The BEVA, the BSAVA and The Association of Veterinary Anaesthetists (AVA) say that working with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, they've found a solution to the isoflurane shortage.

Having investigated alternative sources of isoflurane, and alternative products, the associations proposed ways that the VMD might mitigate the risks to animal welfare including consenting to the use of unlicensed (“special”) isoflurane formulations.

The VMD responded rapidly and positively. It is understood that one specials manufacturer is now intending to produce isoflurane to fill or partially fill the gap in supply. This should be available in three to four weeks. 

David Rendle, a member of BEVA’s Health and Medicines Committee commented: "BEVA has a close relationship with the veterinary pharmaceutical industry and will always work swiftly and collaboratively to help develop practical solutions to supply problems for our members."

BSAVA President Philip Lhermette praised the VMD for such prompt action. He said: "The VMD listened to our concerns and acted immediately.  By doing so they have addressed and helped to prevent any potential welfare risks associated with a lack of isoflurane."

Carl Bradbrook, AVA Junior Vice President, reminded clinicians to "seek advice when considering the use of unfamiliar anaesthetic protocols."

The associations say that the situation doesn’t give vets free rein to ignore the medicines legislation; the cascade must still be followed, and client informed consent obtained if an unregulated anaesthetic is used.

Extemporaneous products are the last tier of the cascade. Vets are expected to use either an authorised human medicine or an EU authorised veterinary medicine before an extemporaneous preparation. If, after diligent attempts to source a product higher up the cascade, the vet has not been successful they could consider using an extemporaneous preparation for the immediate need. However, should an authorised product or a human product become available vets are obliged to use it over an extemporaneous preparation.

BEVA, the BSAVA and the AVA have each produced general advice on the use of specials or anaesthesia options at  https://www.bsava.com/News/ArticleID/2535/Isoflurane-supply, https://www.beva.org.uk/Resources-For-Vets-Practices/Medicines-Guidance/Veterinary-specials  and https://ava.eu.com/ 

The World Small Animal Veterinary Association has published 'Animal Welfare Global Guidelines for Companion Animal Practitioners and the Veterinary Team'.

The guidelines, launched during WSAVA World Congress 2018 in Singapore, aim to bridge differing perceptions of welfare around the world and help veterinary surgeons and nurses tackle the ethical questions and moral issues which impact welfare. 

They also offer guidance to ensure that, in addition to providing physical health advice and therapy to their patients, veterinary surgeons and nurses can advocate for their psychological, social and environmental wellbeing.

Dr Shane Ryan, incoming President of the WSAVA and former Chair of the WSAVA Animal Wellness and Welfare Committee, said: "As veterinarians, our responsibility extends far beyond the physical health of our patients. Animal welfare as a science is a new and rapidly developing discipline and veterinarians need current, evidence-based invformation to enable them to maintain the highest welfare standards and to provide knowledgeable, accurate advice for pet owners and communities.

"Our new Guidelines provide recommendations, checklists and other tools to promote optimal levels of welfare throughout the veterinary visit. They also offer guidance on increasing welfare beyond the doors of the clinic through outreach activities.

"As levels of pet ownership increase in many regions of the world, including Asia, it is essential that veterinarians champion animal welfare and the WSAVA hopes that these new Guidelines will encourage our members to adopt best practice and set the highest standards.

"I would like to thank the members of the Animal Welfare Guidelines team, who worked so hard to create them and, of course, our sponsor, Waltham, whose constant support was instrumental in enabling us to deliver them."

The Animal Welfare Global Guidelines for Companion Animal Practitioners and the Veterinary Team are available for free download at: https://bit.ly/2D3RAoc.

Ceva Animal Health has launched a month-long TV advertising campaign for its veterinary behaviour product, Adaptil, in the run up to the fireworks season.

Running throughout October, the campaign is designed to raise awareness among dog owners of how Adaptil Calm can help dogs cope during the fireworks and Christmas party season.

The advertising campaign will target 3.3 million pet owners and it will air on over 60 channels including C4 channels (Channel 4, E4, More4, Film4, Drama, Good Food, Really, W and Home), Sky channels, ITV2 and ITVBe.

Abigail King, behaviour product manager at Ceva Animal Health, said: "The fireworks and party season can be an extremely upsetting time of the year for the nation’s pets.

"By highlighting the benefits of Adaptil at this key time of the year we hope to ensure that dogs are better prepared for the challenges of fireworks and loud noises."

Ceva says the TV advertising campaign will be supported by a digital campaign for both Adaptil and Feliway.

To watch the Adaptil TV advertisement visit https://www.adaptil.com/uk/Success-Stories/Finley.

MSD Animal Health Equine is highlighting the results of a study conducted by the company which, it says, proves that Equilis Prequenza offers highly significant protection against viral shedding and the clinical signs of equine influenza (EI).

Current World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) recommendations are to include a representative strain from each of the two sublineages of equine influenza virus (EIV) - Florida Clade 1 and Florida Clade 2, to deliver optimum protection. 

MSD's study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of Equilis Prequenza, containing whole virus Newmarket/2/93 (European strain) and South Africa/4/03 (Clade1) EIV strains, and an HA canarypox vectored vaccine containing Florida Clade 1 and Clade 2 strains.

Two groups of seven Fjord ponies were vaccinated twice, 4 weeks apart (V1 on day 0 and V2 on day 28).  One group was vaccinated with Equilis Prequenza (MSD AH) and one group with ProteqFlu (Boehringer Ingleheim). The protective antibody response was measured and ponies were challenged, along with six unvaccinated control ponies, by experimental infection with Wexford/14 (a heterologous clade 2 strain), 1 20 days (4.5 months) after V2, and clinical signs and virus shedding monitored. EI serology was measured by single radial haemolysis (SRH) and hemagglutination inhibition (HI).  Clinical signs and virus shedding (measured by qRT-PCR and egg titration) were compared between groups and with controls.

Vicki Farr, BVetMed MRCVS, equine veterinary advisor at MSD Animal Health said: "Following challenge at 120 days after V2 with Wexford/14, this study demonstrates that both vaccines provide a highly significant degree of protection against clinical signs of EI and viral shedding compared to unvaccinated controls. Although the study was not designed to compare the efficacy of the two vaccines, because of practical limitations on the number of animals and hence low power, there was no evidence of any significant differences between these two groups. There was, however, a trend towards slightly lower clinical score on days 4-8 and reduced virus excretion on days 2-5 in the Equilis Prequenza group compared to the HA canarypox vectored vaccine.” 

MSD says Equilis Prequenza offers a broad based approach to immunogenicity by addressing and adapting key areas of an equine influenza vaccine - Matrix-C adjuvant, whole virus antigen and strain; efficacy has been proven through challenge trials and longer term protection confirmed by serology.      

Vicki added: "Equilis Prequenza addresses key factors involved in promoting effective immunogenicity. It combines the demonstrated efficacy against challenge, with a current circulating strain with an established safety profile.  Equilis Prequenza stimulates active immunity against EI providing the reassurance your clients demand. MSD Animal Health is committed to working with equine practices to improve vaccination rates in at-risk horses."

For more information about the trial results contact your MSD Animal Health account manager.

Zoetis has announced that it will continue to supply an alternative equine rotavirus vaccine under a Wholesale Dealer Import Certificate (WDIC) until normal supply of its licensed product, Equip Rotavirus, can be restored.

Yorkshire-based Paragon Veterinary Referrals has announced that it has signed the former England youth team basketball star Andrea Holmes to join the team.

Andrea, who is also an EBVS Specialist in Small Animal Internal Medicine, is joining Paragon after returning from a spell in Australia. The transfer fee was not disclosed.

Andrea graduated from Bristol in 2011 and became a Specialist in 2017. She said: "I'm so pleased to be returning to my beautiful home county of Yorkshire and joining the brilliant team at Paragon.

"Internal medicine will be my key area and my main interests are infectious diseases and post graduate clinical teaching."

