Meghan Herron, DVM, DACVB, FFCV, discusses what clients should know about a cat’s actions in a dvm360 interview.

Understanding natural feline behavior

Meghan Herron, DVM, DACVB, FFCV, senior director of behavior, education, and outreach at Gigi’s, a shelter organization in Ohio, presented a continuing education session on “Feline Behavior Myths” at the 2025 Fetch dvm360 Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. During the talk, she debunked common notions about the behavior of cats that aren’t supported by science.

What’s one myth about feline behavior that veterinary teams can communicate to clients that might help them understand a cat’s actions? In a 

interview, Herron noted that natural feline actions can be mistaken for misbehavior. In this video, she discussed how that misconception can drive pet owners’ responses, how it affects the human-animal bond and ways to better support these pets.

The following is a transcript of the video:

: Most feline behaviors that our clients are going to complain to us about are probably normal, natural behaviors. What a lot of our clients don't realize is that the domestic cat, Felis, that is living in our homes, is almost identical to their wild ancestor, the African wild cat that is living today, and is quite the stealth predator. So it's like putting a wild animal into our homes, and if we're not prepared for that, it's going to wreak havoc naturally—and it's normal. And so, then we get our squirt bottles, or we start yelling and chasing and damaging our bond for cats that are just being cats, right? And so we got to think back: why are they doing this? And how can I create outlets for this? How can I create a resting place that's elevated, that's warm, that's more appealing than lounging on my countertops. How can I create a scratching option that is stable, that makes a mess when a cat scratches it. So there's a big visual marker there, and it is Grand Central Station of our home, so that they're not scratching up our couch, which is what's most appealing. So thinking about all these things as probably normal behaviors and really setting up our clients for success. If only they would come to us before they got that kitten so we could help them set that up [it] would be great. For now, we just work on helping them understand how to really provide outlets so they're not going haywire with it.

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Understanding natural feline behavior 

In an announcement posted on July 31, 2025, Brakke Consulting Inc., a firm specializing in animal health, pet care, and the veterinary industry, announced Ronald Brakke, its founder and president emeritus, passed away at the age of 84. Brakke, a native to Forestburg, South Dakota, passed away surrounded by his family on July 30, 2025, from complications related to viral encephalitis.

Brakke earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 1963 and then served in the Army National Guard from 1963 to 1971. He then went on to complete Havard School of Business’ Advanced Management Program in 1983. After this, his animal health career began with Sioux Nation’s Veterinary Supply.

Ronald Brakke, founder and president emeritus, passed away on July 30, 2025, after over 6 decades in the animal health industry (Image courtesy of Brakke Consulting)

Brakke eventually joined Diamond Labs over the counter division, leading him to move to Oklahoma City and then in 1966, he joined Thuron Industries in Dallas, which was later renamed the Animal Health Division of Zoecon. In 1975, the company promoted him to president, and he increased its revenue from $15 million to $125 million. He guided the company to become the premier supplier of insect control products for livestock and pets. After over 10 years, Brakke then left Zoecon to start Brakke Consulting in 1985 following the sale of Zoecon to Sandoz in 1983.

Brakke Consulting provides consulting, market research, and recruiting services, support for business development and licensing transactions in the animal health industry. It serves division leaders, CEOs, managers, stockholders, and investors for multiple leading pharmaceutical, vaccine, and pet food companies, and many top animal nutrition suppliers.

“Ron knew a lot of people, helped a lot of companies solve problems and grow, helped place a lot of people in new positions in animal health companies and led many transactions for companies,” Robert Jones, Brakke president, wrote in an email on July 31 to its subscribers. “Under his leadership, Brakke Consulting has produced five landmark studies that helped the animal health industry. He wanted it to be a better industry.”

The US Animal Health Industry: Its pioneers and their legacy of innovation,

 which utilized his early knowledge of the animal health industry companies, plus its founders. He was also presented with the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor’s annual Iron Award to honor his 6 decades in the industry. Outside of work, Brakke owned his family farm in Forestburg where he was a part-time resident. He also enjoyed hosting family and business associates for pheasant hunts over several weekends in the fall.

Brakke is survived by his wife Rebecca, brother Allen (Jo) Brakke, daughters Rebecca Suzanne (Mick) Moore and Rachel (Matt) Holman and two grandchildren. A service was held Friday, August 22, 2025, in Dallas, Texas.

Industry pioneer Brakke leaves lasting legacy in animal health. News release. American Veterinary Medical Association. August 20, 2025. Accessed August 22, 2025. https://www.avma.org/news/industry-pioneer-brakke-leaves-lasting-legacy-animal-health?utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=todays-headlines-news

Ron Brakke, Founder of Brakke Consulting Passes Away. News release. Brakke Consulting. July 31, 2025. Accessed August 22, 2025. https://brakkeconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Brakke-Consulting-Ron-Brakke-Passing.pdf

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Ronald Brakke passed away due to complications related to viral encephalitis last month.

Founder of Brakke Consulting passes away at 84 

At the Fetch dvm360 Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, Jamie Kopper, DVM PhD, DACVIM-LAIM, DACVECC-LA, assistant professor of equine internal medicine and emergency/critical care at Iowa State University, presented a lecture on acute colitis in horses. Among many other things, Kopper’s talk included common causes of colitis in adult horses, such as 

and equine coronavirus, plus the diagnostic challenges veterinarians face when managing these organisms.

may vary. Some patients may be asymptomatic carriers, appearing happy and healthy but still shedding the pathogen while other horses may experience severe life-threatening colitis, sepsis, and/or endotoxemia.

 Meanwhile, others may only show mild signs of intermittent colic.

Risk factors for shedding the bacteria include stress, colic—particularly small colon impactions— and antimicrobial use. During her lecture, Kopper shared that a large percentage of the hospitalized horses with 

Kopper explained that the cause and effect of the relationship between the increased risk for shedding 

and having a small colon impaction is still unknown. Still, she advised, “If you are taking horses into your hospital and you diagnose a small colon impaction, have your radar up from a biosecurity standpoint that this may be a horse that is at an increased risk of shedding 

within your hospital or on a farm that you're working on.”

When it comes to diagnosing the bacterium, doing a culture and/or a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test are both “excellent” options, according to Kopper. “One caveat I will put [out] is, unfortunately, this is a disease that is known for intermittent shedding. So, we know that with one negative sample, there's about a 50% chance [the patient] doesn’t have it. Three negative samples, about 75% chance [they] don't have it.” To be fully confident that a patient does not have 

“So, I when I'm submitting a single sample...I will warn the clients that if we're really wanting to rule out 

, [if] this comes back negative, we still don't have an answer yet and it's still on our list of diseases to be concerned about,” Kopper said. “This is a disease that I will submit at least [another] 1 or 2 more samples for.”

To help clients save money, Kopper advises pooling manure samples from up to 5 horses instead of testing each horse separately. This method may be especially useful in herd outbreaks to reduce cost without losing test sensitivity.

When it comes to horses that were already diagnosed with 

, and the goal is now to confirm that they are no longer an infectious disease risk to others, a culture is the better option over a PCR test, Kopper emphasized. She explained that is because a PCR may still continue to detect DNA from dead 

 bacteria after the horse has stopped shedding the live, infectious organism. A culture, on the other hand, only detects live bacteria.

, clinical symptoms of equine coronavirus are also varied. “[Signs] could be the mildly colicky horse with a fever, it [could] be the horse with just some soft manure, it [could] be the horse with more severe diarrhea and colitis—so a whole gamut of clinical signs,” explained Kopper. She noted that a reliable PCR test is available for detecting the disease.

Unfortunately, equine coronavirus is similar to 

in more than just its varying clinical signs: affected horses also appear to exhibit intermittent shedding of the virus. “We don't have the same data worked out that we do with 

, where we can say, ‘with 2 samples, you have this likelihood of picking it up; 3, you have this percent.’ But certainly, one sample is probably not enough to say ‘absolutely that's not what's going on.’ So this is something that you and your client really want to circle back to [if you want to] be more confident that it's not what you're dealing with,” Kopper said.

“From a biosecurity standpoint, it does appear that they shed for weeks post-infection,” she continued. “And I think, similar to

, it's very variable [on a farm]. We may have one single horse that's affected, no one else is bothered by it, and other farms where you have the [full] outbreak that you're dealing with—[many] affected horses on the farm with varying degrees of clinical signs,” she concluded.

Kopper J. Acute Colitis in the Horse. Presented at: Fetch dvm360 Conference; August 22, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri.

Jamie Kopper, DVM PhD, DACVIM-LAIM, DACVECC-LA, discussed common causes of colitis in adult horses in a CE session at Fetch Kansas City.

Understanding Salmonella and equine coronavirus in equine colitis diagnosis

Learn how veterinary clinics can create a more positive experience for cats during vet visits this National Take Your Cat to the Vet Day.

A kinder approach to feline care in the clinic

In this video, Ellen Carozza LVT, VTS (CP-Feline), talks about what veterinary teams can do to make veterinary visits less stressful for cats. She highlights the concept of “stressor stacking,” noting that many feline patients arrive at the clinic already overwhelmed by accumulated stress. Carozza also notes that fearful behaviors should be recognized as fear responses, not aggression. With this in mind, she encourages veterinary teams to adopt a compassionate approach, which includes respecting the patient’s boundaries, reading their emotional cues, and tailoring care with tools such as breaks, treats, cooperative handling, or additional staff support.

Below is a partial transcript, lightly edited for improved clarity.

So, for those of us in the clinic, how can we make things better for the cats that we see in practice? One, we can always recognize the stressor stacking that these cats experience before they even come to see us, because we know everything starts at home, and then all those little stressors begin to stack up to the point that when the cat comes and sees us, they're already beyond the emotional capacity that they are able to handle, and we need to recognize that these cats are acting out of fear and stress.

They're not aggressive, they're not mean, they're not spicy. It's a big fear response. And once we start respecting these cats, understanding their boundaries, learning their emotional behaviors, it makes it a lot easier for us to actually provide a plan of action when working with these cats.

And then we know ahead of time: Does this cat need a little bit of something to be sent home with to work with them safely in the future? Does this cat need many breaks during our physical exam or providing any kind of diagnostics? Does this cat need cooperative care? Can we go ahead and distract this cat with someone just talking to them, or even providing some treats? Maybe 3 or 4 people need to be involved with this situation. But it makes it so much better for the cat, and to the client, it provides a higher level of care that we actually care about this cat's emotional and physical distress at that point in time, and we're going to address it in a much kinder manner.

When we look at the cat as an emotional being versus just the task that we have to work with them on, it makes working with them much, much easier. And that's something that we really need to respect with these cats, is their boundaries and their emotional state of mind at that day.

Learn how veterinary clinics can create a more positive experience for felines during veterinary visits this National Take Your Cat to the Vet Day.

How to adopt a kinder approach to feline care in the clinic

Passion and purpose help fuel careers in veterinary medicine but what drives individuals to continually provide animal health care isn’t always easy to identify. For Kenichiro Yagi, MS, RVT, VTS (ECC) (SAIM), chief veterinary nursing officer for Veterinary Emergency Group (VEG), discovering what his passion and purpose are all about came with career starts and pauses, and challenging life experiences. He shared his personal story by delivering the Day 1 keynote in a full ballroom at the 2025 Fetch dvm360 Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.

Photos: Kristen Coppock Crossley, MA/dvm360

Kenichiro Yagi, MS, RVT, VTS, delivers the keynote presentation on the first day of the 2025 Fetch dvm360 Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.

Earlier in his career, Yagi said, he was attending a veterinary conference and discussing with a friend how veterinary technicians or nurses could be better utilized. The man stopped the conversation to ask Yagi, “what are you about?” Although the question bothered him at first, Yagi told the audience that it also made him think to find meaning in it.

Yagi proceeded to tell Fetch attendees about some of the challenges, detours, accomplishments and drive that his career has brought him. He talked about his initial intention to become a veterinarian, only to drop out of veterinary school when he realized it wasn’t what he wanted. After taking time off and occupying himself with video games, Yagi opted to pursue a different path in veterinary medicine by working as a technician at Adobe Animal Hospital in Los Altos, California.

It was at Adobe Animal Hospital that Yagi started building skills in orthopedic surgery, while receiving mentorship from practice leaders, who encouraged technician certification. When he was asked by a mentor is he liked his job, he realized he wanted to remain in veterinary medicine. “I really got to learn about myself [while working at Adobe Animal Hospital]. And I also grew up, from being a kid that just dropped out of vet school to be more of an adult,” Yagi said.

Initially, Yagi said he became “sidetracked” by other pursuits, including a second job as a manga (Japanese comics) translator. It would be many years before he achieved certifications.

Yagi shared a painting of his daughter with Fetch attendees.

It was Yagi’s newborn daughter, who was born with left-sided lung agenesis, that provided the biggest impact on his career. “She was having trouble breathing and so we spent the next couple of months in the neonatal [intensive care unit],” Yagi told attendees.

Yagi and his wife, Iris, visited their daughter daily, while taking time off from work to be with her, he explained. During that time, the baby grew stronger and was eventually able to go home with her parents. However, she later went into respiratory distress and was brought back to the pediatric ICU and was placed on a ventilator.

“We did our everyday visits again, and over the course of time, she didn’t get stronger. She got worse,…Basically, her body kept growing but her trachea size did not change. There needed to be some way to open up her airway better,” Yagi said. “We did everything we could for her…and talked a lot about different kinds of experimental surgeries.”

Then, Yagi’s infant daughter died. “After that, I stopped working altogether [for about 6 months], just stayed at home,” Yagi said.

While they were grieving, Yagi and his wife had a conversation that became a defining moment in that he realized life needed to move forward. This moment provided motivation and a purpose. “When I think about my time with our daughter, one thing stands out and it’s the nurses,” Yagi said.

He spoke next about the medical care nurses provided to his daughter as well as the emotional care they provided Yagi and his wife. Essentially, these nurses went above and beyond with compassion to care for the whole family.

Yagi realized that veterinary technicians could emulate that type of nursing care not only for patients but also for clients and families. For pet owners, “it’s their one family member that we’re taking care of. How can we change veterinary medicine so that the experience could be better,” he said. “So that's where I started to think about, how can I be a better nurse? How can I do more for [clients]?”

Yagi has since earned a master’s degree in veterinary sciences and professional technician credentials that include specialist designations for emergency and critical care, and small animal internal medicine. After advancing to blood bank manager and then ICU manager for Adobe Animal Hospital, he became the veterinary education simulation laboratory manager at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Yagi is now an independent veterinary technician education, in addition to his position with VEG. He is simultaneously serving as program director for the RECOVER initiative, which provides 

veterinary certification courses for CPR and CPR instructors

. Yagi has also authored and edited multiple books on topics that include transfusion medicine and blood banking, among other industry-leading accomplishments.

Yagi K. From passion to purpose: discovering what truly drives me. Presented at: Fetch dvm360 Conference; Kansas City, Missouri. August 22-24, 2025.

Kenichiro Yagi, MS, RVT, VTS (ECC) (SAIM), delivered a keynote address that told a personal story of his career journey on Day 1 of the Fetch dvm360 Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.

