Vet Times Podcast

Mitral valve disease (MVD) is the most common cardiovascular disease and the most frequent cause of congestive heart failure in dogs. European and RCVS specialist in veterinary cardiologist Luca Ferasin joins the podcast again, this time to discuss this chronic degenerative disorder. Prevalence of MVD varies with age, and most geriatric dogs, especially those in small breeds, will eventually develop the condition. In this podcast, Dr Ferasin will discuss staging criteria, prognosis and changes to ho wMVD is managed and treated. _____________ Dr Ferasin is head of cardiology at The Ralph Veterinary Referral Centre in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Having initially graduated from the University of Bologna with honours in 1992, following three years of research in endocrinology he was awarded his PhD in 1996. Awarded a fellowship of the RCVS in 2019, Dr Ferasin is a European and RCVS specialist in veterinary cardiology who has contributed extensively to the veterinary literature with articles, abstracts and book chapters and is a regular speaker worldwide. His main professional interests include – but are not limited to – feline cardiology, exercise physiology and clinical investigation and management of syncope and coughing. This podcast is an accompaniment to the Vet Times Focus article “Overview of mitral valve disease” (Volume 51, Issue 14, Pages 8-12) available online at www.vettimes.co.uk/article/overview-of-mitral-valve-disease More content on cardiology topics is available at the dedicated CPD+ collection at https://cpd.vettimes.co.uk/cpd-plus/companion-animal/cpd-cardiology

To promote the upcoming VMG-SPVS Virtual Congress (13-14 May 2021), VBJ sat down with chief executive officer at The Wildlife Trusts, Craig Bennett. Craig will be opening congress at 9am on 13 May, but spoke to James Westgate in advance of his appearance to offer a sneak preview of some of his key messages and themes.

This month VN Times editor Rachael Buzzel is joined by locum RVN Molly Fiander to chat about life as a locum, coping through COVID-19, and her love for helping VNs find/rediscover their passion and get the most out of their qualification. Molly qualified as a vet nurse in 2017, but has had a huge passion for animal welfare since she was a little girl. In 2018 she “fell” into locum life, but hasn’t looked back. Molly is super passionate about teaching other veterinary professionals about locuming and improving the standard of care across the industry. She built her own consultancy business to help vets and VNs thrive as locums.

With an increase in popularity of breeds that are prone to allergic skin disease, such as the French bulldog and Labrador retriever, it’s likely we’ll be seeing more of these tricky cases over the coming months to years. Diagnosis isn’t always easy, taking time, care, compliance and excellent communication. Hill's Prescription Diet Derm Complete makes choosing a therapeutic diet easy early on in the diagnostic process by helping to manage up to 99.6% of canine skin disease. Visit www.hillsvet.co.uk/pet-solutions/derm to find out more about this new and unique diet. This Vet Times Extra Podcast is with Michael Unsworth, veterinary affairs manager UK and Ireland for Hill’s Pet Nutrition. Michael is a small animal vet with 12 years of experience in practice and 5 years within veterinary industry. Clinical roles in the UK and Australia have included working at the first opinion teaching hospital at the RVC, and leading a team in a large and small animal group based on the south coast. Michael's passion revolves around all things veterinary, especially teaching and nutrition. His current role leading the veterinary team at Hill's Pet Nutrition is focused around how to best support, educate and enthuse vets and nurses in all areas of pet nutrition, to enable them to incorporate nutrition and optimise the management of all their patients.

VN Happy Hour 4.0 saw vet nurse, writer, educator and leading blogger Jane Davidson feature in our main interview to discuss her perspective on physical and mental well-being, before joining our expert panel for a broader debate on some of the big issues in the veterinary nursing profession. RVN panellists Aoife Smith, Elle Payne, Jane Davidson, Zara Livingstone and veterinary nurse-turned personal trainer Adam Robinson – all leading experts in their fields of well-being and health – answered delegates’ questions on well-being and shared the day-to-day magic moments that make being an RVN a job like no other.