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Friday, April 24, 2020

Free Covid-19 webinars for veterinary teams

PPE, home made mask, Covid19, pandemic
Home made masks, mailed by my amazing mum. 


There is a growing body of info now available on SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 for veterinary teams, though the majority is in the form of webinars and e-updates as the situation continues to evolve.

The good news, for those of us living with and working with animals, is that there are no documented cases of animal to human transmission.

We are very fortunate in Australia to have currently low levels of community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in humans. Colleagues in other countries (Italy, the US and the UK) have been affected by the loss of people they know. Without saying too much, they are trying to work under much stricter restrictions, and there have been some unintended animal welfare impacts.

Next week I will be participating in a presentation with infectious disease experts Professor Jacqui Norris, Associate Professor Thomas Gottlieb (he looks after human patients) and Australian Veterinary Association President Julia Crawford on Covid-19. I will be talking about ethical challenges experienced by veterinary teams. Veterinary team members can register here. This will be the first of a two-part series.

The World Health Organisation has a new free online course on how to put on and remove PPE here. (On that note my mum has been making some beautiful masks. Because of social distancing I can't see her and, like everyone else separated from family, miss her so much. So getting these masks in the post was a much-needed dose of mum).

Professor Jacqui Norris has recorded an excellent update on Covid-19/SARS-CoV-2 and leptospirosis in companion animals for the Centre for Veterinary Education. It can be viewed here.

You can also check out my webinar on ethical challenges for veterinary teams in the Covid-19 era here.

On the WFH front, I don't know about you but its been a big challenge this week. Life has been a bit of a challenge in general, and then Hero developed acute abdominal pain on Tuesday, necessitating an unplanned trip into work and some investigations (I don't want to breach his privacy but he is doing much better, though we will be consulting with a medicine specialist). But doesn't it feel like the rug has been pulled out from underneath you when you have a sick family member? I'm trying to be kind to myself by trying to clock off at a reasonable hour, making more realistic to-do lists, and saying g'day to this delightful turtle on my walks.
Hopefully the Covid-19 pandemic will force us to reevaluate, and change, the way we treat animals and the environment.