Abstract
AAFP Indianapolis conference reaches new heights
With 724 veterinary professionals and a total of 862 attendees, this year’s AAFP Conference was the largest yet. The themes were feline gastroenterology and endocrinology and the event, held over 4 days in September, featured distinguished speakers, cutting-edge CE and many social gatherings.
Speakers and CE
The meeting kicked off with a pre-conference luncheon, sponsored by Bayer, with Dr Susan Little discussing vectorborne disease agents. Dr Michael Lappin then presented four infectious disease updates during the ABVP Seminar and Social, sponsored by Purina (left). The main conference program offered three full days of CE, and engaged attendees in various topics such as constipation, chronic diarrhea, pancreatitis and diabetes. Dr Gary Norsworthy presented on chronic small bowel disease, stressing the importance of not accepting vomiting as ‘normal’ (right)
Conference speakers also included Dr Sharon Center (above), who focused on liver disease syndromes, hepatic lipidosis and cholangiohepatitis, and Dr Mark Peterson (right) who addressed many aspects of hyperthyroidism, such as diagnostic testing, best treatments, and slowing the progression of CKD. He also discussed hypothyroidism – a disease that is much more common than we think
Cat Friendly Practice (CFP) panelists presented tips on how they implemented the program in their practices and answered questions from those that want to become a CFP. As well as creative ways to implement checklist items, they described how to achieve participation from all staff, and how the program has helped their practices grow
Social time and events
The 2014 AAFP Board of Directors convened with some attendees for a photo (left) before the kick-off of the conference. Many participated in the 7th annual fun run/walk (below and right) – keeping fit after a long day of CE!
Everyone enjoyed the Welcome Reception, sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim, which included stationed activities such as a photo op with a herd of giant cut-out cats (below). Attendees from Brazil meet and greet during the reception (right)
This year’s offsite event party, ‘a black, white, and red affair’, sponsored by Elanco, was held at the Indiana State Museum. The evening featured gondola rides along the canal, live jazz music during cocktail hour and new museum gallery exhibits to explore, after which a DJ helped all to dance the night away
Attendees enthusiastically participated in vendor demos by sponsors and had the opportunity to learn about new products and services in the exhibit hall. There were many opportunities to socialize with colleagues, including at the Exhibitors’ Reception sponsored by Bayer. Bug, the adventure cat, who is comfortable socializing with large groups, even visited the CFP booth in the exhibit hall
iCatCare
Honouring those ‘thinking cat’
International Cat Care, the parent charity of ISFM, presented three ‘Easy to Give’ and four ‘Cat Friendly’ awards at its annual awards ceremony on September 12.
For more information on these awards go to www.icatcare.org.
ISFM
Cat friendly culture spreading worldwide
Over 250 cat friendly clinics in 18 countries have been accredited to date under the ISFM’s Cat Friendly Clinic (CFC) programme. The scheme has two levels of certification – and there are currently 169 ‘gold’ and 86 ‘silver’ CFCs. A further 2500 practices have taken the first step towards becoming a CFC
Blossoming of a new association down under
The Australasian Society of Feline Medicine (ASFM) is enjoying a very successful first year since its inception at the start of 2014. Membership numbers have steadily grown month by month. The additional backing of six corporate foundation supporters for this not-for- profit company has certainly confirmed its formation as being an exciting and worthwhile venture. The society is the first association to concentrate solely on promoting feline-specific matters to the veterinary community throughout the Australasian region.
Although the ASFM is a separate organisation, and not part of International Cat Care and the ISFM, it is proud to act as the ISFM’s first regional partner. In this role it has been busy publicising the work and activities of the ISFM to veterinarians in Australia and New Zealand, most notably the ISFM’s Cat Friendly Clinic programme. All full members of the ASFM are automatically joined as ISFM members, so that they receive all membership benefits, including monthly issues of the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, without the need for two joining fees.
In addition, the ASFM is also pleased to announce it has formed a strategic partnership with the University of Sydney’s Centre for Veterinary Education (CVE). As a result, in April the ASFM was delighted to support the CVE at its very successful ‘Feline Tales’ symposium in Melbourne, and hopes to be associated with similar events in the very near future.
As the ASFM blossoms, it will continue to nurture the growing focus on excellence in feline health care being practised down under.
Feline advocates
In conversation: Gary Norsworthy
As part of a series of interviews with key figures in feline medicine, Nicolette Joosting, of the Vancouver Feline Hospital, Canada, talks to Gary Norsworthy and discovers how he loves to blend research with clinical practice.
