Continuing Education

Dental health is an important issue for all members of the veterinary practice. As nurses, you are at the forefront of communicating with owners about their pet’s health and need a solid understand of dental disease to be able to off er appropriate recommendations. This course will empower you to apply these skills confidently and competently.

This course will look at what is needed to operate a successful dentistry unit. As well as practical oral anatomy knowledge, dental nomenclature and dental equipment and instrumentation, the course covers how to take a whole mouth series of dental radiographs. An important focus isthe management of the most common disease in dogs: periodontal disease - from the consulting room to the surgery and then back to the home including treatment, homecare advice and disease prevention.

Pre-existing respiratory compromise and some conditions like the brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome can make airway management challenging in small animal anaesthesia. Increased vigilance following premedication and after tracheal extubation is required.  The first module aims to provide practitioners with the information needed to optimise preparation, equipment, time line and sequence of events during induction of anaesthesia and recovery in those cases. The second module focuses on anaesthetic safety of brachycephalic dogs and on the measures that can be implemented to reduce their risk of death.

This course aims to give general practitioners the tools to confidently formulate a diagnostic when presented with an anaemic dog or cat.

Behaviour problem or problem behaviour? Learn to differentiate and maximise treatment success. Improve your ability to help your clients better understand their pets’ behaviour and learn to best manage anxiety, aggression and other common behavioural problems. Discover the latest updates in behavioural pharmacology – the when, why and which of medications. A knowledge of behaviour is integral in maximising patient welfare. A positive experience in your practice for both patient and client will enhance satisfaction all round!

Develop a logical, problem-based approach to the investigation of pruritic skin cases. Skin problems are among the most common reason for presentation in everyday practice. The CVE Dermatology Distance Education program is a modular course that aims to provide you with the practical skills necessary to work-up and resolve these often recurrent cases with minimal frustration for both owner and clinician.   The Pruritic Skin Disease DE course will cover the various common causes of pruritus: including insect hypersensitivities, atopic and contact dermatitis as well as food allergies, Malassezia dermatitis and pruritic parasitic skin diseases.  The pathophysiology of pruritus, including neurogenic and psychogenic pruritus will be reviewed with an emphasis on current and upcoming treatment modalities.

Three enthusiastic and knowledgeable tutors guide you through 10 modules designed to increase your confidence in your ability to diagnose and treat your small animal patients. Using a system-oriented method, the aim of this updated course is to assist you in developing a structured approach that can be applied to any internal medicine problem. Such a framework can be a powerful navigation tool to aid in more rapidly and reliably reaching a diagnosis and developing a treatment protocol, ultimately improving patient outcomes.

Unlike heart disease, chronic renal insufficiency and arthritis, cancer is potentially curable. Advances in chemotherapy and other treatment options have increased the options for palliative care, so that animals can have a prolonged life rather than a prolonged death. This course provides an overview of cancer biology, common chemotherapeutics, other therapies including surgery and radiation, paraneoplastic syndromes, lymphoma, sarcomas, round cell tumours and the complete approach to the cancer patient. Develop the skills to obtain a tissue diagnosis without compromising the patient, tailor  treatment plans for patients with co-morbidities and curate comprehensive palliative care protocols where the emphasis is on quality of life. Know that you are offering your patients – and their people – the most contemporary options and maximising the patient’s welfare.

Develop your ability and confidence to investigate, diagnose and manage your ocular cases, every single time. Learn the fundamentals of a thorough ocular exam from the front to the back of the eye. Case-based learning will increase your confidence in handling ophthalmology in general, equine or small animal practice. The course will present the latest evidence-based information as well as numerous videos and images of ophthalmic conditions and procedures. Test your newfound skills with a two-day practical workshop at Dr Stanley’s practice, where you will also have the opportunity to practice surgical techniques.

This course aims to present an overview of surgery and assist you to improve your approach to diagnosis and management of surgical diseases. The resources provided to support your learning in this course include video clips illustrating how to perform procedures, manipulations and operations you can carry out in your own practice. By the end of the course, you will have built a video library of common surgical procedures that you can review prior to performing the procedure. In addition, the course is supplemented by a two-day workshop that combines case studies, surgical demonstrations and an extensive wet lab practical session. Throughout the course, important principles and details are emphasised. For the experienced practitioner, this course will provide both a refresher and a confidence boost for approaching more complex surgeries, while for the beginner, it will provide a strong foundation to pursue surgery with more assurance. In addition, it can help preparations for those looking towards sitting the small animal surgery membership examination of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists.

Improve your diagnostic skills and avoid common mistakes in thoracic diagnosis. Thoracic radiography is one of the most useful clinical tests undertaken in clinical practice and yet one of the most frequently cited areas of confusion. This course aims to increase your ability to take optimal thoracic radiographs and to interpret them confidently. The modules focus on radiographic interpretation, with incorporation of complementary imaging modalities, particularly CT and sonography, to assist in explanations of the radiographic pathological patterns present. Dogs, cats and exotics are all discussed with tutor -written notes, case studies, self-assessed quizzes and individual feedback enhancing the application of your learning. Make the most of the online forum to ask questions and share cases. Get to know your tutor and colleagues at the one-day face to face workshop.