The Icarus Warning for Veterinary Medicine

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Is vet med flying on paper wings?

Veterinary medicine stands at a crossroads, according to a new “Icarus”-themed letter to the editor in Today’s Veterinary Business. The usual solutions we hear are calls for quick fixes—more vet schools, mid-level providers, telemedicine expansions, relaxed exam requirements—that promise to solve workforce shortages and access gaps. But authors Link Welborn and Matthew Salois caution against hasty reforms that, like Icarus flying too close to the sun, risk melting the wax of our profession’s core. Instead, they argue, we must chart a steady course grounded in evidence and long-term resilience.

Key arguments:

• Short-term vs. structural fixes: Mid-level practitioners and new schools may ease immediate bottlenecks, but without robust clinical training, standardized curricula, and sustainable faculty pipelines, these measures could erode care quality.

• Lessons from human medicine: Unlike veterinary, human healthcare embraced physician assistants and nurse practitioners only after decades of rigorous outcome studies, scope-of-practice debates, and integration frameworks. Vet med should learn from—not replicate—those pitfalls.

• Telemedicine’s double edge: Remote consults can extend reach, yet over-reliance on it risks fragmenting care and weakening the vital veterinarian–client–patient relationship. Clear guidelines, informed-consent protocols, and hybrid models are needed to safeguard clinical standards.

• Evidence and experience: Policy decisions must rest on data—workforce analyses, practice-outcome metrics, and cost-benefit studies—rather than anecdote or expedience. The authors call for coordinated research consortia and transparent data-sharing across academia, industry, and professional bodies.

Ultimately, Welborn and Salois urge the profession to convene inclusive, interdisciplinary dialogues that balance innovation with stewardship. By resisting the allure of “band-aid” solutions and embracing thoughtful, incremental change, veterinary medicine can soar—not too high, not too low—but at an Icarus-friendly altitude.

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Feline Medicine Gains Ground

Cats are finally getting their due in the veterinary world. The inaugural 2025 World of the Cat Report, initially published in March, sheds light on the advancements in feline demographics, diagnostics, treatments, and nutrition. As the report demonstrates, with over 220 million cats worldwide it’s no wonder that feline medicine has seen a surge in interest. Some key takeaways from the report include:

• While the US has the highest number of domesticated cats (74 million), Russia has the highest percentage of households with a cat (59%).

• In Chine there has been a 113% increase in pet ownership between 2014-2019. It’s clear that this is a global trend.

• In the US, 31% of cats were acquired via shelters; 27% were taken in as strays; just 3% were purchased from a breeder.

• Only 40% of cats visit the vet annually, compared to 82% of dogs.

• Most commonly diagnosed conditions include gastrointestinal disease, dental disease, upper respiratory tract diseases, obesity, kidney disease, and urinary tract disease

• Feline-only hospitals and specialty care is on the rise. In the US there are 46 AAHA-accredited cat-only practices, and 96 ABVP Feline diplomats worldwide

Perhaps most importantly, continuous development in feline medicine means there are new treatments for cats with diabetes mellitus, FIP, and chronic kidney disease. A few that the report highlighted included fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23), a new test for cystatin b, new SGLT2 inhibitors, and a new antiviral that inhibits the replication of feline coronavirus strains that cause FIP called GS-441524.

The also report emphasizes the need for veterinary practices to focus more on feline-specific care, moving beyond the traditional dog-centric approach.

At Obi, we’ve always given cats their well-deserved love. Last week, we covered the surge in feline visits as our lead story, and one of our most popular courses is Dr. Thomson’s Mastering Feline Dentistry:

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Obi co-founder on the Veterinary Vertex Podcast

Every now and then we like to pass along a podcast recommendation, but we’ll admit that this time we’re biased. Obi Veterinary Education co-founder, Dr. Ryan Appleby, joined the JAVMA Veterinary Vertex podcast to discuss the joint position statement from the American College of Veterinary Radiology and European College of Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging on AI technologies.

Give it a listen on the AVMA website, or wherever you get your podcasts:

💊 Torsemide: A New Hope for Canine CHF

At the 2025 Fetch dvm360 Conference in Nashville, Dr. William Rausch presented compelling evidence favoring torsemide over furosemide for treating canine congestive heart failure (CHF). The data suggests that torsemide may provide longer-lasting and more potent diuresis than furosemide, allowing for effective once-daily dosing in most cases. The data presented by Dr. Rausch positions it as a potential new standard in CHF management.

In a European clinical trial, torsemide proved noninferior to furosemide in maintaining CHF stability and reduced the risk of death or heart failure worsening by 50%. A U.S. trial mirrored the European results, showing similar clinical stability and reduced adverse outcomes with once-daily torsemide compared to twice-daily furosemide.

In addition, owners were more compliant with once-daily torsemide, but veterinarians must ensure clients are committed to follow-up care and lab work.

The key takeaway is that new data suggested torsemide is at least as effective as furosemide, with lower morbidity and improved compliance, supporting its earlier use in canine CHF treatment protocols.

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Quick Hits

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: