Continuing Education

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.

Rabbits and rodents are becoming increasingly common pets in today’s society. These patients have a profound, innate ability to mask signs of disease. The consequence of this is that they frequently present in a critical condition and require emergency care. This ability to hide clinical illness, combined with their small size and susceptibility to significant stress, can make them challenging creatures to treat.   This course aims to introduce the veterinary clinician to the principles of assessment, triage and stabilisation of rabbit and rodent emergencies. The first module outlines physical exam and diagnostic testing in critical patients. The second module discusses clinical consequences encountered in critical patients and their appropriate management.   The ultimate goal of this course is to improve the knowledge and confidence of veterinarians when faced with rabbit and rodent emergencies and empower them to provide a higher level of care to these species.

Are you responding to these presentations to the best of your ability? Are you equipped to objectively assess the magnitude of risk to your patient? If you feel a sense of panic when these calls come in – or if you want to be sure you’re doing everything you can – this course is for you.  Join our toxicology experts as they take a comprehensive body systems approach to pharmaceutical poisonings. Overdose or accidental ingestion, knowledge of where and how pharmaceuticals have the potential to cause injury or compromise will shape your immediate response. When initial therapy can make all the difference to survival, you need to be confident in your approach to treatment. Additionally, our tutors take look at toxins, venoms and poisons in the natural environment, with a particular focus on the Australian context. Covering threats from plants, animals and microbes, you’ll learn what presents an immediate threat and how to respond.   There are few better feelings as a clinician than knowing you’ve treated a patient successfully. This is the course to help you develop the knowledge you need.

Lymphoma can arise in almost any tissue in the body. It is the most commonly diagnosed haematopoietic cancer in the dog and cat; in fact the incidence of gastrointestinal and atypical feline lymphoma is increasing. Due to its varied presentation, it still can be a challenge to diagnose confidently. Thankfully, advances in laboratory technology over the past decade have improved our ability to both competently diagnose and individualise a patient’s optimal treatment.

Dentistry is a significant part of companion animal practice – and it’s becoming more so. Do you have the skills to confidently approach the surgical management of dental disease? Can you perform the procedures needed with efficiency whilst minimising complications to your patient?

This TimeOnline course is intended to provide participants with a set of skills to improve their capacity to conduct in house cytopathology as an adjunct to canine and feline case management. You will be taken through a transitional and streamlined program starting with cytopathological specimen collection and preparation; how to establish a common sense approach to examining and interpreting cytopathological smears; and application of that approach to the diagnosis of common degenerative, inflammatory and neoplastic diseases affecting skin and lymph nodes. The course is designed to gradually and surely build confidence and cytopathological experience so that you can more effectively reach a diagnosis and apply that to case management.

This course focuses on a radiographic approach to abdominal imaging, but will be supplemented with discussion of other imaging modalities. The usefulness of ultrasonography will be explored for imaging abdominal viscera and, where relevant, the application of other diagnostic tools such as computer tomography (CT) will be discussed and demonstrated. Develop an ordered approach to imaging the vomiting dog or cat and gain an appreciation for the imaging appearances of common abdominal diseases. 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.

What are the differences between dogs and cats in their nutritional requirements? How can you use this knowledge to better advise owners about how to feed their animals? Over the past 40 years, the widespread feeding of commercial foods to dogs and cats has diminished awareness of the special nutritional characteristics of these domestic animals. Although commercial foods, formulated to meet the known nutrient requirements of dogs and cats have ensured good nutritional health, there are still circumstances where malnutrition of these species can occur. The aims of this course are to emphasise the differences between dogs and cats in their nutritional requirements, to draw attention as to how this knowledge can help veterinarians better advise dog and cat owners about how to feed their animals and to awaken an understanding about how nutritional knowledge can assist in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease.

Ophthalmic surgery is often put in the too hard basket and referred on to specialists. This course is designed to give you a better understanding of the principles and practicalities of performing eye surgery with the aim of expanding the range of procedures you can confidently offer your clients. The course will feature a number of video procedures to help guide your learning. Veterinary nurses with a special interest in the topic are welcome to enrol in this course. Please be aware that the course is designed for qualified veterinarians and you should consider this in light of your knowledge and experience before you register.

Immune-mediated disease - When the immune system goes haywire The immune-system is a miraculous system but when it is hypersensitive, it can lead to a number of diseases. The course will review the mechanisms underlying the different hypersensitivity reactions as well common immunosuppressive/immunomodulatory drugs used in veterinary medicine. The course will focus on three of the most common immune mediated diseases which we see in practice, namely immune mediated Haemolytic Anaemia, Polyarthritis and Thrombocytopaenia and aims to help you confidently work up these tricky cases.

The aging process is natural in all animals and we do perceive a lot of the physical changes our pets go through. They gradually “slow down”, spend more time in bed, seem to have “stiff joints” when getting up from a laying position and can present many other “geriatric” symptoms - not only musculoskeletal, but linked to other systems too.

Many dermatoses in dogs and cats are recurrent, and effective management can be difficult and provide great frustration to both owners and veterinarians.

To err is to be human (Alexander Pope, 1711) – it is normal for people to make mistakes. Most senior veterinarians will say they are a better clinician because of the mistakes they have made. Many of us however feel ashamed or self-conscious about sharing these stories. Join Terry King, a veterinarian with decades of experience, as he presents a potpourri of tips and hints learned - mostly the hard way, which helped shape his approach to small animal practice.

Closure of wounds on the distal limb in dogs and cats are a challenge for clinicians due to limited available local skin. Seed grafting is a simple technique that can be used to reconstruct wounds on the distal limb where other reconstructive techniques are not suitable. This webinar will discuss the principles of skin grafting, how to perform seed grafting and the clinical outcomes in a case series of dogs.

Have you ever had a trauma patient arrive, and all you can think of is ‘where do I start?’. This course is designed for emergency veterinarians as well as general practitioners around how to deal with traumatic emergencies. There are many layers of managing trauma patients, from the initial triage and stabilisation through to advanced surgery; monitoring critical patients; and dealing with associated complications. This will be an intensive course where you will develop a broad range of skills and knowledge that you can also apply to many of your other patients as well. We promise it will be challenging but rewarding!

Within a clinic, veterinary nurses are usually responsible for receiving inbound wildlife patients and their ability to provide immediate, efficient first aid and stress reduction so often makes all the difference between life and death for many of our orphaned and injured wildlife.

Make the most of in-house clinical pathology and achieve accurate, rapid diagnoses. Do you want to maximise the benefits of your bench-top analyser and in-house pathology? Achieve rapid, cost-effective diagnoses with increased confidence? Ensure that your bench-top analyser is providing accurate information?

Gain the skills and in-depth knowledge required for those challenging cardiorespiratory patients with this course. Advance your diagnostic ability with a hands-on echocardiology workshop.

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.

If cats could talk, they’d be the first to tell you that they require refined, particular and focused care. An unwell cat poses many unique challenges to the small animal practitioner and the difference between managing canine and feline patients (in both the art and the science of veterinary medicine) is well recognised.

Make the most of in-house clinical pathology and achieve accurate, rapid diagnoses. Do you want to maximise the benefits of your bench-top analyser and in-house pathology? Achieve rapid, cost-effective diagnoses with increased confidence? Ensure that your bench-top analyser is providing accurate information?

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 practice.

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.