Andrea represented England youth at basketball between 2000 and 2002, starring in tournaments in Hungary and Italy, and her passion for sport is still high on her list of priorities.

She added: "Now I’m back home I’m looking to join a triathlon club and will attempt to master the ukulele, which I recently began playing."

Paragon managing director, Ian Monteith, said: "Andrea is the fifth high-calibre specialist addition we’ve made in the past six months which illustrates our dedication to delivering the highest level of care and treatment to our patients."

Tracey Ison RVN has written a new book, Confessions of a veterinary nurse, an autobiographical journey through her career as a veterinary nurse.

Tracey, who started working in practice as a trainee in 1986 and qualified in 1989, spent her nursing career in both mixed and small animal practice in her home town of Hinckley, Leicestershire before retiring in 2018.

She says the book is mainly aimed at people thinking of embarking on a career as a veterinary nurse, but she also hopes colleagues in the profession will enjoy it, particularly those who are newer to the profession and have an interest in how things have progressed over the last three decades.

Tracey said: "Having enjoyed a very long career as a veterinary nurse, I wanted to take the opportunity to share some of my experiences, the happy, the sad and the sometimes downright crazy!

"The role of the veterinary nurse has changed so much over the last thirty years and continues to evolve with each passing year. My story is a light-hearted journey from my early years as a fresh-faced trainee to a fully qualified head nurse, will all the highs and lows along the way.

"The book will hopefully appeal to all members of the veterinary profession, past, present and future as well as to animal lovers everywhere. It was written from the heart to celebrate the work that veterinary nurses do, the diversity of their role and the steep learning curves that many of us had to climb."

You can read a sample of the book here. 

Confessions of a veterinary nurse is available from all good bookstores, and Amazon, priced at £10.99.

The RCVS Disciplinary Committee has reprimanded Lincolnshire-based Elizabeth Sing May Law MRCVS after hearing charges against her and Julia Louise Creese MRCVS which concerned an incident where a dog remained at their practice overnight without adequate monitoring and/or post-operative aftercare.

The charge against Ms Law was that in November 2017, having performed surgery on Kiwi, a German Shepherd/Wolfhound-cross dog, to address gastric dilation volvulus (GDV), she failed to obtain informed consent to the entirety of the surgical process and management, including post-operative aftercare.

The charge also stated that she failed to provide adequate analgesia to Kiwi before, during or after the surgery, failed to provide appropriate and adequate fluid therapy to Kiwi, failed to offer an appropriate and adequate post-operative care plan and/or post-operative transfer for Kiwi to another practice and failed to inform the owners that there would be nobody present at the practice to provide post-operative monitoring and aftercare for Kiwi for approximately seven hours during the night.

Finally the charge stated that Ms Law allowed Kiwi to remain at the practice overnight from 12:30am to 07:45am without adequate monitoring or post-operative aftercare.

Ms Law admitted some of the charges against her, including that she had failed to obtain informed consent, failed to offer an appropriate and/or adequate post-operative care plan, failed to inform the owners that there would be nobody present at the practice and allowed Kiwi to remain at the practice overnight without adequate monitoring and/or post-operative aftercare. However, she denied that she failed to provide adequate analgesia or fluid therapy to Kiwi. 

The Committee found all of the charges proved, with the exception of failing to provide adequate analgesia during the perioperative period.

Having considered the facts, the Committee then moved on to consider whether the admitted and proven charges against Ms Law amounted to serious professional misconduct, taking into account any aggravating and mitigating factors. The aggravating features were that, as a result of Ms Law’s failures in relation to analgesia and fluid therapy, there was either actual injury to Kiwi, or a risk of such injury.

In mitigation, the Committee considered that she promptly and accurately diagnosed GDV, and proceeded to perform the necessary emergency surgery. The Committee considered that the charges related to a single isolated incident and that Ms Law has had an unblemished career to date. They also noted that Ms Law had made open and frank admissions as to the majority of the charges. 

The Committee found that the conduct of Ms Law set out in the majority of the charges did not amount to serious professional misconduct. However, in the judgement of the Committee, Ms Law’s conduct in allowing Kiwi to remain at the practice overnight without adequate monitoring or post-operative aftercare did amount to serious professional misconduct. 