AI never wanted to be in academia; I have always been an in-the-trenches guy from the day I graduated from Texas A&M University in 1972. Even then, I appreciated the fact that we understood little about cats and feline diseases. In the early days of my career I saw a lot of cats and lots of conditions that were not understood, but as soon as our early colleagues began to break the code on some diseases I had the opportunity to see things first-hand. I found the more I would write and lecture the more I got involved. I was unique as a speaker because I was not from academia. Speakers from private practice understand the real world practical approach that connects with other practitioners.
AThe two most frustrating diseases for me right now are stomatitis and chronic rhinitis. I would like to conquer both these before I retire – but I would settle for one! In addition, I am engaged in other research projects right now that I would like to complete, including a 2 year study with Dr Debra Zoran of Texas A&M regarding increasing protein intake in cats with chronic kidney disease, a 4 year study with Dr Larry Nagode of calcitriol and kidney disease, a study with Dr Jen Olson Lavallee on the safety of benazepril (with an n of 510), and a sequel study on chronic small bowel disease with an n of 300. I am involved in more research projects now than at any time in my career, and I love the blend of research and clinical practice.
AAs I went through vet school I told everybody I was interested in cats. That was truly not the norm in 1968. Most of my classmates thought I was crazy and wasting my education because clients would not spend money on cats. Cats were like goldfish; if they got sick you euthanized them and got another one. I ignored all that and went looking for a cat-only practice when I graduated, which I found at the Cat Clinic of Seattle. My mentor, Dr Bill Freitag, was marvellous for a new graduate. That was in the era when private practitioners did not have access to specialists and specialty practices. We had to do everything ourselves. That was a tremendous environment for brave practitioners. It forced me to learn diagnostics and therapeutics that are now considered referral procedures. If you want to learn and grow in the profession, you must learn to do things you have been told are referral procedures. Putting yourself in a practice that is well equipped will encourage you to develop your potential.
The main thing to realise is that there are still a lot of things we do not understand. Never go into feline medicine with the attitude that we have all the answers. Much of what we believe now is not true. One of my lecturers in vet school told us, ‘The bad news is that half of what we taught you is wrong. The worse news is we don’t know which half it is!’ Frankly, it wasn’t half that was wrong; it was more like 90%. I suspect 50% is a good estimate today. So go into feline practice with both humility and bravery.
AYou need to look critically at what we are doing in feline medicine, and decide if what we are doing really makes sense. For example, I, like Dr Zoran, think we are protein-depriving older cats with chronic kidney disease by putting them on protein- restricted diets. This is something we have been doing for decades based on a controversial hypothesis in humans. Yet, when we start critically assessing this, we realize it is not logical to restrict protein in an obligate carnivore. You need to challenge things that are supposedly factual. The key to being a researcher is not accepting the status quo or yesterday’s truths.
It’s been said that my generation practiced in the golden age of veterinary medicine. I am concerned the next generation will not do well financially in veterinary medicine. Students are strangling themselves with student debt. Our young colleagues need to appreciate the fact that their debt may not be able to be paid back as a salaried employee, and yet many of them have no desire for ownership. According to a Cable News Network financial expert, one’s student debt should be no more than 10% of one’s first year’s salary!
Our students are not getting financial counselling before they incur this debt, and the financial counselling they receive in their senior year is about how they are going to manage this huge debt. They are typically not told how strangling the debt is going to be, and they are not discouraged at all from taking out more debt. They need to learn how to manage money and to not have the attitude that they ‘owe’ themselves rewards financed on debt. The veterinary schools should have an orientation for first year students where they talk frankly about debt. Even at that point it may be too late, because many are already in debt before starting vet school. Perhaps we should be tackling this at the undergrad level. I have heard many of my externs state, ‘I want to work with animals even if I never make any money.’ They are shocked to find out the hard, cold fact that a loan of $200,000 has a payback of over $300,000 and monthly payments of over $1300 for 20 years. Many will find out a decade later that going to veterinary school was not such a good idea.
Society and lifestyle has changed in favor of the cat, perhaps most rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s. Cats are a desirable pet now, and the general attitude to the value of the cat has changed significantly.
A young Dr Norsworthy, pictured in 1973 giving a blood transfusion to a cat with FeLV
Secondly, black, shorthair, neutered males. I have owned about 15 over the past 45 years and own two now. One of my former cats is on the cover of the latest two editions of The Feline Patient. My view is that black cats bring good luck!