Clinical

How The Donkey Sanctuary is supporting multi-species rabies vaccination campaigns

Rabies is one of the deadliest diseases for mammals and is of huge global importance as a zoonosis. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 59 000 human deaths are caused by rabies annually...

Anaesthesia in exotics part 3: reptiles

Reptiles do not benefit from 100% oxygen during recovery because their stimulus to breathe is a lowered PaO2 (hypoxia). Providing 100% oxygen can lead to apnoea (Hedley, 2022). To stimulate...

How modern in-house diagnostics compare to external reference laboratories

One of the main benefits of testing in-house is the speed. Quick results reduce client stress (Giger, 2010), improving the client’s relationship with the veterinary team, reducing the likelihood of...

Improving feline and canine anaesthetic safety: a clinical audit on premedication choices

RCVS Knowledge: Clinical audit - https://knowledge.rcvs.org.uk/quality-improvement/tools-and-resources/clinical-audit/.

Chocolate toxicosis in pets

Chocolate is made from the fermented, dried then roasted beans of Theobroma cacao (Figure 1). After roasting, the shell is removed, and the remaining nibs are ground to cocoa mass which is liquefied...

The impact of human factors on veterinary anaesthesia

Human factors have frequently been studied in professions where mistakes can have disastrous consequences, such as the aviation industry and human medicine, and is now being considered more in...

RVN's perceptions of confidence levels of veterinary professionals when assessing pain in rabbits

In human medicine, doctors can rely on their patient's ability to communicate where the pain is and how much pain they are in, however, we cannot communicate in the same language as animals and so we...

Diabetes mellitus in dogs and cats and its associated complications

Diabetes mellitus impairs the body's ability to produce or respond to the hormone insulin, resulting in abnormal metabolism of carbohydrates and elevated levels of glucose in the blood and urine (Niaz...

Feline transfusion medicine for registered veterinary nurses

Feline blood types are determined using the AB blood system, which consists of three blood groups: A, B or AB. The clinical significance of feline blood groups is mainly because of the high level of...

Understanding canine atopic dermatitis

Canine atopic dermatitis is diagnosed initially with the clinical evaluation of a combination of criteria that are closely associated with the disease (DeBoer and Hillier, 2001). Once it is certain...

Workshop write up: responsible use of parasiticides

Education of both veterinary professionals and pet owners is key. Veterinary nurses should stay informed by keeping up to date with the latest advances in parasite control and following...