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IDEXX: Contributing to something bigger

According to Editorial Advisory Board member, Steve Dale, CABC, simply taking the time to discuss and 

 resolve behavioral issues with clients can positively impact the quality of life for the pet and their owner, thus strengthening your relationship with the client. 

In this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, Dale shares with Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, that oftentimes clients feel embarrassed to talk about their pet's behavioral concerns, or they wonder how a veterinarian can help them with this issue, or they simply brush the behavior aside and deem it as OK.

Dale explains that veterinary professionals do have time to ask about their patient's behavior during a veterinary visit, and recommends asking the pet owner about behavior "in a way that’s open-ended and a way to encourage people to tell you the truth.”

“If you are able to solve a medical problem, wonderful, your clients will love you. I am telling you when you solve a behavior problem, you are changing their quality of life,” he says. 

Listen below to learn more about the significance of approaching the behavior topic with clients.

Podcasts

On this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, Steve Dale, CABC, emphasizes the importance of asking clients about behavioral concerns, offers advice on addressing the topic, and beyond. 

Episode 56: Tips for talking behavior with clients and why it matters 

Basepaws Pet Health—an animal genetic testing and cat health products company—has teamed up with Dr Ernie Ward's 

 to distinguish the genetic markers linked to longer lifespans and healthspans in cats. 

According to a company release, Project 25's mission is to increase pet lives by no less than 25% by the year 2025. The results from this partnership garner the potential to provide a heightened biological understanding of genetic variants often associated with a decreased chance of developing various age-related conditions (eg, cardiovascular and renal disorders, diabetes). 

“Companion animal genetic research has historically been synonymous with canine genetic research, mostly leaving felines out of the limelight,” says Yuliana Mihaylova, PhD, Basepaws’ head of research & development, in the release.

“This collaboration between Basepaws and Project 25 is a big step towards equalizing the playing field and giving cats a fighting chance against degenerative diseases associated with old age,” she adds.

Additionally, this alliance will help propel the development of novel therapies targeting age-related diseases with poor prognoses, and improving the quality of life for senior felines. The discoveries also have the potential to be used to inform human studies on longevity and age-related illnesses.

Both Basepaws and Project 25 are actively recruiting senior cats 17 years or older to partake in their longevity research project. Cat parents will be sent an oral swab kit and required to collect a DNA sample from their feline and complete health-related documentation to return to Basepaws’ lab. All participants will receive the company's signature cat DNA report free of charge as a complimentary thank you for their contribution. 

“I believe every cat should live to celebrate their 25th birthday and do so in good health. The first step towards achieving this goal is identifying the genetic differences that distinguish those very special cats who already live a healthy life into their late teens and twenties from the general cat population," says Ernie Ward, DVM, founder of Project 25, in the release.

"We can then use this knowledge to develop tools that help all cats live a longer and healthier life. It’s our goal to extend the life expectancy of cats to 25, and perhaps beyond," he adds.

To advance pet healthcare even further, Basepaws also recently launched its Basepaws Cat Dental Health Test which analyzes the relative abundance of more than 600 microbes in a feline’s mouth to aid the detection of early signs of feline dental disease.

To learn more about Basepaws and its innovative biotechnologies, go 

Articles

This unique collaboration will help uncover findings that can prolong the lives of cats, plus potentially be used to inform human studies on longevity and age-related diseases. 

Basepaws partners with Project 25 to extend cats’ lifespans 

Second-year veterinary student Luke Daniels, who is the first-ever recipient of the Lex Thompson Veterinary Investigator Award. (Photo courtesy of Newport Laboratories)

Last month, Newport Laboratories—a Boehringer Ingelheim company—named Luke Daniels, a second-year veterinary student at the University of Illinois (UIUC), the recipient of its first-ever 2021 Lex Thompson Veterinary Investigator Award. This inaugural award is named after the late Dr Lex Thompson, a longtime technical service veterinarian with Newport Labs who passed away in March of 2020. 

, the award will be annually given to a veterinary student who displays an outstanding research proposal that includes the tools and support necessary to achieve it. This year's winner, Daniels, plans to explore the genetic diversity of Moraxella bovis (a bacterium that causes pinkeye in cattle), thus exemplifying Thompson's investigative initiative. 

“Looking ahead to the next generation of bovine health challenges is critical to ensuring veterinarians and producers have the tools and knowledge they need to address them,” said Randy Shirbroun, DVM, Director of the Ruminant Business Unit at Newport Laboratories, in the release. 

“So, who better to ensure the industry is keeping a watchful eye toward the future than the bright young minds who will be on the front lines of cattle health in the years to come?" He added. 

Daniels plans to conduct his research with the support of both Newport Lab's technical service veterinarians and the company’s diagnostics, research, and development teams along with a professor or practicing veterinarian. Currently, he serves as the UIUC AABP representative in the Production Medicine Club, where he organizes wet labs and educational lectures that include segments like cow-calf nutrition and dairy palpation labs. 

