The Veterinary Nurse – now part of the UK-VET group of titles – is the leading international peer-reviewed journal for veterinary nurses. It publishes evidence-based clinical, educational and practical articles, in addition to the latest nurse-led veterinary research. It promotes gold standard care by supporting readers’ continuing professional development and by sharing best practice worldwide.
A haemangiosarcoma is a type of cancer that is common in dogs. Most cases originate from the spleen. Typically these patients present with haemoabdomen for splenectomy. Care should be taken to thoroughly assess and stabilise the patient prior to...
The ownership of brachycephalic pets has increased significantly in recent years. Anatomical abnormalities, alongside a higher incidence of inherited...
Achieve all your CPD: The Veterinary Nurse produces an extensive range for CPD content, supporting subscribers to complete the mandatory requirement of 45 hours’ CPD over a 3-year period. Premium and website subscribers can access our latest and archive modules, a selection of which can be found below. Subscribe Today
Recovery from anaesthesia begins when the maintenance agent is discontinued and the patient starts to regain consciousness. The importance of patient monitoring throughout the recovery period should not be underestimated and no matter the patient or procedure, individual risks for the recovery period should be identified and mitigated. Each patient will recover differently from their anaesthetic experience. How the pre-anaesthesia, induction and maintenance phases of the anaesthesia have been prepared and planned will contribute to how the patient will recover.
Temperature management is a vital but often overlooked area of anaesthesia. By nature, anaesthetics inhibit the area of the brain responsible for maintaining normothermia, and many anaesthetic drugs exacerbate heat loss through vasodilation. Both hypothermia and hyperthermia can manifest under anaesthesia and present life-threatening changes to the patient's normal homeostatic mechanisms. This series of articles will discuss the risk factors, prevention methods and complications associated with hypothermia and hyperthermia.
The values and personal beliefs of veterinary staff and clients can be a cause of conflict. Understanding how values contribute to conflict improves the veterinary nurse's ability to minimise and resolve these conflicts. This article describes the key issues of value conflict and methods for resolving such conflicts in the veterinary environment.
Traditionally, humans treated their companion dogs with absolute authority. Furthermore, much of human behaviour towards dogs is cloaked in myths and driven by human-centric labels such as ‘good,’ ‘bad,’ ‘stubborn’ or ‘friendly’ to describe behaviours, emotions, traits or personalities. This has meant that companion dogs have little, if any, autonomy or choice in what happens to them, and this can be traumatic and emotionally damaging. However, providing dogs with the opportunity to make choices when and where it is safe and appropriate to do so may improve their optimism and is part of a clear two-way system of communication between humans and dogs. This translates to reduced stress and enhanced positive welfare that includes their emotional wellness. Cooperative care is a training protocol that provides some measure of predictability and clarity. It removes ambiguity and thus reduces stress from handling. Because it allows the animal to choose to participate or not, it builds trust and grants for some degree of bodily autonomy. The practical applications have additional effects on overall wellness and also reduce the chances of aggressive behaviours that may lead to human injury and veterinary care can be improved, with benefits to the dog, staff and clients.
The clinical learning environment is a complex sociocultural landscape that can be challenging to...
A 7-month-old domestic short-hair male neutered cat, Crumble, arrived at hospital after falling from...
