Veterinary Vertex

Send us Fan Mail A “normal temperature” can be the most dangerous kind of comforting. We sit down with Drs. Kimberly Woodruff and Sahar Rostami to unpack what happens when ocular thermometry and rectal thermometry show similar diagnostic performance for detecting abnormal body temperature in dogs, and why that still doesn’t mean you should relax after a normal reading. We translate sensitivity and...

Send us Fan Mail You can do everything right clinically and still lose a client in one conversation. We sit down with Dr. Erik Hofmeister to unpack what pet owners actually expect when a veterinary medical error happens, and the answers are more demanding than most of us assume. Many respondents say they want to be told about every error, even minor mistakes that never reach the patient, and they...

Send us Fan Mail A gel injection that looks “inert” on paper may be doing something surprisingly active inside an arthritic horse joint. We sit down with repeat guest Dr. Lynn Pezzanite to unpack new evidence on how intraarticular 2.5% polyacrylamide hydrogel (2.5% iPAAG) alters synovial immune pathways in equine osteoarthritis, and why that matters for the cases you see in the field. If you have...

Send us Fan Mail A dog that suddenly cannot walk puts everyone in crisis mode, and thoracolumbar IVDD is one of those diagnoses that can turn a normal day into a life-or-death decision. We sit down with manuscript authors Drs. William Tammaro, Nick Jeffery, and Paul Freeman to unpack a less invasive option that could change those conversations: chondroitinase ABC intradiscal injections, often desc...

Send us Fan Mail A single bite or wildlife exposure can turn “vaccinated” into a complicated question fast, especially when the animal is a zoological species, a wildlife rehabilitation patient, or any non-traditional mammal that does not have a licensed rabies vaccine label. We sit down with Dr. Ryan Wallace, who leads the rabies program at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to un...

Send us Fan Mail Honey bees are food-producing animals, and once you say that out loud, the entire conversation changes. We sit down with Dr. Melinda Wilkins to unpack how federal rules like the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) brought veterinarians and beekeepers into the same lane, especially around antibiotic stewardship and protecting the food supply. Honey isn’t the only product that matters h...

Send us Fan Mail A rectal exam is one of the oldest tools in the equine colic workup, but we rarely stop to ask a blunt question: how accurate is abdominal palpation per rectum at telling small intestinal disease from large intestinal disease when it truly counts? We sit down with Drs. Mary Hallsten and George Elane to dig into the data behind rectal palpation, using surgical findings as the gold...

Send us Fan Mail Oral fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) capsules sound like the kind of elegant fix we all want for canine parvovirus: simple to give, easy to store, and built for high-volume shelter medicine. But when you put a microbiome therapy into a randomized controlled trial in a real outpatient protocol, the story gets more complicated and far more useful. We sit down with manuscript autho...

Send us Fan Mail Hookworm cases that “just won’t clear” are no longer a weird outlier, and that should change how we practice. We sit down with parasitology expert Dr. Ray Kaplan to unpack the American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists (AAVP) Hookworm Task Force recommendations on diagnosing and treating multidrug-resistant canine hookworms, including what clinics can do right now to stop...

Send us Fan Mail A dog needs a pacemaker, the estimate is five figures, and the family’s last lifeline is a GoFundMe link. We wanted to know what happens next when veterinary teams suggest crowdfunding as a way to cover the cost of canine pacemaker implantation and whether it truly works often enough to be responsible advice. We sit down with cardiologist and researcher Dr. Mark Rishniw to break d...

Send us Fan Mail A lot of researchers quietly struggle with the same question: when is a study truly ready to publish, and how do you write it so someone actually uses it? From the AVMA Convention 2026, we sit down live with Dr. Joshua Stern, a veterinary cardiologist and geneticist whose work bridges cardiovascular disease, genomics, and clinical impact. We start with Joshua’s path into cardiolog...

Send us Fan Mail Your research might be solid, your conclusions might be exciting, and you still may be setting yourself up for a rough peer review if the methods, statistical analysis, and journal fit aren’t dialed in. Recording live from the AVMA 2026 convention in Anaheim, we sit down with Dr. Jolle Kirpensteijn, a longtime veterinary surgeon and associate editor, to unpack what actually speeds...

Send us Fan Mail Chronic laminitis forces every equine clinician into the same hard question: when comfort keeps slipping and radiographs keep worsening, what can truly change the mechanics of the foot and the horse’s day-to-day life? We sit down with Dr. Jim Orsini to talk about deep digital flexor (DDF) tenotomy, a procedure many people still treat as “last resort,” and why the data argue it may...

