Preventive Medicine
Is There an Optimal Age for Cat Spay or Neuter?
Several studies illustrate the benefits of spaying/neutering a cat before it reaches 5 months of age, the approximate time it reaches sexual maturity.
Urology & Renal Medicine
Managing Feline Urethral Obstruction
Feline UO is a common emergency. Diagnosis of UO in cats is straightforward, but the difficulty lies in recognition of the problem at home.
Pharmacology
Cefovecin Sodium for Skin and Soft Tissue Infections
Convenia's (cefovecin sodium) convenient one-time dosing eliminates reliance on owner compliance while providing efficacy similar to that of traditional oral antibiotic regimens.
Integrative Medicine
Herbal Therapies for Osteoarthritis
Given the relatively limited pharmaceutical treatment options for patients with osteoarthritis, herbal therapies and other nonpharmaceutical options are viable alternatives worthy of consideration.
Diagnostics
Update on Clinical Acute Pain Assessment in Cats
Inadequately diagnosed and treated acute pain can result in serious, lifelong physiologic and psychologic consequences. Implementation of pain assessment tools can improve a veterinary hospital’s success in pain management.
Internal Medicine
Essential to Every Cell: Cobalamin in Health and Disease
Cobalamin, commonly known as vitamin B12, is a water-soluble vitamin used by every cell in the body, thus is required for maintenance of normal physiologic functions. Given cobalamin’s essential role in health, it follows that cobalamin-deficient states, or hypocobalaminemia, can contribute to disease pathophysiology.
Hematology
Immune-Mediated Hemolytic Anemia
The mortality rate among dogs with immune-mediated hemolytic anemia is high, but long-term prognosis after survival of the first months of treatment is fair.
Nutrition
Performing a Diet Trial to Identify Food Allergies in Dogs and Cats
Confirmation of an adverse food reaction depends on reduction or resolution of clinical signs while the animal is being fed a strict elimination diet, recurrence of clinical signs when the animal's diet is challenged, and resolution of signs after the elimination diet has been reinstated.
Soft Tissue Surgery
Wound Reconstruction Techniques: Free Skin Grafts
In order to properly treat sizable wounds on the distal extremities of small animals, it’s helpful to know how skin grafts heal, tips for avoiding graft failure, and how to perform full-thickness meshed sheet and punch grafting.