Additionally, once graduated, Daniels plans to continue exploring the different production systems found within the US, while working as a practitioner and overseeing his own production cattle operation.

“I’m honored to have been selected as the first recipient of the Lex Thompson Veterinary Investigator Award and excited to work with Newport Labs to answer some critical questions about Moraxella bovis, a pathogen that causes significant challenges for the cattle industry,” said Daniels.

To learn more about Newport Laboratories and its mission, go 

This year's winner of the annual award is UIUC's second-year veterinary student Luke Daniels, who plans to investigate the genetic diversity of Morazella bovis in cattle. 

Newport Laboratories establishes new inaugural award for cattle health

Editorial Advisory Board member Stephen Cital, RVT, SRA, RLAT, VCC, CVPP, VTS-LAM (Res. Anesthesia) sat down with dvm360

staff to offer a few invaluable communication pearls when it comes to broaching the CBD topic with clients, plus insight on the existing research supporting the benefits of CBD.

“If you think this pet can benefit from [CBD products], I think it’s worthwhile to just ask the pet parent, ‘Hey, have you heard of CBD, and what’s your comfort level with trying these types of things?’ and get their feeling and show them some of the data,” Cital told dvm360.

Videos

Experienced veterinary technician, Steve Cital, RVT, SRA, RLAT, VCC, CVPP, VTS-LAM (Res. Anesthesia) provides a few useful nuggets to consider when discussing the (sometimes-controversial) CBD topic with clients. 

Broaching the CBD topic with clients 101

You may be gaining clients, but are you retaining them? There is a science to it. A successful client retention marketing strategy heavily relies upon your veterinary practice’s vision, core values, and mission. What matters to you will matter to your clients. Let’s take a deeper look.

Retention marketing aims to strengthen your existing relationships with clients via ongoing and consistent communication, proper education, and becoming a go-to source for information. Never again should a client say, “I did not know that.” Here are 6 steps to help you implement a successful client retention marketing strategy at your clinic.

Step 1: Identify key client education topics

There are dozens of untapped subjects to explore with your clients. Here are a few topics to help you get started: senior care, weight management, dental disease, breed-specific concerns, chronic skin and ear conditions, behavior, internal parasites, and external parasites. The goal is to properly educate pet owners about health conditions pertinent to their fur babies to help them live healthier, happier, and longer lives.

Step 2: Properly utilize practice management software

You and your team must create customized communications with clients based on individual patient needs. Ensure your team knows how to sort by age, breed, services provided, products dispensed, body condition score, etc. Pets who are not on heartworm preventives, for example, will get a different set of communications than those that are taking them. Additionally, kittens and puppies would not get a senior care workup education email. Mrs Jones, who just brought in her 3 dogs for expensive dental care, would not receive a postcard informing her that her dogs are overdue for a dental cleaning. These communication errors can erode client trust.

Step 3: Create targeted educational content

Educational resources should be tailored to address specific patient needs while explaining the consequences of not addressing these health concerns. For example:

Older cocker spaniels have a high risk of hypothyroidism, which leads to…

Senior cats are very prone to kidney failure. If left untreated it could lead to...

Your content should also range from letter size to postcard size. Additionally, remember that every message must have a call to action (eg, an examination, a fecal, a tooth check, a weigh-in). You may also consider including incentives such as a free tooth cleaning, exam, or pet food to help encourage adherence.

Step 4: Identify current and new marketing outreach tools

Letters, postcards, and newsletters—like email, e-cards, audio emails, video emails, telephone calls, Facebook posts, Tweets, and Pinterest posts—are effective marketing tools. It is important to note that there is nothing wrong with educating your clientele en masse while focusing on specific client and patient needs.

Identify pets that meet the parameters for a specific campaign. Examples of issues around which to create a campaign include obesity, senior care, dental care, etc. Then use this list to send out the marketing pieces to the owners of these pets.

Step 6: Scheduling, and repetition, are key

Mail-merge the list in Step 5 into the marketing pieces in Step 3 using the tools in Step 4 to send to clients. Letters, postcards, emails, and phone calls should all be scheduled at different times and sent to the same client. Repetitive communication helps drive home key points.

If we use the metaphor of marketing and relate it to vaccinations and the immune response, 1 shot is usually not enough to stimulate the immune system to provide long-term protection from the disease against which you are being vaccinated. Similarly, marketing is rarely effective as a single shot that has long-lasting impressions on either your clients or potential clients. In the case of vaccinations, early in the animal’s life there is usually a series of shots necessary to provide sufficient immune response to afford long-term protection, and even then boosters are needed later. For marketing, constant exposure, education, and communication (the vaccinations) are needed to provide enough interest and motivation for the client/customer to take action.

Think of marketing as constantly educating your clients so that they demand the products and services you provide and share that enthusiasm with their friends and family members.

Peter Weinstein, DVM, MBA, is executive director of the Southern California Veterinary Medical Association, coauthor of 

 with Michael Gerber, and president of Simple Solutions for Pets.

Check out these 6 steps for successfully implementing a retention marketing strategy at your veterinary practice.