Send us Fan Mail A veterinary “clinic” doesn’t always look like stainless steel tables and a wall of equipment. Sometimes it’s a town pavilion, a park, an old hotel lobby, or a host’s living room and that shift changes what students learn, what they notice, and who they become as clinicians. We’re joined by Dr. Paul Maza to talk about international veterinary service learning and why it deserves m...

Send us Fan Mail A glow under blue light might be the difference between guessing and knowing where cancer has spread. We sit down with Drs. Elizabeth Maxwell and Veronica Perez to unpack a practical, low-cost approach to sentinel lymph node mapping in dogs using fluorescein sodium, a compound many veterinarians already recognize from everyday clinical use. Our focus stays on one big goal: expandi...

Send us Fan Mail Pet food advice is everywhere, but the hardest part is what happens when an owner walks into the exam room already convinced they’ve found the “right” answer. We sit down with repeat guest Drs. Janice O’Brien to dig into what veterinarians say actually blocks effective pet nutrition communication during small animal appointments and what helps break through without shaming clients...

Send us Fan Mail A splenic mass shows up on ultrasound and the question hits like a brick: benign or malignant? We go straight at the uncomfortable truth behind canine splenic cytology. Even when splenic FNA feels like the “do something now” step, the match between cytology and histopathology is only moderate, and that has consequences for how we advise families, schedule rechecks, and decide when...

Send us Fan Mail Routine stifle exploration during canine cranial cruciate ligament surgery sounds like common sense, until you ask the uncomfortable question: what if “doing more” doesn’t reliably improve long-term function for most dogs? We sit down with Dr. Dan Low to unpack long-term outcomes after high tibial osteotomy procedures (TPLO and CCWO) performed without routine arthroscopy or arthro...

Send us Fan Mail Rehabilitation isn’t a luxury line item at the end of a case anymore. It’s becoming the difference between “we fixed the lesion” and “this patient truly returns to function.” We’re joined by Drs. Heidi Reesink, Denise Marcellin-Little, and David Levine to unpack a first-of-its-kind JAVMA rehabilitation Technical Tutorial Video supplemental issue and what it signals about where vet...

Send us Fan Mail We sit down with Dr. Lynn Pezzanite to explore a promising angle on aging-related equine osteoarthritis (OA): cellular senescence, the pro-inflammatory state where cells release a senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) that can amplify damage inside tissues over time. We walk through why horses are such a valuable One Health model for osteoarthritis research and why this...

Send us Fan Mail Botox for the equine hoof sounds like a punchline until you learn the science behind it. We sit down with Dr. Kali Slavik and repeat guest Dr. Andrew van Eps to explore a simple but high-stakes question in equine biomechanics: what happens when you inject botulinum toxin into the deep digital flexor (DDF) muscle, the muscle-tendon unit that helps control the rotational forces acti...

Send us Fan Mail Zero re-obstructions sounds almost too good to be true, so we wanted to understand exactly how the data got there and what it means for everyday feline practice. We are joined by study author Dr. Kelly Tart to talk about a prospective, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial evaluating lorazepam for recurrence prevention after feline urethral obstruction in male cats, one of the...

Send us Fan Mail What if the IV catheter your hospitalized dog already has could spare them multiple needle sticks a day without sacrificing lab accuracy? We sit down with Dr. Bryan Welch to challenge a common assumption in small animal emergency and ICU care: that venipuncture is the only reliable way to get serial bloodwork. We talk through a validated push-pull blood sampling technique that use...

Send us Fan Mail A dog with chronic diarrhea or vomiting might also be telling you something else. That’s the core thread we pull on as we explore the gut-brain axis in dogs and why chronic enteropathy (CE) can’t be fully understood through GI signs alone. We’re joined by Drs. Ulrika Ludvigsson and Sarah Heath to unpack how chronic enteropathy is defined (GI signs lasting more than three weeks) an...

Send us Fan Mail Metronidazole has been the reflex prescription for canine acute diarrhea for years and that habit is hard to break. We sit down with Dr. Erin Frey to unpack what the data actually says about outcomes in mild to moderate acute diarrhea, including cases with bloody stool, and why supportive care often matches antibiotics for speed of recovery. Along the way, we get honest about the...