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 The dvm360® behavior page is a resource for medical news and expert insights on companion animal traits and behavior. This page features expert-led coverage, articles, videos, and research on the latest discoveries and treatments for behavior, and more.

On this week's episode of The Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360, our host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, and guests Megan Bauer, DVM, Fear Free Certified Elite, and Jessica Osborne, CVPM, Fear Free Certified Elite, discuss how the Fear Free concepts can be implemented into practices to make them a more calming and welcoming place for pets. 

Throughout the episode, the trio will address the importance of caring for both mental and physical wellbeing of patients, how practices can implement small changes to get big results, plus the positive impact of Fear Free practices on a clinic's relationship with its clients and patients. 

To those that may not know about it, what can you explain a little bit about what...fear free actually means? What's that mean?

Basically, looking after the mental well-being of your patients, and that was probably the hardest, well was the hardest discussion with clients. We can't trim your dog's nails today, but you did it last month. Yes, but you may not want to know what that looked like last month. And now this month, we're starting on our journey of Fear Free, and we're not going to hold them down. We're not going to use 3 assistants to do it. We need to give him some pre-visit medications and have him come back.

Yeah, like Jessica said, it's not thinking of physical and mental health as 2 separate things. Its all 1 being, you know, the more you learn about stress, the more you learn how it affects every system of the body and what we do for "just a second." "Oh, we're just going to hold him down 4 minutes and trim his nails" will last a minimum of 3 days in the body, potentially much, much longer, if you get into actual trauma. But it is not 2 separate things. Like, "well, that's just his mental health"... Nope, that's really important as well, just, it's just one animal, it's all together. 

Yeah, I love that you share. Yeah, "really quick, really quick" is what I hear too, like "it'll be really quick," you know, just to trim the nails or just to pop the vaccine or whatever. 

Learn more about Fear Free and the impact it has on veterinary clinics in this week's episode of The Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360

Fear free in practice

Canine osteoarthritis is a complex disease that impacts quality of life for many of our canine patients. Part 2 of this podcast series will highlight why effective management requires development of a baseline treatment plan that is customized to the individual patient and includes a plan for managing flare-ups. A systematic, evidence-based approach will be presented that can be implemented in general practice.



Recognize the importance of a customized treatment plan; that one-size does not fit all for canine osteoarthritis

Appreciate the ebb and flow of osteoarthritis with periods of calmness followed by periods of flare-ups

Appreciate the multimodal management of osteoarthritis 

David L. Dycus, DVM, MS, CCRP, DACVS joins Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, to explain treatment for osteoarthritis and the need for individualized patient plans.




Podcast CE: A Surgeon’s Perspective on Current Trends for the Management of Osteoarthritis, Part 2

Canine osteoarthritis is a complex disease that impacts quality of life for many of our canine patients. Part 1 of this podcast series will focus on the epidemiology of this disease, the importance of a proactive approach to diagnosis, and will introduce a standardized staging tool to be utilized in general practice.



Recognize that osteoarthritis affects the entire joint

Appreciate that canine osteoarthritis impacts many younger dogs and is not an “old-dog” disease

Understand the importance of a proactive approach utilizing the Canine OsteoArthritis Staging Tool

David L. Dycus, DVM, MS, CCRP, DACVS joins Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, to discuss a proactive approach to the diagnosis of osteoarthritis and the best tools for general practice.


Podcast CE: A Surgeon’s Perspective on Current Trends for the Management of Osteoarthritis, Part 1



Osteoarthritis (or degenerative joint disease) is the most common cause of chronic (maladaptive) pain in cats but is underrecognized by owners and therefore many cats go untreated. Up to 92% of all cats have radiographic changes (radiographic disease) in the axial and appendicular skeleton and these changes are more common in cats over the age of 10. There is often a mismatch between radiographic changes and clinical findings (painful joints, mobility impairment) but the relationship between radiographic changes and clinical disease increases with age. Screening and assessment tools have been developed and validated for cats and should be used to help diagnose the disease and monitor the response to treatment. Treatment is multimodal and includes drug and non-drug therapies in combination with environmental changes to ensure that stress in the affected cat’s household is addressed. Pain related to osteoarthritis is responsive to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and the feline specific anti-nerve growth factor monoclonal antibody, Frunevetmab (Solensia™). Non-drug therapies include Omega-3 fish oil, physical therapy, and acupuncture. Ensuring cats have a safe place to hide, have help with accessing “high” places, and easy-entry litter boxes are important for improving the cat’s quality of life.





Sheilah Robertson, BVMS (Hons), PhD, DACVAA, DECVAA, DACAW, DECAWBM (WSEL), CVA, FRCVS, Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice, discusses diagnosis and treatment options for osteoarthritis in cats.



