Wrap up: Colorado voters approve midlevel practitioner proposal, and other veterinary news

Good morning dvm360 readers and happy Friday! We are officially less than a month away from our final conference of the year: Fetch Long Beach. From December 6-8, 2024, veterinary professionals, industry leaders, and the dvm360 team will head to Long Beach, California for a weekend full of learning, networking, and fun! There is still time to sign up, so register here today. If you cannot make it, you can follow along with all the highlights, covered sessions, and video interviews on the dedicated Fetch Long Beach page on the dvm360 website.

• Voters in Colorado voted yes to Proposition 129, formerly known as Proposed Initiative 145, which will introduce a new midlevel practitioner (MLP) position in veterinary medicine, despite multiple organizations speaking out against it. The new position will be master level trained and would be allowed to diagnose, treat, and perform surgery on veterinary patients.
• During this interview with dvm360, Andrea Pace, CVT, VTS (ECC), reviewed the importance of using Kirby’s Rule of 20, a list of 20 essential parameters that should be assessed every day in critically ill animals at your practice.
• As dvm360 continues to cover the 2024 New York Vet, we have compiled a list of all our current coverage in one article. From interviews with faculty, to covering sessions, you can find it all here today!
• On this week’s episode of The Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360 and hosted by Adam Christman, DVM, MBA; Anne Chauvet, DVM, DACVIM, CHT-V shared with listeners her path to becoming a veterinary neurologist, and tips and tricks she learned along the way.
• The American Heartworm Society announced that for the first time since 2015, it updated its Feline Heartworm Guidelines for veterinarians and addressed persistent undermanagement and underdiagnosis of heartworm diseases in cats.
• And more!