Weekend Rounds - 05.01

Wellbeing on everyone's mind

May 01, 2022

Hi , 

Happy World Veterinary Day!

We hope you had a chance to enjoy the big day and your weekend. We've scoured the veterinary and animal headlines for the week to bring you the most important news to get prepped for your week. Here's what we've got for you today:

🌍 New reporting on climate change

🕷  Why animals shed their skin

🧘  How we need to reframe the conversation on wellbeing  

🤣 Meme of the week 

Climate Change is kind of a bummer

Stop us if you've heard this one before... but it seems climate change is pretty bad. If the natural disasters, severe weather patterns, wildlife extinctions, rising sea levels, famine, and population displacement didn't convince you -

might win you over. 

The study hypotheses that as animals are displaced from their native lands - most commonly to cooler areas - animals that wouldn't normally interact will begin to meet. With these new opportunities to share viruses, there is a higher chance of zoonotic spillover and... well after the last few years we think you get the rest. As the study predicts over 3000 animals will be displaced, the results are rightfully a cause for concern.

The article spurred some great reporting from

 and

where they outline the time period we have created, the Pandemicene.  Building on the same theme they discuss how climate change has created and will continue to create an ever shifting landscape of zoonotic diseases and the possibility and probability of more pandemics.

Elsewhere,

published an article citing 

showing that climate change is shrinking animals - especially some bird species.  Studying birds that had died hitting windows in Chicago (talk about a depressing dataset) researchers found that birds have been shrinking over the last 40 years.  However, those with smaller brains relative to body size are disproportionately affected.

So yeah... climate change is kind of a bummer.

The Animals' New Coat

The best part of science reporting is when an article approaches a topic that rarely crosses your mind.  Like this one from

on how and why animals shed their skin. There appear to be two main reasons; growth and health (rids animals of ectoparasites).

The article is a fascinating read with a number of unique versions of shedding.  Take the cockroach who "splits right down the middle of their back" and "pops out maybe in 20 minutes or less." Some lizards and frogs eat the skin they shed, which is known as dermatophagy. Insects, such as 

, also chow down on their former exoskeletons.  Did you know that many turtles shed their scutes, the keratin plates overlapping parts of their shell?

Give the article a read if you need some facts to make you the most interesting person at the next veterinary team event.

Conversations on Wellbeing

By this time you have probably read a million blog posts or sat through a dozen lunch and learns on the things you can do to improve your own wellbeing.  Those wonderful top ten lists of ways to remain mindful, bring yoga into your daily routine or remember to pee at work.  Self care is great and if you have the bandwidth, by all means, get cracking on these great ideas.  But in our experience, veterinary staff don't have that bandwidth.  They work in practices without the appropriate staffing, equipment and resources and are asked to take on an ever increasing workload due to a relative shortage of veterinarians.  Asking us to solve our own wellbeing crisis is like asking someone in a burning building to put out a fire.  Help needs to come from the top.  That is the theme of this week's post on the Obi Blog.  Making a systemic change is possible, but the onus must be on organizations, not individuals.Today also marks the inaugural Veterinary Visionaries collaboration hosted by "nearly 50 organization that have banded together for online, crowd sourced, problem-solving."  The challenge is currently open and the group is currently looking for answers to the question "How might we build systemic solutions and support for veterinary teams to continuously improve mental wellbeing, especially related to moral distress, ethical trauma, and compassion resilience?"  If you have an idea or want to see the ideas listed, sign up and check it out.  

Trivia

When was World Veterinary Day started?

Your weekly dopamine 

Digging up

on unsolicited advice from 2020 has given us some good laughs this week.  We prefer to think of them as veterinary wellbeing advice.  It helps to laugh.  If you have a version you love, reply to this email and send us your best.

Trivia Answer

2001

The history of the day dates all the way back to 1863.  Professor John Gamgee from Veterinary College of Edinburgh invited veterinarians from Europe for a meeting. This meeting was named International Veterinary Congress. In 1906, the members from 8th session of World Veterinary Congress had formed a permanent committee.  Almost 100 years later in 2001, the World Veterinary Association made World Veterinary Day on the last Saturday of April.  This year's theme is Strengthening Veterinary Resilience.

Let us know what you'd like to see in future editions of Weekend Rounds by replying to this email.