The Summer Olympics include far more animals (and therefore veterinarians), so we were excited to do a deep dive on Veterinarians at the Olympics. The Winter Olympics don’t have as many connections but there was some fun this week.

As far as we can tell, only one veterinarian is competing at the Olympics. 37-year-old Dr. Attila Mihály Kertész competed in cross-country skiing, and although they finished second-to-last, our hats are off to Dr. Kertész for qualifying and competing at the highest level.

There were no veterinarians competing in women's cross-country sprint but there was a patient! Meet Nazgul the wolfdog who lives near the course with his owners and snuck into primetime last week. As expected, Nazgul received a roaring ovation as he crossed the finish line:

Lastly in our pop culture round up, The Simpsons delivered a spot-on parody of The Pitt, swapping trauma bays for treatment tables in a chaotic veterinary ER.

Cartoon Dr. Robbie, complete with the thousand-yard stare of a man who’s seen one too many swallowed squeaky toys, must attempt the impossible: save Santa's Little Helper after ingesting a grape filled ambrosia. Code Purple!

An international team of veterinary and human medical researchers published a landmark study in Science mapping the genetics of 493 feline tumors across 13 cancer types, creating the first large-scale genomic atlas of feline cancer. The analysis revealed striking parallels between feline and human cancers, particularly in oncogenes, reinforcing the idea that cats and humans share key biological mechanisms of disease.

Among the most notable findings were similarities between malignant feline mammary tumors and certain subtypes of human breast cancer, as well as comparable mutation rates in the tumor suppressor gene TP53 (33% of feline tumors vs. 34% reported in human cancers). Led in part by the Wellcome Sanger Institute with collaborators including the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph, the study supports the “One Health” model and establishes an open-access genomic resource for future research.

The findings support a shift toward precision oncology in veterinary medicine (targeting specific mutations rather than tumor type alone), highlight UV-associated cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma parallels, and provide a new open-access genomic database to inform diagnostics, prognostics, and potentially mutation-guided chemotherapy selection in cats.

Advances in AI often feel like a revolving door of that Arthur C. Clarke quote: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." But some advances are more magical than others. Early 2026 feels like one of those times.

Since 2022 I have been an active user of ChatGPT and a paying subscriber. But this month I added a Claude subscription to my toolkit, mostly because of their new feature: Claude Cowork.

For those unfamiliar with Anthropic (the makers of Claude), the company has carved out a significant share of the market largely due to the success of its coding model, Claude Code. However, Claude Code has been largely inaccessible to average users, as it requires working in a Terminal or an IDE (coding environments that, to most computer users, look more like a scene from The Matrix than anything approachable).

I have enjoyed AI-assisted coding (vibe coding) for the last few years, building tools for myself and colleagues, but I never took the leap to Claude Code. I relied on tools like Replit, which allows coding through natural language while keeping everything contained in one ecosystem. You can code and deploy to the web without switching applications. Claude Code added a few too many steps for me. And speaking with colleagues, even systems like Replit are generally too technical for anyone without a serious interest in these tools. So while chat-based AI has become popular across the spectrum of digital fluency, coding has remained intimidating for most.

At the same time, it has become increasingly clear that AI-assisted coding will reshape software. It is much easier to build a personal tool today than it ever was. You may not build enterprise software, but you can absolutely solve problems for yourself.

Claude Cowork takes this to the next level.

Software engineers using Claude Code weren't just using it to author code for work projects. They were using it as a personal assistant. Giving AI the ability to write code and access your computer means an "intelligent" system can now use a computer. It represents a significant shift for knowledge workers. Tasks you've been putting off can now be handed to Claude Cowork.

One of the first use cases suggested on its opening page is organizing your screenshots. I have hundreds of screenshots because I include them in imaging reports, and I usually just delete the folder once a year when local storage runs low. I had about a hundred files to organize, so I set Claude to work. Without any instructions beyond its initial prompt, it examined my screenshots folder, decided on an organizational structure (folders by modality, including radiographs, ultrasound, CT, and MRI, named by modality and date, plus a folder for non-imaging content), and accurately sorted them. It recognized what was in the images and labeled them correctly. As I write this, it is also clearing my inbox of old unread messages and setting rules to help me reach and maintain inbox zero.

This is only my first experiment. But the takeaway is clear: Claude Cowork, alongside other AI-assisted platforms, means that everyone is now a mini-coder. You can create your own automations for things only you need. That kind of power simply wasn't available before.

If you haven't tried AI-assisted coding or an agentic use case, now is the time. These skills are becoming nearly essential across many industries. The actual medicine remains the most important part of clinical veterinary work, but these systems represent a real opportunity for the average clinic to operate more efficiently. And for those outside of clinical settings, the possibilities are even broader.

If you want a primer on language models and agentic AI as of February 2026, Ethan Mollick has updated his guide to cover the most recent developments.

At the 2026 American Veterinary Medical Association Veterinary Leadership Conference in Chicago, Dr. Ryan Gibson of Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine shared findings from an informal survey of 54 veterinary students, and the message was clear: mentorship matters, but only if it’s real. Forty-two respondents specifically asked for structured mentorship and onboarding, not vague promises or being “thrown to the wind” as new grads. In addition to formal mentorship, students prioritized team culture and respect, followed by meaningful skill development and growth.

The takeaway? Younger veterinarians are more aware of hollow buzzwords and want real action.

The session also explored a broader values gap between hiring managers and Gen Z, drawing on research from Becoming You Labs. Hiring managers often prioritize achievement, rapid skill expansion, and what researchers call “workcentrism”—the idea that career sits at the center of one’s identity. In practice, that means valuing high output, steep learning curves, and a strong professional drive. But many younger veterinarians place greater emphasis on wellbeing, flexibility, meaningful impact, and having an authentic voice at work. The tension isn’t about work ethic—it’s about where work fits in the bigger picture of life. That mismatch has created what Dr. Gibson described as an “arms race” for the small percentage whose priorities align with traditional expectations.

Build a defined onboarding plan (with timelines, skill benchmarks, and protected mentorship time), assign a dedicated mentor, and articulate concrete support systems (e.g., staff-to-DVM ratios, case review rounds, feedback cadence). Replace clichés like “great culture” with observable behaviors: weekly debriefs, mental health check-ins, collaborative case discussions, and transparent growth pathways. Most importantly, don’t mistake a desire for flexibility as lack of commitment; instead, design mentorship that connects autonomy with accountability, and show how strong client relationships and clinical mastery expand—not restrict—a veterinarian’s career options.

Here are some of the other stories that caught our eye and we're following this week from around the veterinary world and animal kingdom: