Abstract
AAFP
Launch of new Cat Friendly Certificate Program
Now there is a way for every individual in the practice to earn a certificate that demonstrates their feline knowledge and abilities in caring for cats. The AAFP is excited to invite the veterinary community to participate in a new program to expand on their personal feline knowledge, skills and best in-clinic practices with the launch of the AAFP Cat Friendly Veterinarian (CFV), Cat Friendly Veterinary Professional (CFVP) and Cat Friendly Veterinary Advocate (CFVA) Certificates.
The Cat Friendly Certificate Program consists of nine online course modules, with each individual undertaking particular modules based on their role in the veterinary practice. Veterinarians will complete modules 1–9, technicians/nurses will complete modules 1–7 and other veterinary staff will complete modules 1–4.
Members of the AAFP are eligible for exclusive rates and received a free-access period at launch.
Toolkit to support the retrovirus guidelines
The AAFP has launched an online Retrovirus Educational Toolkit, designed to help the veterinary community implement the recommendations from the recently published ‘2020 AAFP retrovirus testing and management guidelines’. In compiling these guidelines, as well as this supplemental toolkit, the AAFP aims to provide the most current information about feline retrovirus infections to veterinary practitioners so they can optimize the care and management of their feline patients.
The Retrovirus Toolkit, located at
• See page 464 for details of a new JFMS podcast on the retrovirus guidelines.
Invitation to the 2020 AAFP conference
The AAFP’s 2020 conference, with the theme of ‘feline head & neck: diseases, disorders & more’, will be held in Minneapolis, MN, USA, from October 1–4, 2020.
Join the AAFP as it explores a myriad of feline health conditions affecting systems of the head and neck, encompassing neurology, dermatology, ophthalmology, dentistry, respiratory medicine, oncology, imaging, emergency and critical care, pain management, feeding tubes, surgery and more. It is the perfect opportunity to become better acquainted with feline cranial diseases and disorders.
iCatCare
Celebrating International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day, on March 8, was marked this year by International Cat Care, the parent charity of ISFM, celebrating the life of the charity’s inspirational founder, Joan Judd. The charity, then called the Feline Advisory Bureau, was established by Joan in 1958 in response to the absence of any real knowledge of feline diseases or established guidelines on cat welfare.
Lack of funding was one of the main challenges faced by Joan’s Feline Advisory Bureau – these advertisements ask for donations
As a non-veterinary professional, the changes that Joan was able to make in a profession that, at the time, was mainly concerned with livestock and horses, are extraordinary. Alongside a handful of dedicated volunteers, Joan worked tirelessly to better the situation of cats worldwide, while facing the challenges of the lack of funding and the sheer scale of the task in front of them.
Joan stepped down from a central position within the charity in 1971, but she continued to be closely involved and was delighted when the Feline Advisory Bureau became International Cat Care in 2013 and continued to grow as she had always hoped it would.
The situation for most cats today is unrecognisable from that which inspired Joan to step forward and do something. Her vision lives on as International Cat Care and ISFM continue in their commitment to improve the health and welfare of cats everywhere.
Joan Judd (left) pictured with Claire Bessant, Chief Executive of iCatCare, in 2008 during the charity’s 50th anniversary celebrations. Joan passed away in 2013 aged 98
ISFM
Bringing vets and nurses together at the first ISFM UK congress
Friday the 13th of March was far from unlucky for the 270 delegates enrolling for the start of the first ISFM UK Congress. The event took place over two days with a full schedule of lectures in streams for both vets and veterinary nurses. The congress covered subjects that vets and nurses working in practice deal with daily, with expert speakers giving talks on orthopaedics, wound management, dentistry, cytology and behaviour. Alongside the lectures were workshops on dental radiography.
On the Friday evening there was a 1920s themed dinner party where the delegates went all out with their costumes! A fully booked yoga session on the Saturday morning set the attendees up for their second day of lectures.
Despite the uncertainty caused by COVID-19, the conference, which was held prior to to the restrictions for large events and in the impressive surroundings of Heythrop Park Resort, Oxfordshire, UK, was a huge success. Delegates not only enjoyed the variety of talks but appreciated the fact that the information could be put to practical use.
Obituary
Vic Menrath – first Australian feline specialist
Vic Menrath, first fellow in Feline Medicine in the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists, and Australia’s first feline-only practitioner, died on November 7, 2019. This obituary is based on the eulogy delivered at his funeral by his veterinarian brother, Bob Menrath, with contributions from colleagues and friends.
Vic Menrath will be remembered for his warmth, gentleness, integrity and sense of humour; for his shaping of the practice of feline clinical science in Australia and throughout the world; and for giving his time so generously to mentor younger colleagues.
Vic’s character was forged in the face of adversity. Born in June 1942 in a Japanese concentration camp, he survived as a sickly child during three and a half years of internment, largely through the help of young mothers who had lost their own children. This was possibly the origin of Vic’s resilience and quiet determination to succeed, and his belief in the strength of a team approach.
Raised and schooled in New Zealand, where he excelled both academically and athletically, Vic went on to complete an agricultural degree. His passion, however, was for veterinary science and with characteristic aplomb he won a New Zealand Department of Agriculture bursary to attend the veterinary school at the University of Queensland, Australia, graduating BVSc with honours in 1968. By 1972, he had joined his older brother Bob in opening a veterinary practice in Brisbane, Australia. His dream was to build a fully equipped and staffed veterinary hospital that would introduce a new level of excellence in veterinary care, and he achieved this four years later.
Vic’s interest in feline medicine developed as a result of seeing more and more cat cases. In 1978, he decided that he was going to become the first fellow in Feline Medicine in the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists (ANZCVS). This pursuit was not for personal glory; rather to better himself and advance the discipline of feline medicine, particularly in the areas of nephrology and urology. He was determined that the veterinary profession recognise that cats were pathophysiologically distinct from dogs and should therefore be treated differently. At the time, this view was not well accepted by many leading academic internists!
By the end of 1978, Vic was running Australia’s first feline-only practice – Creek Road Cat Clinic, Queensland – and, by 1982, he had achieved his goal of fellowship in Feline Medicine. The practice continued to flourish under Vic’s innovative eye and was the first to establish a feline renal transplant unit in Australia.
Vic’s passion for feline medicine remained unabated, especially his desire for more veterinarians to embrace and train in his beloved discipline. To this end, Vic was a forceful advocate in the ANZCVS for the feline chapter and served for many years as an examiner in Feline Medicine. It is a direct result of his stance that feline medicine should stand as a separate speciality that Australia has more feline specialist clinicians per capita than any country and continues to punch above its weight in the discipline of feline clinical sciences.
JFMS
Talking zoonoses and retroviruses
New podcasts are available on the JFMS website that discuss two valuable recent resources for feline practitioners – the ‘2019 AAFP feline zoonoses guidelines’ and the ‘2020 AAFP feline retrovirus testing and management guidelines’.
