✅ Accreditation Woes and Humpback Whales

Plus: we hear from you on poo

Author

Obi Veterinary Education
November 19, 2023

Hello 👋

Welcome to Weekend Rounds! Well, it was certainly a busy week outside of veterinary medicine. Since you last heard from us in pop culture, technology and entertainment:

  • Taylor Swift cancelled a show in Rio due to extreme heat and the heartbreaking passing of a young fan.

  • Sam Altman was ousted as OpenAI CEO, and is possibly returning.

  • Chinese President Xi Jinping visited San Francisco to meet with Joe Biden to discuss China-U.S. relations. And yes, more pandas may be on the way.

  • SpaceX’s second attempt at a rocket launch went further than the first, but still ended in a a fiery explosion - and one of the most surreal photographs you will ever see.

But inside our wonderful #VetMed bubble, we had:

✅ Accreditation Woes for Arizona
✍️ VIN’s Student Essay Competition.
💩 Diarrhea Update
🐋 Updates from Around the Animal Kingdom
🚀 Quick Hits

✅ Accreditation Woes for Arizona

The University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine is struggling to achieve full accreditation from the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education. The college has not achieved the 80% NAVLE pass rate and has deficiencies in 5 other accreditation standards. Only 72% of this year’s inaugural graduating class passed the NAVLE resulting in extending the conditional accreditation to 2025. And what’s more concerning - the new vet school is not the only location with a low pass rate. The overall NAVLE pass rate has been dropping over the last 3 years from 95% in 2019-20 to 86% in 2022-23.

✍️ Student Essay Competition Tackles Telemedicine

The VIN Foundation’s 8th annual Solutions for the Profession Competition has launched with a focus on Telemedicine. The essay competition gives students the opportunity to submit essays covering the year’s topic and addressing key issues in the profession. Last year, the topic centered around the pros and cons of a distributed teaching hospital format for veterinary schools. This year, the essay topic is:

There are current efforts to expand the use of telemedicine and alter the criteria for establishing a veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR).

Entrants must answer the following two questions in their essay:

1. What are the pros and cons for veterinarians, clients and patients that will result from these efforts?

2. If you were able to dictate the outcome of this issue, what would you propose as the best framework to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks to veterinarians, clients and patients?”

Which begs the question, what are the pros and cons and how can we maximize the benefits of telemedicine? We’d love to hear your thoughts. And if you are a student consider entering the competition through the VIN Foundation.

💩 Diarrhea Update

Last week we covered new research that suggests antibiotics are no longer recommended to treat diarrhea in dogs. Check out last week’s issue for more or just read this one sentence summary: in a recent study from the Royal Veterinary College VetCompass program, which collects large datasets from primary practices across the UK, in almost 900 dogs treated for diarrhea there was no difference in resolution between those who received antibiotics and those who did not.

So we asked you: will you give antibiotics to the next dog presenting with acute diarrhea?

54% responded only in the most serious cases
38% responded no
8% responded yes

Here are some of the responses we received:

“I typically send antibiotics with my HGE pups or those with whom the diarrhea has been chronic and other treatment options aren't helping.”

“These days I usually start these dogs on psyllium fiber and bland diet and do fecal O&P as my first line of treatment. If diarrhea does not improve in 3-5 days or worsens before that, then I consider adding an antibiotic like metro”

Thanks for sharing with the Weekend Rounds and Obi Veterinary Education community!

🎓️ End of year CE

Don’t look now, but there are just 42 days left in 2023. SO, if you’re looking for end-of-year CE that actually works, check out the All Access Pass from Obi Veterinary Education. You’ll get full access to 26 hours of on-demand RACE-approved content in radiology, dentistry, ophthalmology, oncology and endocrinology. Plus, when new courses are added, they’ll automatically be added to your course library. You’ll have access to your on-demand courses for a full 12-months so you can learn on your schedule, and go back for a refresher whenever you need it.

🐳 Animal Kingdom

As vets, you might say our lives revolve around animals. And you would not be wrong. Here are some of the stories from across the animal kingdom that caught our attention this week.

The birth of a humpback whale was caught on camera for the first time.

National Geographic released a clip this week, and more footage should be released today on the new episode of Incredible Animal Journeys:

Climate Change is Disrupting Animals’ Brains

The major functions of the nervous system – sense detection, mental processing and behavior direction – are critical tools that allow animals to navigate their environments in ways that enable their survival and reproduction. Climate change will likely affect these functions, often for the worse according to Scientific American.  

🚀 Quick Hits

Nature Photographer Of The Year Contest [Forbes]

Innovative veterinary learning health care system at UF will use AI to improve clinical care and treatments [Canine Chronicle]

AVMA President's Column: Solving today’s workforce challenges to ensure a bright future [AVMA]

Why are hybrid animals sterile? [Harvard]

Have you wondered what your cat is thinking? These app developers have, too [CBC]

Chief veterinary officer confirms case of bluetongue in England [Agriland]