Recognize the changes in behavior that suggest chronic pain in cats

Know which assessment tools can be used to document disability and monitor response to treatment

Know what treatment options are available for cats with osteoarthritis

Sheilah Robertson, BVMS (Hons), PhD, DACVAA, DECVAA, DACAW, DECAWBM (WSEL), CVA, FRCVS, joins Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, to discuss the management and treatment of osteoarthritis in cats.

Podcast CE: Osteoarthritis in cats: diagnosis and treatment options

#7: Touching the untouchables: The first reactive referral center for pets with behavioral challenges

Tracy Paukette, DVM, shared more about the Reactive Referral Center, a first-of-its-kind place to treat pets with special needs. In this episode, she also discusses with Dr Christman how she came to create the center, all it does, and some success stories.

We have compiled a countdown of our top Vet Blast Podcast Episodes in 2023, here is number 7

Top Vet Blast Podcast episodes of 2023: #7

Most veterinary professionals have witnessed an increase in separation anxiety when it comes to all of the pandemic puppies booking appointments. However, as more patients come in with clients thinking they have separation anxiety, how can veterinary professionals talk to them about treatment options or even other possible diagnoses? 

On this week's episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, Lisa Radosta, DVM, DACVB, and host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, chat about how teams can approach clients who suspect their pet is suffering from behavior anxiety, what questions to ask clients, and how to rule it out. 

For us as veterinarians, we want to first be objective. So we see this all the time, clients will come in and say 'My dog has separation anxiety' so I come into that appointment with [not knowing] what your dog has, I can't come into that with 'your dog has separation anxiety,' because if the client knew how to diagnose and treat, she wouldn't be in the exam room.  

So I want to be super objective. Separation anxiety occurs really frequently with 2 things, confinement distress, so creating being confined in a bathroom, or to behind a gate, and noise phobia. And if we're gonna just play the slots in Vegas, the dog is more likely to have noise phobia than separation anxiety. About 50% of US dogs—50, like 5-0, that's a big number—have noise phobia, based on the pre COVID numbers, and we didn't know post COVID. But pre COVID numbers about maybe 25% of dogs have separation, we're going to call them related disorders.

Dr Lisa Radosta joins this week's episode of The Vet Blast Podcast to unpack separation anxiety in pets

Discussing separation anxiety with clients

On this week's episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, Tabitha Kucera, RVT, KPA-CTP, CCBC, VTS (Behavior) joins host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, as they discuss the importance of understanding patient behavior, plus how to get staff on board with addressing patients' emotional needs. 

Below is a partial transcript. Listen to the full podcast for more.

Tabitha Kucera, RVT, KPA-CTP, CCBC, VTS (Behavior)

: I think a big thing that we can all do better is better understand our patient's body language, essentially how they communicate with us. I can't tell you, especially with cats but also with dogs, I will share a video of me doing gentle control with a cat for a blood draw and all of the comments, again this is just data for me, all of the comments are like 'that cat is going to bite you in the face' and I'm like guys, cats give us a lot of signals and this cats' body language so now I actually narrate the videos I share on social media, but it was really eye-opening to me because I was like there is a huge lack of understanding of basic body language. 

Learn how veterinary professionals can better address patients' emotional needs on this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast

Let's chat behavior

On this episode of the latest Vet Blast Podcast, Tracy Paukette, DVM, joins Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, to discuss the Reactive Referral Center, the first of its kind to help treat pets with special needs. Paukette tells listeners about her path to the referral center, the work they do, and some of the success stories they had.  

 I gotta go through that history before I even talk to that client. So go through what history we have, including trading history. So it's not just medical, but if they have any training history, I go through all of that, then we set up actually a telehealth appointment with me. So we take that time to I break down every single detail as far as because I want to set this patient up for success. And I want these [clients] to trust me that, hey, it's gonna be okay. It may be that you walk in the door and your dog may try to lunge at me right away. That's okay. We're gonna be okay. 

We break down all the details starting from you know, 'how was your last visit?' And I'll start with them in their own home and walk you through  'did your dog get into the car? How did the car ride though? Did they get out of the car? What happened at the door? What did you use for restraint? Was a towel ever used? Where were the vaccines given?' All these things, because oftentimes is you know, these pets remember all of that and so they're fearful. We want to try to readjust some of those things in advance.

Take a look inside the Reactive Referral Center

Touching the untouchables: The first reactive referral center for pets with behavioral challenges

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.

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 

Often, all the time and training pet owners invest in their puppies can go right out the window once their furry friend reaches adolescence. According to Billie Groom, the creator of 

—a scientifically proven formula adhering to the principles of cognitive-behavioral therapy—that is where incorporating cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) comes into play.

On this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, Billie Groom, the creator of UPWARD Dogology, reveals the secrets behind why cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for dogs over 6 months is effective.


Behavior

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