self-cleaning mechanism of the animal’s ears is often compromised by infection.

She added: "CleanAural does not compromise the antimicrobial activity of Canaural¹ so they are perfect partners for maintaining healthy ears."

Free Healthy Ears Combi Kit can be ordered via your veterinary wholesaler.

Reference

1. Trial Report GB225 (2007)

Sanofi-aventis and Merck & Co., Inc. announced today that Sanofi-aventis has exercised its option to combine Merial with Intervet/Schering-Plough, Merck's Animal Health business.

The new joint venture will be equally-owned by Merck and Sanofi-aventis. The formation of this new joint venture is subject to execution of final agreements, antitrust review in the United States, Europe and other countries, and other customary closing conditions. The completion of the transaction is expected to occur in approximately the next 12 months.

Richard T. Clark, Merck Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer said: "Merck has been in the animal health business for well over six decades and through this new joint venture, we will bolster our diverse portfolio and create a new global competitor poised for growth.

"This new joint venture delivers on Merck's commitment to customer focus by creating one of the broadest portfolios of animal health products and services in pharmaceuticals and biologics for millions of customers who include farmers, veterinarians and pet owners. The planned joint venture will have an attractive geographical network of global technology and  expertise to provide health solutions based on customers' needs, which often vary regionally."

The worldwide animal health market reached $19 billion in 2008. Products for companion animals accounted for 40 percent of total sales while products for production animals accounted for the remaining 60 percent of total sales. This market is expected to grow at around 5 percent per year over the next 5 years, driven by a growing demand for animal proteins, as well as a strong consumer needs for companion animal health care.

The companies said that both Merial and Intervet/Schering-Plough will continue to operate independently until the closing of the transaction.

BCF Technology has launched the portable 9020HF Orange x-ray generator from Eco Ray.

BCF says the 9020HF is ideal for equine and large animal applications because it is is just marginally heavier than the 8016HF generator, but more powerful, allowing it to achieve excellent images of regions such as the stifle and spine.

The new BCF Clinical Development Manager and in-house vet Kimberly Palgrave said: "This new generator really fills the gap in the range and is an ideal balance between weight and power. It is also bright orange so impossible to miss when tidying the kit away in the yard."

BCF is also the sole official distributor in the UK and Ireland for Eco Ray generators.

To see the full range of X-ray generators and other X-ray and ultrasound equipment available from BCF visit http://www.bcftechnology.com/ or call +44 (0)1506 460023.

Orthomed has announced the launch of a series of four webinars covering a range of orthopaedic subjects.

The webinars are being presented by global diplomates and hosted by The Webinar Vet. They are:

• Cranial Cruciate Controversies. Presented by Malcolm Ness
• Fracture Management in Practice. Presented by Karen Perry
• Salvage Surgery. Presented by Scott Rutherford 
• Decision making in Clinical Neurology. Presented by Peter Early

Orthomed says the presentations are suitable for orthopaedic surgeons of all levels and interests, as well as those looking to get more involved in orthopaedic surgery.

The webinars are being held monthly, starting at the end of March.

The webinar series costs £97, which includes a £150 voucher to redeem against an Orthomed workshop.

In addition, the Webinar Vet has made 15 tickets available free of charge. To see if you can claim one, email Orthomed at info@orthomed.co.uk with the subject title Orthopaedic Webinar.

For more information, visit: https://www.thewebinarvet.com/orthopaedicexpertise 

Animalcare is encouraging veterinary practices to try Daxocox, its new weekly NSAID for the management of OA pain, with an offer of £250 worth of the product completely free of charge.

To claim the free product, visit www.daxocox.co.uk/trial and use the stock selector to pick the dose sizes to suit the patients you think Daxocox could help. 

Animalcare Marketing Manager James Beaumont explained: “When you consider that recent data shows that up to 20% of dogs over one year of age could have some form of OA¹, the scale of problem becomes clear – as does the threat to the welfare of our canine companions from OA pain.

“Owners already giving Daxocox to their OA-affected pets, have seen first-hand how it can significantly improve their quality of life.

"90% said that their dog’s osteoarthritis improved, with 84% reporting that their dog’s quality of life improved from “poor or fair” to “good, very good or excellent.”²

James added: “In a study carried out by Animalare, 88% of owners said that weekly NSAID dosing would be easier to remember, or mean they were less likely to miss a dose or that it would control their dog’s pain more effectively.³

“Used as a first line treatment for OA, Daxocox can provide a solid foundation to long-term pain management that suits vets, dogs and their owners.