Jane Downes, who chaired the Committee and spoke on its behalf, said: "The Committee considers that the respondent (Ms Law) has insight into the serious mistake that she made in failing to ensure that Kiwi was checked or monitored overnight. The Committee has found that this was a single isolated incident, which involved a serious lapse of clinical judgement, which will probably stay in the mind of the respondent for the rest of her career.

"The respondent has been in practice for some nine years now, and apart from this incident, there is no suggestion that the respondent has fallen short of the standards expected of her on any other occasion.  The Committee does not consider that there is a risk that the respondent is likely to leave an animal overnight after major surgery again, without ensuring that it is checked during that time, and, as such, the Committee considers that there is no future risk to the welfare of animals so far as the respondent is concerned."

The Committee considered that the finding of disgraceful conduct in a professional respect in this case is too serious for no further action to be taken, having regard to the need to maintain public confidence in the profession and declare and uphold proper standards of conduct.

The Committee therefore concluded that the appropriate sanction in this case was to issue a reprimand to Ms Law, in relation to the finding of serious professional misconduct.

Jane Downes added: "The Committee considers that this sanction, coupled with the findings of fact and disgraceful conduct made against the respondent, is sufficient to maintain public confidence in the profession and uphold proper standards of conduct. The Committee does not consider it necessary to issue a warning to the respondent about her future conduct, on the basis that the Committee has concluded that there is no risk of repetition."

There were three charges against Ms Creese, all pertaining to the period between July 2016 and November 2017.

The first charge was that she failed to ensure that there were adequate systems and processes in place for out-of-hours’ care for in-patients.

The second charge was that she publicised that the practice had "24 hour care provided by our vets at our practice" and/or "Care 24/7 for your pets" on its website, which suggested that staff were present at the practice 24 hours a day when they were not and as such publicity was dishonest and/or misleading.

The third charge against Ms Creese was that she failed to ensure that Kiwi's owners were informed about arrangements at the practice for out-of-hours’ care for in-patients. 

At the outset of the hearing, Ms Creese denied all the charges against her. 

After hearing evidence from relevant witnesses, the Committee considered that the practice did have in place systems and processes for out-of-hours care for in-patients and that there was no evidence of repeated or ignored failures of these systems and processes. The Committee therefore found the charges against Ms Creese not proved and all three were dismissed.

The University of Lincoln and Ceva Animal Health are asking vet nurses to help recruit puppies and their owners for a study into puppy behaviour and the effect of a pheromone collar on puppy development.

The double-blind placebo-controlled study will examine whether the pheromone collar can help reduce the severity or development of certain potentially problematic behaviours in puppies and it is open to puppies less than 12 weeks of age.

Puppies will have to wear a collar until they are six months of age and their owners will be asked to complete a check sheet relating to their puppy’s behaviour every month. Each month a new collar will be sent direct to their home.

To encourage enrolment, the University of Lincoln is offering veterinary professionals a £10 voucher for every successful sign up to the trial.

Owners who complete all questionnaires will receive a pack of canine health and welfare goodies from Ceva Animal Health. The pack will include Adaptil Junior, Adaptil Transport and Logic Oral Hygiene Gel.

Owners will also be entered into a draw to win an iPad.

A marketing pack is available to raise awareness of the study and includes a waiting room poster, owner leaflets and a social media post for Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

For further information, email the University of Lincoln at puppydevelopment@lincoln.ac.uk.

The Veterinary Management Group (VMG) and the Society of Practicing Veterinary Surgeons (SPVS) are asking people who work in practice to take part in a survey to help them develop a CPD programme for 2020.

The survey, which takes about 5 minutes (I timed it), is designed to canvas opinion about the priorities for learning and development.  

Rich Casey, Junior Vice President of the VMG (pictured right), said: "From marketing to HR to financial planning and all points in between, today’s veterinary leaders require expertise in every aspect of running a successful business.

