Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Veterinary mental health symposium, calicivirus updates and free fish webinar

cats and kittens
This was the moment that Hero sat beside Michael for the first time. He was about ten weeks old. She was about 12. He had annoyed the socks off her with his kitteny ways and I had been through the "oh my gosh I made the wrong decision to get a kitten" phase (Mike had been through the "I second that" phase). I may have done a few cartwheels right after this photo was taken.

Here at SAT we take mental health very seriously. It’s a big, big deal. So we’re very pleased to hear that the first international symposium for veterinary mental health and suicide prevention is happening in Brisbane on May 29.

Speakers will include Jodie Wilson, Oliver Liyou, Julanne Frater, Peter Hatch, Jim Wilson, Jenny Weston, Brian Mc Erlean and David Bartram.

If you can’t make it to Brisbane on the day, you can attend the conference at home via live-streaming (don’t you love technology?) for the same fee.

For registration, click here.

In other news…

Dr Phil McDonagh completed a PhD in feline virology. Among other things he found that field strains of calicivirus could be inhibited with short-interfering RNAs (siRNAs) in vitro. That’s good news for cats. Until May 29 you can download the full text of his article for free here.

Declaration: I assisted Dr McDonagh in his research and am an author on the paper.

Fish vets and other aquatically oriented individuals won’t want to miss this free webinar on water quality. It’s hosted at a slightly awkward time if you’re not a night owl and you live on the Eastern seaboard of Australia but it promises to be an excellent webinar. For more info and registration click here.

Finally, my dad sent thislink. Honestly, when you watch something like this you wonder what dogs really think about us. Everyone needs a friend like this GSD.