"As such, we’re confident that once practices have tried it, it will become their canine OA NSAID of choice.”

For more information, visit www.daxocox.co.uk

References

1. Anderson K. L., Zulch H., O’Neill D.G., Meeson R. L., Collins L.M. (2020) Risk Factors for Canine Osteoarthritis and Its Predisposing Arthropathies: A Systematic Review. Front Vet Sci. 7: 220.
2. Internal report: DA/197/C, pending publication
3. Daxocox® Pet Owner Insight Executive Summary (N=200) January 2021.

Companion Care Vets has been named as one of The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies To Work For, the first veterinary organisation to receive the accolade.

Companion Care, which has 90 surgeries across the UK (the majority within Pets at Home stores) launched its joint venture partner model in 2001. The group received a "first class" one-star status from The Sunday Times, and was ranked at number 69 overall, a position determined by employee views, staff policies, processes and services.

Best Companies Accreditation is based around employee engagement and listed companies are noted for "excelling in every area throughout the workplace." Particularly recognised is an organisation's commitment to its most important assets - its workforce.

Jane Balmain, Managing Director of Companion Care Vets said: "We value every member of our team who have all worked tirelessly over the past 11 years to help our expansion into the market leader we are today. Without the commitment and expertise of every person within the organisation this would not have been possible and for us to receive this recognition, and on our first try, is outstanding."

Jane added: "To be the first veterinary organisation to receive Best Companies Accreditation is an honour and we will strive to continue to provide an exceptional working environment for our teams."

As part of the survey process 79% of Companion Care Vets' employees said their jobs are good for personal growth, 76% felt their jobs were secure and a fantastic 81% said colleagues are committed to taking care of each other.

With 109 Joint Veterinary Partners and a further 867 employees in the group, Companion Care Vets is one of the largest veterinary employers in the UK. The company plans to have 200 surgeries in place by 2015 which will create a host of career opportunities for vets and veterinary support teams around the UK.

Zoetis Business Consulting has announced the launch of Profitsolver, a software tool designed to boost practice profits.

The software has already been rolled out in the US, where Zoetis says that it has delivered an average of £103,000 extra profit to veterinary practices within a year.

Profitsolver uses the practice's actual data - not benchmarks or accepted norms - to enable the practice to manage costs, set prices and gain return on investments. By using an activity-based costing model and using a variety of data such as practice costs, which staff perform which part of the procedure, how long the procedure takes and what equipment and materials are used, Profitsolver calculates the correct pricing to both cover costs and deliver a predetermined profit margin.

Zoetis says that Profitsolver helps practices to understand how the overall practice profit is being generated. For instance, for price sensitive procedures such as vaccination, the practice can match their prices with the competition, but maintain their profit margin by increasing the price for other clinical services.

Nick Steele, national consulting manager at Zoetis said: "Veterinary practices have no standard method for pricing their services and they are often unable to determine which services make money and which don't. This hampers the practice's ability to accurately value the business and, as a result, profit levels tend to be low for many practices. Profitsolver can turn this situation around and already has a very successful track record in the US."

Zoetis piloted the UK version of Profitsolver with John Goulding at St Georges Veterinary Group. He said: "By and large the veterinary profession still relies on the mark-up of medicines where profits are concerned. Even practices that have made a concerted effort to move away from this type of pricing structure are still making their money from the sale of medicines rather than from vets' fees. For years I have wanted to know exactly how to price our services and this new Profitsolver software does just that.

"Most costs have an element of staff time, an element of fixed assets or equipment and an element of disposable items. Profitsolver takes all of these into account, adds the predetermined profit margin and produces an accurate pricing structure for each procedure undertaken within the practice.

"It's important to take the time at the start to put accurate data in from the practice's latest set of accounts and the Zoetis business consultant will guide practices through this to make the initial set up as easy as possible. For instance, for major pieces of equipment such as X-ray machines, you have to work out how many times a year you are likely to use them.

"By using Profitsolver, we worked out that if we do exactly the same amount of work as last year we can increase our bottom line by at least £200,000 for our 18 vet practice. Since last November, when we installed Profitsolver, we have completely changed our pricing structure moving away from focusing on medicines and the size of the animal to rethink how we charge our clinical care.

"An unexpected benefit is that Profitsolver has made me much more confident about the prices we charge to clients as it is all broken down, so we can see exactly how the invoice is made up. I would be at a loss without it now."

For more information about Profitsolver, contact your Zoetis account manager.

An independent Somerset practice with branches in Wells and Shepton Mallet is celebrating its 100th year in business. 

