Application of nutritional assessments in small animal practice

Rachel Lumbis* and Martin de Scally Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead*

Good quality nutrition is fundamental to the health and wellbeing of companion animals and will strongly influence a patient's response to veterinary treatment. The World Small Animal Veterinary Association has issued nutritional assessment guidelines to help veterinary staff to ensure that their patients receive optimum nutrition. The author carried out a survey completed by 2740 veterinary health team members to ascertain how widely these tools were being used in practice. Their findings suggest that awareness of the importance of nutritional assessments is high but implementation of the WSAVA guidelines has been inconsistent.These findings will help inform the association's future efforts in this area.

Journal of Small Animal Practice 61 (8), 494-503

Effect of clicker training on learning in mixed-breed shelter puppies

Nicole Dorey and and others, University of Florida, Gainesville

Clicker training has become a popular technique for schooling various animal species in a wide range of settings but there has been very little research conducted into the efficacy of these methods.The authors used clicker training alongside primary reinforcement (small treats) or vocal praise in training 30 shelter puppies that had received no previous instruction. They found no evidence that either the clicker noises or verbal praise were effective in enhancing the quality of training based on primary reinforcement alone. 

Journal of Veterinary Behavior 39(1), 57-63

Human assays used in measuring blood glucose concentrations in rabbits

Kassy Silva and and others, Parana Catholic University Parana, Brazil

Blood glucose measurements can be a valuable prognostic indicator for emergency cases in rabbits, for example, in detecting severe hyperglycae- mia resulting from gastrointestinal obstruction. The authors investigated the reliability in this species of two portable glucometers developed for use in human patients. When compared with the laboratory reference method, there was good correlation with the results using one of the tests (Accu-Chek Active; Roche Diabetes Care). However, their findings suggest that using the second method (G-Tech Lite; Infopia) could result in overestimates of blood glucose levels.

Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation 32(5), 683-688

Effect of gastrointestinal diets on faecal blood testing results in cats

Kate Spies* and Jennifer Slovak, Washington State University Pullman*

Guaiac-based faecal occult blood testing is used in human patients to detect gastrointestinal bleeding and as an early screening test for particular GI diseases such as colorectal cancer The authors investigate the potential value of the method in feline patients. Their findings indicate that small amounts of blood in a feline stool can be reliably and repeatedly detected, making this a user-friendly bench-top test for a veterinary setting. There was a low risk of false positive results in cats fed dry or hydrolised diets but some false positives did occur in cats fed a canned gastrointestinal formula.

Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery 22(7), 656-663

Changes in white blood cell populations in the peripheral blood of older dogs

Cristina Marchetti and and others, University of Parma, Italy 

Gamma-delta T lymphocytes are a subset of white blood cells involved in the response to autoimmune disease and certain cancers. There is little published data on any differences in this cell population in dogs linked to ageing. The authors counted the numbers of yS-T lymphocytes in various age groups. They found dogs have lower populations of these cells than many other mammalian species and the number decreases with increasing age. They suggest that this information may help identify which dogs may benefit from treatment to support impaired thymus immune functions. 

BMC Veterinary Research https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-020-02504-2

Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns in aerobic bacteria isolated from reptiles

Pak Kan Tang and and others, Royal Veterinary College

Reptiles are increasingly popular pets and are presented more frequently at veterinary practices with bacterial infections. The authors describe the results of antimicrobial sensitivity tests on samples from 96 reptiles submitted to a diagnostic laboratory between 2005 and 201 6. Pseudomonas and Enterococcus species were the most common gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, respectively. Based on their findings, they offer recommendations for empirical antimicrobial treatment of reptiles for which sensitivity test results are unavailable.

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 257(3), 305-312 

Veterinary Nursing Journal • VOL 36 • January 2021 •