"We want to create a truly valuable, constructive and evidence-based CPD calendar for next year. Views from those working in the profession will help us to fully understand what good leadership and management look like in the veterinary world and we will then make sure that the programme promotes best practice in these important areas.  We thank everyone who takes the time to complete the survey."

The survey can be accessed here:  https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/VETCPDPR

The BVA has revealed the results of a survey in which 24% of working veterinary surgeons and vet students said they have experienced or witnessed discrimination in the past year.

The survey, which received 2445 responses from BVA members, found that 16% of vets and vet students have personally experienced discrimination within a veterinary workplace or learning environment in the past twelve months, while 20% had witnessed discrimination.

Senior colleagues were most commonly responsible for the discrimination (47% of incidents), with discrimination from clients accounting for 35% of incidents.

Sex discrimination was the most common type reported (44% of incidents) and was particularly prevalent in academic settings and in production animal, equine, and mixed practices.

Race discrimination was the next most commonly reported (27% of incidents).

Respondents also gave details of discrimination in relation to other protected characteristics, including age, sexuality, disability and gender reassignment.

Younger vets were more likely than older vets to have personally experienced discrimination in the past year (27% of those under 35 had experienced discrimination).

Female vets were more than twice as likely to have experienced discrimination than their male colleagues (19% and 8% respectively).

The incidence of discrimination was higher amongst vets from a range of minority ethnic backgrounds. Those who described their sexual orientation as bi, gay or lesbian were twice as likely to have personally experienced discrimination in the past year.

Despite the high incidence of discrimination reported, responses to the same survey showed that only 56% of the profession feel concerned about discrimination.

British Veterinary Association Junior Vice President Daniella Dos Santos (pictured right) said: "This is the first time anyone has collected such a significant body of evidence on this issue and the results are truly shocking. It is completely unacceptable that so many members of the veterinary team are subject to discrimination not just from clients but from members of our own profession.

"Worryingly, it seems that the scale of the issue will come as a surprise to many members of our profession and so it is vital that we all join the conversation and reflect on what role we can play to improve equality and inclusion. The veterinary team must become a safe and supportive environment for everyone. We cannot accept anything less for ourselves, for our colleagues and for our profession."

Only 12% of respondents were satisfied with how their incident had been dealt, rising to 23% among those who felt able to report. Daniella said: "Many of the experiences documented in our report are shocking and distressing and this distress is often compounded by what comes next. It was very saddening to hear that so many people have felt unable to report their experiences or that their reports were handled badly by those who received them.

"Experiencing discrimination can be very traumatic, without the ‘double-whammy’ of having your complaint dismissed or mishandled by managers or senior staff. We need to make sure everyone who experiences discrimination is able to get the outcome they deserve.

"Through the discrimination questionnaire we heard many distressing stories from vets, students, vet nurses and other colleagues. We are incredibly grateful to them for sharing these with us so that we can raise awareness of what’s happening in our veterinary workplaces."

To raise awareness of the scale of the issue, the BVA is inviting all members of the veterinary team to join a "Big Conversation on equality and inclusion in the veterinary professions", starting with the release of its report on the current situation on discrimination, which can be downloaded here, then inviting everyone to join online engagement sessions through social media and BVA members to feed in views via their regional representatives ahead of Council on 24 July.

ezyVet, a maker of veterinary practice management solutions, says it will donate £1 to Vetlife for every person that visits its stand (D70) at the London Vet Show, on the 17th and 18th November 2022.

Whilst you're there, the company will doubtless use the opportunity to bend your ear about how its technology can save time, drive revenue, and strengthen patient care.

Still, all in a good cause, and the company says it expects to be making a significant donation towards supporting members of the veterinary community who are experiencing financial and mental health challenges.

ezyVet Chief Growth Officer Pete Brown said: ““As innovators in the veterinary software space, we’re passionate about bettering the lives of veterinary professionals and we recognise the critical work Vetlife is doing to support the hard-working veterinary community.

"We’re going to be donating £1 to Vetlife for every person that visits the ezyVet booth at the London Vet Show, so we encourage everyone to come down and help us support this very worthwhile cause.”