Abstract
AAFP
Senior and Geriatric Care & Emergency Medicine and Critical Care
You are invited to attend the 2018 AAFP Conference, which will be held in Charlotte, NC, USA from September 27-30. This conference will join together veterinary healthcare professionals who are dedicated to increasing their feline knowledge and who are passionate about elevating the standard of care for cats.
The senior and geriatric care topics will cover anesthesia, cognitive dysfunction, assessing chronic pain, feline hospice and euthanasia, nutritional management, comorbidities, and more.
Emergency medicine and critical care sessions will include lectures on urinary tract obstruction, diabetic ketoacidosis, triage of the emergency patient, feeding tubes, respiratory distress, global FAST ultrasound, decontamination of toxicities, proactive lung ultrasound, shock and transfusion medicine.
In addition, the conference offers ancillary sessions on a variety of feline topics during the pre-conference day, a feline-friendly handling lab, luncheon seminars and technician / nurse tracks. Also, new for this year, there will be a track on practice management.
Cat owner awareness and marketing
The AAFP will be attending events geared towards cat owners to help educate the cat-loving public about the need to schedule regular preventive care check-ups. In addition, AAFP will share some of its resources, including:
Educational client brochures and flyers
The benefits of visiting Cat Friendly Practices
The AAFP will be exhibiting at Cat Camp NYC, USA in May and CatCon LA, USA in August.
Cat Friendly Practice poster receives Vetty Award
At the 2018 Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX), formerly the NAVC, the AAFP earned a Gold Vetty Award and Best in Show Non-Profit. The award recognized the creative excellence of the Cat Friendly Practice (CFP) program’s new in-clinic poster. The poster showcases the value of CFPs to cat owners, as well as emphasizing the clinic’s dedication to reducing stress during the visit and creating better veterinary visits for cats, cat caregivers and veterinary staff.
Heather O’Steen, AAFP CEO, comments: ‘We are proud to be recognized for our creative content for the CFP program. This poster captures what it means to be a CFP and explains to cat caregivers that their veterinary clinic is dedicated to providing quality care in a feline-friendly environment.’
The winning CFP inclinic poster displayed (top left) among the other Gold Vetty Award winners
The Vetty Awards, which focus on products and services available through veterinarians or those that support the veterinary profession, are the first and only animal health award program that pays tribute to the marketing, public relations, digital, social, design, and creative work produced to advance veterinary medicine.
ISFM
ISFM reaches the milestone of 1000 accredited Cat Friendly Clinics
In February, almost 6 years after the launch of the Cat Friendly Clinic (CFC) programme, the scheme has now accredited its 1000th CFC. The programme, supported by Boehringer Ingelheim, Ceva, Elanco, IDEXX, Merial and Royal Canin, has garnered interest globally and boasts CFCs, at the time of going to press, in 32 countries, made up of 460 Gold, 608 Silver and 54 Bronze status clinics.
Sarah Endersby, International Cat Care’s Veterinary Development Manager, says ‘We are delighted to have accredited the 1000th CFC. It is fabulous to know that many veterinary clinics around the world are thinking about how they can make feline visits less stressful, benefiting not only the cats themselves, but their owners and the veterinary team. The CFC community is growing quickly – hopefully we will be welcoming the 2000th clinic in the not too distant future!’
The Classic Animal Hospital in South Korea is the 1000th accredited CFC. Having taken the requirements for the programme into account when designing the clinic, this practice achieved Gold status just a few months after opening in September 2017
icatcare
Helping to build a better Europe for cats
In March, representatives of International Cat Care (iCatCare), the parent charity of ISFM, visited Brussels to attend the annual meeting of the EU Dog and Cat Alliance, a group of animal welfare organisations calling for EU action to build a better Europe for dogs and cats. The Alliance is very supportive of iCatCare’s efforts to improve feline welfare worldwide through the ‘International Declaration of Responsibilities to Cats’, a document written by iCatCare outlining best practice and a collaborative approach to helping the global cat population.
Chief executive Claire Bessant and digital communications editor Lizzie Rowe went on to meet MEP Alex Mayer at the European Parliament to talk about the Declaration and ways to protect cats, both owned and unowned, within EU policy. The meeting was a successful start, and the charity continues to move forward by bringing together and working with different entities responsible for feline welfare, to create a better world for cats.
Lizzie Rowe (left) and Claire Bessant (right), of International Cat Care, with MEP Alex Mayer (middle) who shows her support for iCatCare’s International Declaration of Responsibilities to Cats
Save the date
ISFM’s Asia-Pacific Feline Congress will, for 2018, be taking place in Kuala Lumpur, from 2-4 November. Held in partnership with the University of Sydney Centre for Veterinary Education, the congress will explore the topics of emergency and critical care, and neurology, from keynote speakers Duana McBride,Trudi Mcalees, Patrick Kenny and Mark Lowrie. For information about the conference as it becomes available, visit:
Record webinar attendance
In February ISFM AND IDEXX presented two free webinars for vets and nurses about chronic kidney disease, with Sarah Caney and Jessica Quimby, which attracted over 6000 registrants – a record number. These webinars can still be viewed for free at:
Welfare award
Maria Pinto Teixeira (right) is the winner of the 2018 International Cat Care Cat Welfare Award, presented by Claire Bessant, iCatCare chief executive (left), during the Ceva Welfare Awards ceremony in Birmingham, UK, in April. Maria founded ‘Animais de Rua’ (Street Animals Association) in Portugal in 2008. What began as a trap-neuter-return operation in Maria’s home town of Oporto, has grown to become one of the most recognised and respected animal welfare organisations in the country
Cat Cocktails
As part of its 60th anniversary celebrations, iCatCare is launching a fun new way for supporters to raise funds for the charity – by holding a Cat Cocktail Party! To help supporters throw the perfect event, the charity has produced party packs that include cocktail recipe cards for nine cat cocktails (among them the ‘Mogito’ and the ‘Pawstar Martini’), invites, photo props, a poster, and a cat quiz and prize. To order your free party pack, visit: