Veterinary Vertex

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Septic arthritis in a neonatal foal is one of those diagnoses that can change everything fast: the foal’s comfort today, survival to discharge, and even long-term athletic soundness once cartilage gets damaged early. We sit down with Dr. David Wallace to unpack why these cases are so high-stakes, how septic joints in neonates often tie back to systemic infection, and why “treat the joint” is never the whole story when you’re managing sepsis, failure of passive transfer, and fragile physiology all at once.

From there we get practical about amikacin dosing and IV regional limb perfusion (IVRLP). We dig into where therapeutic targets come from in the first place, including MIC guidance and how that translates into real plasma concentrations and synovial fluid concentrations for susceptible versus resistant pathogens. We also talk through why foals are not small horses, how disease can change aminoglycoside behavior, and what that means for peak goals, trough expectations, and redosing intervals that may drift beyond a neat every-24-hours schedule.

We also break down what the research shows when you compare cephalic versus saphenous injection sites and why some joints may hit targets while others lag behind. Technique details matter here: tourniquet fit, perfusate volume, limb anatomy, and simple variability between patients. The big clinical takeaway is to monitor the foal in front of you, recheck when needed, and be ready to pivot with lavage, intra-articular therapy, or a different plan if response is not trending the right way. If you find value in evidence-based equine medicine and real-world dosing decisions, subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave us a rating and review wherever you listen.
JAVMA article: https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.24.10.0678
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One strange beat on a resting horse ECG can spark a surprisingly high-stakes question: are we seeing a normal sinus arrhythmia, or an atrial premature complex that changes how we think about risk and follow-up? We sit down with Drs. Kath Mitchell and Beth Williams to make that decision point less subjective, less stressful, and more repeatable for anyone interpreting equine ECGs.

We dig into why the classic RR interval approach sometimes falls short, especially when subtle changes in AV node conduction and PR interval can blur the true prematurity of an atrial beat. Kath and Beth explain why PP intervals matter because they track atrial activity directly, and they share how focusing on timing can scale better than morphology when you move from a resting ECG to an exercise ECG. From coupling intervals to the “return cycle” and the post-ectopic pause, we unpack what to measure and what those measurements mean physiologically.

We also talk about the study results, including how return cycle length variation cleanly separated rhythms in clear examples, why that produced near-perfect ROC performance, and what needs to happen next in the gray zone cases clinicians argue about every day. Along the way, we explore an unexpected finding: ventricular premature beats may influence several beats after the pause, raising new mechanistic questions about how the sinus node responds.

If you want a practical, clinic-ready way to add confidence to your equine cardiology calls, this conversation delivers. Subscribe to Veterinary Vertex, share this with a colleague who reads horse ECGs, and leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.
JAVMA article: https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.26.04.0253
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A “normal temperature” can be the most dangerous kind of comforting. We sit down with Drs. Kimberly Woodruff and Sahar Rostami to unpack what happens when ocular thermometry and rectal thermometry show similar diagnostic performance for detecting abnormal body temperature in dogs, and why that still doesn’t mean you should relax after a normal reading.

We translate sensitivity and specificity into day-to-day clinical decisions. High specificity means these methods are fairly good at confirming normal temperature when a dog truly is normal, but low to moderate sensitivity means they can miss dogs with abnormal core temperature. That’s where the nuance lives: an abnormal result is often meaningful and deserves follow-up, while a normal result shouldn’t outweigh your clinical intuition when the patient looks unwell. We also discuss why the shelter population matters for interpretation, including how rare abnormal temperatures can widen uncertainty around sensitivity estimates.

Then we get practical. We walk through combining ocular and rectal measurements using parallel testing (any positive) versus serial testing (both positive), and how your choice depends on whether you’re trying not to miss cases or trying to be confident before labeling a dog abnormal. We also explore why ocular screening may be a better fit in shelters and some clinics: less handling stress, faster workflows, and potentially lower risk of disease spread than moving a thermometer between animals. Along the way, we touch on measurement technique, eye-region considerations, and why rectal temperature isn’t a perfect gold standard, including how Bayesian latent class analysis can better reflect reality.

If you care about smarter canine triage, better shelter medicine protocols, and making test results match what you see in front of you, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a rating and review wherever you listen.
AJVR article: https://doi.org/10.2460/ajvr.26.04.0185
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You can do everything right clinically and still lose a client in one conversation. We sit down with Dr. Erik Hofmeister to unpack what pet owners actually expect when a veterinary medical error happens, and the answers are more demanding than most of us assume. Many respondents say they want to be told about every error, even minor mistakes that never reach the patient, and they want that disclosure immediately. That level of transparency sounds simple until you picture a real clinic day, real caseload pressure, and real human emotion.

We also dig into why expectations vary. Education level and personality traits shape how owners think about whether errors are inevitable, what an “acceptable” error rate looks like, and how much grace they extend to complex medical systems. That leads to a key veterinary practice management takeaway: understanding complexity does not automatically lower standards. Clients can believe errors happen while still expecting strong safeguards and clear accountability.

Then we get practical about client communication, because the trust numbers are hard to ignore: poor communication about an error drives trust down fast, while great communication has a limited but meaningful ability to rebuild it. We talk through a concrete disclosure tool we can teach and practice in any hospital, the TEAM approach: be truthful, express empathy, apologize, and make a plan. If you care about transparency, risk management, informed consent, and long-term client relationships, this conversation gives you language you can use the next time things go wrong.

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JAVMA article: https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.25.12.0872
INTERESTED IN SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT TO JAVMA ®  OR AJVR ® ?
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AJVR ® : 
Facebook: American Journal of Veterinary Research - AJVR | Facebook
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JAVMA ®  and AJVR ®  LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/avma-journals

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A gel injection that looks “inert” on paper may be doing something surprisingly active inside an arthritic horse joint. We sit down with repeat guest Dr. Lynn Pezzanite to unpack new evidence on how intraarticular 2.5% polyacrylamide hydrogel (2.5% iPAAG) alters synovial immune pathways in equine osteoarthritis, and why that matters for the cases you see in the field. If you have been hearing about longer-lasting clinical effects with polyacrylamide hydrogel, this conversation helps connect the dots between what we observe and what the joint may be signaling at the molecular level. 

We dig into why the team chose gene expression and pathway analysis instead of leaning only on clinical outcomes, and how sampling both synovial fluid cells over time and synovial tissue at key time points changes the story you can tell. You will hear how TNF-alpha pathway activity can be mitigated in synovial fluid while immune activation signals show up in synovium, and why that pattern is not necessarily contradictory when you consider timing, compartment biology, and synovial integration of the hydrogel. 

We also talk translation: what an early post-traumatic cartilage injury model can and cannot tell us about naturally occurring chronic degenerative osteoarthritis, what “earlier treatment” might mean for limiting joint capsule stiffness and supporting capsule elasticity, and why variability across horses points toward real responder vs non-responder biology. If you treat sport horses or racehorses with joint disease and want clearer mechanism-based context for your intraarticular therapy choices, this one is for you. Subscribe, share with an equine vet colleague, and leave a rating and review with your biggest question about 2.5% iPAAG and equine OA.
AJVR article: https://doi.org/10.2460/ajvr.26.04.0181
INTERESTED IN SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT TO JAVMA ®  OR AJVR ® ?
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JAVMA ® :
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AJVR ® : 
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JAVMA ®  and AJVR ®  LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/avma-journals