 How to maintain client loyalty by utilizing effective retention marketing 

He is called “the dog whisperer,” but as it turns out—somewhat famously—I called him “the dog screamer.” And I was not shy about it.

What Cesar Millan was doing was hardly as subtle as a whisper. His TV shows often highlighted aversive training techniques, and I was not the only one exasperated by Millan’s methods—so were members of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists (ACBC), who happen to like the humane and science-based notion of positive reinforcement.

However, as Millan’s programs enjoyed success, more dog trainers began marketing themselves as whisperers or hanging a shingle on their doors and websites, calling themselves behaviorists (which, unless they are boarded diplomates of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, they decidedly are not).

Enough was enough. In 2014, the ACBC authored a book with the hopes of setting the record straight regarding dog training and enhancing awareness of diplomates. The book is called 

, and I was honored to write the introduction (and gladly promoted the book as if it were my own, though I was a coeditor).

 addresses common misconceptions about feline behavior.

Because of sky-high sales (which are continuing) and favorable reviews, the same publisher had no issue with allowing the ACBC to create a sequel, suitably called 

, coedited by Meghan Herron, DVM, DACVB; Debra Horwitz, DVM, DACVB; and Carlo Siracusa, DVM, PhD, DECAWBM. Again, I was honored to pen the introduction. The book is primarily geared for pet parents in hopes of dispelling the many myths and misconceptions surrounding cats.

“[When] cats wave a flag, there’s something wrong,” says one of the book’s contributors, Amy Pike, DVM, DACVB, IAABC-CABC. “Well, that is the cat’s perspective, [that] they’re waving the flag, but many times pet parents don’t notice the change in behavior because cats can be subtle. If the owners do seek help, where are they going?”

Pet parents seem to suggest, more so with cats than dogs, that their pet is out to get them or is being spiteful. “Dogs have changed dramatically from their original ancestors,” adds Herron. I have a French bulldog myself—talk about neoteny (retention of juvenile features in the adult animal).

“However, domestic cats physically haven’t changed a whole lot,” she says. “So that means the behavioral repertoire is quite similar too. A strong hunting instinct, a desire to scratch and climb all over things and, perhaps, to do anything to feel safe. Perfectly normal behaviors for cats but problematic for some families. When it comes to cats, our [clients’] expectations are too often not what cats truly are.”

While felines tend to be more popular than their canine counterparts and are considered lower maintenance (eg, don’t bark or require walks), sometimes their owners don’t fully comprehend their enrichment needs.

“We don’t write about damaging cat training as we did damaging dog training,” says contributing author Julie Albright, DVM, DACVB, associate professor of veterinary behavior at University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, Knoxville. “Although cats are way more self-sufficient than dogs, we’re often not fair to cats, not giving them what they need.”

Albright is referring to enrichment. “I actually prescribe enrichment all the time. I have a handout; I circle what’s right for that individual cat,” says Albright. “We talk about what that individual client can do and meet them where they [pet owners] are at. I tell clients to set times and have reminders to ensure that they do it. I talk about how cats can be taught to play fetch. I think there should seriously be an equivalent of canine nose work for cats. I have moose scent and put that on a paper towel.”

Although moose scent is not for all cats, contributor Kelly Ballantyne, DVM, DACVB, says, “Enrichment is no longer considered an important idea; today it’s a necessary idea for all indoor cats.” Enrichment is about meeting cats’ hardwired needs. Albright brings up a new area of study, “Enrichment releases the neurochemical brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).”

At least that’s the case in rodents, humans, and very limited studies in dogs. BDNF serves as a sort of natural antidepressant.

Another important objective consistent throughout the book is to help clients be more aware that a change in behavior may be a result of a medical issue. “Every day when I was in general practice, people said, ‘Give me the Prozac,’” Herron says. She adds that clients want a magic pill that doesn’t exist, and because the internet says the problem is behavioral, it must be. So, they add litter boxes for the cat with kidney disease; that’s fine, except that the cat still has kidney disease.

A lot of clients get embarrassed to even bring up a behavioral problem, or they don’t think it’s important or don’t think a veterinarian would have any interest in a behavioral problem. “I suggest private practitioners always ask, not if there’s a behavior problem, but if there’s been any change in your cat’s behavior,” says Pike. “Sometimes people may not even think about it until you ask. Or they may think a change, like an older cat no longer jumping on a counter, is to be expected. Of course, that tells us the cat may be in pain, right? And we can do something for that cat.”

“I’m so glad that cats are finally receiving the attention they deserve—and hope 

 clears up the long list of misconceptions and misunderstandings people have about cats,” Albright concludes.

Jha S, Dong BE, Xue Y, Delotterie DF, Vail MG, Sakata K. Antidepressive and BDNF effects of enriched environment treatment across ages in mice lacking BDNF expression through promoter IV. 

An animal behavioralist sets the record straight on where pet parents get their information and sheds light on the many misconceptions surrounding feline behavior.

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IDEXX: Contributing to something bigger