Firstline - Digital Edition - 05/01/2012

Gastrointestinal disease is part of everyday veterinary practice, yet chronic enteropathy can present some of the most frustrating cases we manage.

New treatment guidelines, a genetic first in cats, and fresh options in anesthesia make up the first half of our countdown of the year’s most-read stories.

Alyssa Mages, CVT, FVTE, VTES, discusses catheter selection, common placement mistakes, and how preparation and hands-on practice can help veterinary technicians build confidence and improve patient care.

Practices in the United Kingdom will face a legal limit on prescription fees, plus new price list and estimate rules, under an order from the country's competition regulator.

Pamela D. Jones, DVM, DACVIM (Oncology), DACVR (Radiation Oncology), explains how the IDEXX Cancer Dx liquid biopsy test detects canine lymphoma, what its sensitivity and specificity mean in practice, and how to interpret a T-cell phenotype result.

A severely immunocompromised patient treated in Lyon died in early October. Investigators suspect the patient was bitten by an infected Culicoides midge in a region where the virus circulated in cattle this summer.

After more than 2 decades in clinical practice, a veterinary technician specialist shares how her hands-on experience with oncology studies led to a remote career monitoring veterinary clinical trials.

A nationwide recall of thousands of compounded veterinary medication listings, the first New World screwworm detection in US wildlife since the parasite’s return, and a new FDA-approved antibiotic formulation for certain skin infections in dogs.