July 25, 2019
Weekly News Roundup 7/19 to 7/25
This week: Inaugural class at new veterinary school could get sent home come September, tracking baby turtles from the International Space Station, and would you like a lost-pet flyer with that pizza?
July 25, 2019
This week: Inaugural class at new veterinary school could get sent home come September, tracking baby turtles from the International Space Station, and would you like a lost-pet flyer with that pizza?
July 01, 2019
In July 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it was investigating a potential link between heart disease in dogs and the consumption of grain-free pet food. The FDA last week released an update on their investigation. And this time, they named names.
January 11, 2019
A new study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Veterinary Medicine reviewed all opioids dispensed at the veterinary school for from January 2007 through December 2017. The findings show that prescriptions rose 41% annually, while the number of patient visits rose only 13%.The researchers found the ratio worrisome.
January 10, 2019
The numbers are grim. According to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), female veterinarians are 3.5 times more likely to die by suicide than members of the general population. And while female veterinarians account for two-thirds of US veterinarians, their suicide rate is more than twice that for male veterinarians.
December 10, 2018
The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Veterinary Medicine recently approved Pexion (imepitoin tablets) to treat noise aversion in dogs. It’s a common condition—one study found that 40% of dogs may suffer from some degree of noise aversion—and one with possibly serious health implications, indicates a study that shows that noise aversion in dogs could be a sign of serous pain.
December 05, 2018
Who knew eating peas could be trendy? Last July, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it was investigating a potential link between heart disease in dogs and the consumption of grain-free pet food.That announcement set off a firestorm of confusion and (often) misinformed debate among those who advocate for unconventional diets such as grain free, raw, home prepared, vegetarian, and boutique commercial pet foods.
November 19, 2018
In the dog-eat-dog world of Washington politics, it sometimes seems as though the right paw doesn’t know what the left paw is doing.The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced last Friday that it’s launching a new study to help establish a non-animal-based model for scientific research—a model that could one day eliminate the use of live animals in potentially lethal research experiments.
September 20, 2018
The opioid shortage is both a manufacturing issue and a manufactured one. The manufacturing part can be traced back to production issues at a Pfizer Inc. plant in Kansas and residual damage from last year’s Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, a major pharmaceutical manufacturing center. The manufactured part can be traced back to the US Drug Enforcement Agency.
August 16, 2018
The United States is battling an epidemic of opioid abuse that claimed 42,000 lives and caused 1,000 emergency room visits per day in 2016. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) knows that veterinarians are on the front lines of that fight. And “doctor-shopping” patients are only part of the problem.
March 28, 2018
Which caregivers should be allowed to put their hands on a client’s pet? And under what circumstances? For that matter, what constitutes a qualified caregiver? A bill is coming to a vote before the California State Assembly’s Committee on Business and Professions next Tuesday that could change the answers to those questions, at least in California, and pose some thorny new ones with serious implications for the veterinary industry nationwide.