Searching for a needle in a…

  Veterinary Record Case Reports publishes high quality cases in all disciplines, so that clinicians and researchers can easily find important information on both common and rare conditions. Here, Alastair MacMillan, Editor of the online-only journal, highlights an interesting case involving an inquisitive labrador. An eight-month-old female labrador retriever presented with progressive cervical hyperaesthesia after being seen […]

Read More…

Foot passengers on a knife edge: is digital dermatitis being transmitted by hoof trimming equipment?

  Foot problems are one of the most serious welfare concerns facing the livestock industry today. In the UK cattle industry, digital dermatitis is a major cause of lameness and an increasingly serious problem. The disease can cause painful lesions on the skin around the hoof, as well as in other areas, including between the […]

Read More…

On the right track: should UK veterinary schools introduce tracking to degrees?

  Currently, veterinary students at schools in the UK are trained to be ‘omnicompetent’ (able to treat any species) upon qualifying as a vet. However, in some vet schools elsewhere in the world, degrees include either full or partial ‘tracking’, meaning that students focus on a particular area or species for either some or all […]

Read More…

Nine lives required: the hazards encountered by free-roaming cats

  Should cats be kept indoors or allowed to roam freely? In the UK, the large majority of the estimated 8 million cats are ‘indoor-outdoor’ cats that spend some proportion of their time exploring outside the house. Often, these cats are free to come and go as they please, undertaking behaviours such as prowling, marking […]

Read More…

Pick of the litter: how interviews help vet schools choose the right undergrads

  Each year, staff at the seven UK veterinary schools face a huge challenge – how to whittle down hundreds of young, hopeful A-level students to just a few future vets. What’s more, the task is becoming more difficult each year. Data from the Royal Veterinary College show that total applications to undergraduate veterinary science […]

Read More…

Pet ponies don’t end up on plates, new research shows

  While there was widespread public concern over the food adulteration scandal earlier this year, in which foods labelled as containing beef were actually found to contain horse DNA, horsemeat continues to be eaten in the UK and throughout Europe.  As data collected by Eurostat and presented here show, large amounts of meat from equids […]

Read More…

New study investigates farmer attitudes towards the vaccination and culling of badgers

  Controversy persists in England over the best way to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis (TB). According to Defra, approximately 28,000 cattle were slaughtered in 2012 for purposes of TB control, and it may cost up to £1 billion to control the disease over the next decade. Mycobacterium bovis may be transmitted from wildlife, […]

Read More…

A new surgical approach to perform equine ovariectomy with the horse standing

  Ovariectomy (the surgical removal of ovaries) in horses can be performed using a variety of approaches, including laparoscopic techniques, which allow the mare to be operated on while standing. However, laparoscopy can be expensive and expertise is required to operate the equipment necessary for a successful and safe operation. In a short communication recently […]

Read More…

Team effort eradicates BVDV in Norway

Infection of cattle with pestiviruses can cause bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) and, in some cases, mucosal disease. In pregnant animals, infection can also result in reproductive failure or persistently infected (PI) offspring. These PI animals produce and excrete the virus, usually at high concentrations, throughout their lives and are instrumental in the spread of infection, […]

Read More…

Bark more likely than bite? Sterilisation programmes in India

  Human dog bite injuries are a major public health problem, particularly where there are large populations of free-roaming or street dogs. In countries with endemic rabies, the bites of animals are the main means of transmission of this disease and dogs are accountable for 91.5 per cent of all bite wounds in India. Bites […]

Read More…