Clinical decision making in farm animal practice - online CPD
MON 20 SEPTEMBER TO SUN 31 OCTOBER 2010
Course fee: £509
One of the characteristics of seasoned veterinary practitioners is their ability to think through complex clinical problems and determine rational solutions. Experts in any clinical field adopt a combination of pattern recognition and problem-based reasoning in applying their art but how do non-experts develop these skills except through trial and error?
This online CPD course runs for 6 weeks and is designed to assist participants in developing a logical approach to clinical reasoning in key areas of farm animal health and production.
Key areas
• Surgical decision making:
While the modern farm animal clinician is expected to have expertise in data handling and interpretation in order to address health and production issues at a population level, it is often the clinician’s expertise at solving individual animal problems that can win the respect of farmers and producers. Following this module the participant will have an increased ability to select, perform, interpret and use appropriate diagnostic (physical exam, clinical pathology, imaging (ultrasonography) and ancillary testing (rumen fluid analysis; abdominocentesis etc) in the identification and the pre-operative management of surgical disease in the farm animal. Participants will be taught the scientific and technical aspects of general and regional anaethaesia, analgesia and surgical techniques using commonly encountered adult (e.g. RDA, LDA) and calf (umbilical masses) abdominal disease as exemplars. Surgical intervention in other body systems will also be discussed.
• Medical diagnostics:
With the increasing availability of portable handheld, point of care blood analysers the routine use of affordable and rapidly available diagnostic testing is expanding for the farm animal clinician. Following this module the participant will be better equipped to select, perform and interpret haematology, biochemistry, tissue fluid analyses and other diagnostics and to be able to employ this data in identifying disease, managing and refining therapies and estimating prognosis at both an individual and population level.
• Therapeutics:
While farm animal clinicians’ cars, trucks and stock cupboards are full of a vast arrange of therapeutic agents, much of our therapeutic decision making is based on anecdotal information and trial and error, and yet, the careful and appropriate use of therapeutics is at the root of effective cure and prevention at both an individual and population level. Following this module the participant will have a greater understanding of the process of rational selection and the appropriate administration of antimicrobial therapy, the practical use of fluid therapy for calves and adult cows, and the application of anti-inflammatories and analgesics to appropriately manage pain in farm animals.
• Gastrointestinal disease in ruminants:
This module will focus on equipping participants to adopt a logical approach to diagnosing, managing, treating and preventing gastrointestinal disease at both an individual and population level. The rationalized application of diagnostics and therapeutics to an outbreak of calf diarrhoea will be examined, as well as to on farm investigations of gastrointestinal disease in growing stock and adult animals.
• Respiratory disease in ruminants:
This module will focus on equipping participants to adopt a logical approach to diagnosing, managing, treating and preventing respiratory disease at both an individual and population level. The rationalized application of diagnostics such as bronchoalveolar lavage and therapeutics such as vaccination to an outbreak of calf pneumonia will be discussed as well as the prophylactic and metaphylactic use of antimicrobials. Following this module the participant will also have an enhanced understanding of quantifying potential risk factors for infectious respiratory disease and receive training in constructing farm-specific causality webs during disease outbreak investigations.
Key words: cattle, cow, bovine, sheep, ovine
TUTORS:
Brian Aldridge, BVSc MS PhD DipACVIM MRCVS
Professor of Farm Animal Health and Production
The Royal Veterinary College
Tim Potter,
BVetMed MRCVS
Farm Animal Clinician and PhD student
The Royal Veterinary College