Discovering purpose in veterinary medicine

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker recently signed House Bill 3360, which increases occupational title protection for certified veterinary technicians (CVT). The Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association was a massive supporter of this legislation and lobbied for its passage into law to better protect the titles of CVTs because of the vital role they serve in veterinary clinics and hospitals across the state. CVTs are college-educated as well as professionally trained professionals who communicate and work alongside clients and veterinary professionals.

“This clarification will provide clear criteria in defining the CVT title, ensuring it is exclusively granted to individuals who have graduated from a veterinary technology program accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association’s (AVMA) Committee on Veterinary Technical Education (CVTEA). Also, it codifies that these individuals have passed their Veterinary Technical National Exam (VTNE), earning their CVT license,” Matt Bussan, DVM, expressed in a release.

CVTs, like veterinarians, are licensed by Illinois to practice veterinary medicine that is outlined by their degree in veterinary science and training. Under House Bill 3360, only professionals who have become legally credentialed as CVTS may use the titles Veterinary Technician, Vet Tech, and the abbreviation VT, and Technician (in a veterinary medicine context). Requirements for these tiles include

Graduating from an AVMA-accredited veterinary technician program

Passed the Veterinary Technician National Exam

Healthcare professional licensed by the LDFPR

Completes required continuing education to maintain licensure

Must adhere to supervision guidelines and tasks in the Veterinary Practice Act.

In information provided to the public from ISVMA, the association emphasized that non-certified professionals play a crucial role throughout veterinary medicine, but title protection will help support the integrity of the profession and career advancement for the credential members of the team.

“Title protection is a significant step forward for professionally licensed CVTs in Illinois,” Tracy Porter, CVT, from Chicago, Illinois said.

 “This law not only reinforces the integrity of the veterinary profession but also improves access to high-quality care for both pets and their people. It creates a meaningful incentive for CVT students, credentialed technicians and other vital members of the veterinary team to deepen their knowledge and skills, ultimately raising the standard of care and advancing the profession as a whole.”

The law was officially signed on August 18, 2025, and will be effective starting January 1, 2026.

On May 19, 2024, Minnesota technicians were included in the state's Veterinary Practice Act, which was signed by Governor Tim Walz. By adding technicians, it established a legal definition for veterinary technicians, giving them recognition as trained and qualified veterinary team members.

“We are excited to begin licensing veterinary technicians in 2026. We feel strongly that this will elevate and sustain the profession for years to come, helping to alleviate the current veterinary technician shortage,” expressed Leslie Kollmann, BS, AAS, CVT, CIC, president of the MAVT; Kim Horne, AAS, CVT, VTS, MAVT charter member and chair of credentials committee; and Sam Geiling, CVT, MAVT interim treasurer, National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America government relations co-chair, at the time.

Under this bill, LVTs are regulated by the Minnesota Board of Veterinary Medicine (MBVM) and the board has the power to institute licensure and related practice requirements for LVTs. MBVM also took 12-18 months to write the rules, and they will go into effect July 1, 2026.

ISVMA Celebrates Veterinary Profession Title Protection Law. News release. The National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America. Accessed August 22, 2025. 

https://navta.net/news/isvma-celebrates-veterinary-profession-title-protection-law/

The Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association . 

https://www.isvma.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/ISVMA-Title-Infographic-7.25-10.pdf

Illinois General Assembly. HB3360. Amends the Veterinary Medicine and Surgery Practice Act of 2004. August 15, 2025. Accessed August 22, 2025. 

https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/BillStatus?GAID=18&DocNum=3360&DocTypeID=HB&LegId=161891&SessionID=114

Bautista-Alejandre A. New legislation grants Minnesota veterinary technicians the opportunity to be licensed. 

. Published June 20, 2024. Accessed August 22, 2025. https://www.dvm360.com/view/new-legislation-grants-minnesota-veterinary-technicians-the-opportunity-to-be-licensed

This bill aims to enhance the integrity of the profession, provide clarity for clients, and raise the standard of care for animals across the state.