Founded in 1922, the practice has come a long way from the days when its founder, Tom Patterson did his rounds on a motorbike with a sidecar.

It's now a successful farm and small animal two branch practice with over 60 staff.

To celebrate its centenary, Shepton Vets published a book called '100 years of Shepton Vets' and held a large summer party.

In September, the practice will be holding a 100km fundraising cycle ride to raise money for the Farming Community Network charity.

The farm animal practice has also organised the ‘Tour de Yorkshire,’ a trip to visit three farms based in Yorkshire who are modernising and adapting their dairy businesses to be resilient and successful in the changing industry. 

Senior director, Paddy Gordon, said: “Turning one hundred is important. We may have grown substantially but we haven’t lost the family and community feel. We want to bring our community, near and far along with us on this celebration.”

It may not be quite the same as a telegram from the Queen, but VetSurgeon.org wishes Shepton Vets a very Happy Birthday!

An international group of scientists has published new results that herald a breakthrough in finding a vaccine against the most commonly diagnosed infectious disease of horses, strangles.

UK experts from the Animal Health Trust collaborated with scientists from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), the Karonlinska Institutet Medical University and Intervacc AB, on the project - the results of which could benefit humans as well as animals.

Professor Andrew Waller, Head of Bacteriology at the AHT, said: "We have been working towards developing a vaccine for 7 years, and finally it seems as if all the hard work is paying off. We've already developed better ways of diagnosing exposure to the infection, and now, with the success of creating a safe and effective vaccine, it looks as if we're finally bringing together the tools necessary to eradicate this terrible disease."

The vaccine consists of seven different Streptococcus proteins and results from early tests published in PLoS Pathogens have been incredibly positive showing a high level of protection and no side effects. It is hoped that the strangles vaccine could be commercially available in the near future.

Streptococcus equi, the bacterium that causes strangles, shares 80 per cent identity with Streptococcus pyogenes - the leading cause of bacterial pharyngitis, tonsillitis and rheumatic fever in humans, which kills thousands of people each year.  Scientists hope that the knowledge gained through developing the strangles vaccine will also help in developing vaccines to combat these human conditions.

Research leader, Professor Bengt Guss of SLU, said: "This is a most exciting project, where research is generating new applications and knowledge that can be used to develop vaccines against these important bacteria. This is particularly important considering the increased number of infectious diseases caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria."

The vaccine development work was only made possible thanks to information from the Streptococcus equi genome sequencing project funded by The Horse Trust.

The Horse Trust's Chief Executive Brigadier Paul Jepson, said: "We are absolutely delighted that by pulling apart the genome of this plague of the horse world scientists have generated a truly safe and effective strangles vaccine. That this work could also benefit other animal and human health is beyond our wildest hopes."

Full text of the research findings can be found in PLoS Pathogens online at http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1000584

Virbac Animal Health has launched an extra small version of its VeggieDent dental chews for dogs weighing less than 5kg. 

Research commissioned by the company shows that 9% of all dogs in the UK weigh less than 5kg¹ and that periodontal disease is over-represented in this group².

According to the Kennel Club, celebrity culture is boosting the popularity of small breeds. Apparently there was a 25% increase in Kennel Club registrations of Chihuahuas in 2011, following publicity about Paris Hilton and her Chihuahua. Virbac says numbers of other small miniature breeds such as pugs are also growing rapidly.

Virbac says VeggieDent chews are designed to work with the animal's chewing action, 100% vegetable, highly palatable and feature a special design to increase chewing time. A recent study³ showed that a daily XS VeggieDent reduced halitosis as well as significantly reducing gingivitis, plaque, and tartar accumulation.

Chris Geddes MRCVS, Product Manager at Virbac said:  "With growing numbers of very small dogs in the UK, we wanted to produce a chew which was exactly the right size for them.

VeggieDent Chews are already popular among dog owners because they are a nutritious and palatable plaque control aid, minimising tartar build up and improving breath odour.  With the launch of the extra small size, we now offer the perfect chew for every size of dog."

For further information, contact your Territory Manager or call Head Office on 01359 243243.

References:

1. TNS Sofres survey conducted for Virbac October 2011
2. Hoffman TH, Gaengler P. Clinical and pathomorphological investigation of spontaneously-occurring periodontal disease in dogs. Journal of Small Animal Practice 1996; 37: 471-479.
3. Clarke DE, Kelman M, Perkins N. Effectiveness of a vegetable dental chew on periodontal disease parameters in toy breed dogs. Journal of Veterinary Dentistry. 2011; 4: 230-235.