La'Toya Latney, DVM, DECZM (ZHM), DABVP (Reptile & Amphibian), CertAqV, explains the most frequent cause of reptile visits to the veterinarian.

Understanding the role of husbandry in reptile medicine

What are some of the most common conditions in small lizards, snakes and chelonians? La'Toya Latney, DVM, DECZM (ZHM), DABVP (Reptile & Amphibian), CertAqV, explains the most frequent cause of reptile visits to the veterinarian and why good husbandry matters, in a 

interview at the NAVC SkillShop in Orlando, Florida.

The following is a transcript of the video:

La'Toya Latney, DVM, DECZM (ZHM), DABVP (Reptile & Amphibian), CertAqV

: A common thread—and I would say this is very unique to reptiles, because there's so many things that need to go in to setting them up for success, with regards to their husbandry. But I'd say, overwhelmingly—most practitioners would agree with me—80% of their husbandry is the reason why they come to see a veterinarian. There's some flaw in the way that they're kept, not because owners don't want to do the best for them, but unfortunately, there's a myriad of sources, definitely more than there used to be, and there's almost like this disconnect.

We want to make sure we're trying to set up these ecologically niche species in a tiny environment that would be reflective largely of where they come from. But then there's certain things that when we put them in captivity, when we're trying to meet those measures, sometimes they can result in harms or the potential for diseases to develop because we put something in a box. It's just really that simple. Captive species that we deal with don't have the same diseases as the diseases we see in the wild. It's just a completely different cohort.

So, overwhelmingly, we have a bunch of well doing owners coming in, not aware that there's something about their [pets’] diet that they've been giving [or] there's something about the light that should have been changed. There's something about a manufacturer saying one thing when they went to purchase an item for their pet, and then it results in a process. So usually it's because there's some type of flaw in husbandry.

I think even in private practice, academia, general practice and specialists, we're all unfortunately dealing with an explosion of infectious diseases that are also impacting their health.

Videos

La'Toya Latney, DVM, DECZM (ZHM), DABVP (Reptile & Amphibian), CertAqV, explains common conditions in small lizards, snakes and chelonians, as well as thei most frequent causes.

Recently, a Tennessee-based university and an online pet health provider and retailer partnered to support the construction of a new learning space inside an upcoming animal services building. Moreover, a new clinic is set to open in Rhode Island, along with a boarding and dog day care facility in Illinois.

Below are 3 upcoming animal care facility openings.

Clay County Animal Services (Middleburg, Florida)

Clay County Animal Services groundbreaking ceremony. (Image courtesy of Chewy Health)

Clay County officials, Lincoln Memorial University (LMU), and Chewy Health recently broke ground on a new animal services building in Middleburg, Florida. During the groundbreaking ceremony, Chewy and LMU also pledged a $1 million donation for the development of an educational space, called the Chewy Health & Lincoln Memorial University Applied Learning Center, in the animal services facility. At the learning center, veterinary students from LMU specializing in shelter medicine will be able to use it for hands-on learning in a real-world shelter environment. According to Chewy, the center will also be used for community events and educational programming. Both the new animal services building and the learning center is planned to open in 2026.

“We’re proud of the hard work our staff does each and every day for the animals in our care, and this partnership and new building will only augment those efforts,” Clay County Commissioner Betsy Condon, said in a news release.

 “We’re not only building a shelter; we’re building more opportunities for our community, the animals in our county, and the aspiring veterinarians who will one day care for them.”

Veterinary Urgent Care Center (Narragansett, Rhode Island)

The town of Narragansett in Rhode Island will soon have a new clinic. The Veterinary Urgent Care Center (VUCC) in Narragansett will be 1 of 8 VUCC locations in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Founded by Christie D’Andrea, DVM, VUCC of Narragansett is expected to open this spring and will offer general and emergency services, as well as surgical services for uterine infections and foreign bodies for certain cases.

 The clinic will also feature a radiology suite and in-house diagnostics.

"The Narragansett community is one that is very similar to our Plymouth, Massachusetts, location, where there is a large spike in the number of people who live and vacation there in the summer months,” D’Andrea said in a news report.

 “We want to be a good partner to the general practices in the area when their pets need same-day care and another option for folks when they don’t need to visit emergency medical centers for nonemergent injuries and illnesses.”

K9 Resorts Luxury Pet Hotel (Deerfield, Illinois)

K9 Resorts Luxury Pet Hotel, a luxury boarding and dog day care franchise, will be opening its first location in Deerfield, Illinois, on June 21, 2025. The facility will feature an air purification and ventilation system for maintaining clean air and outdoor play yards with antimicrobial K9Grass. According to K9 Resorts, the franchise intends to launch 48 new locations across the US, with up to 11 in Southern California, 13 in Florida, and 11 spread throughout Virginia and Washington, DC. By 2029, the organization aims to establish up to 8 locations in the greater Chicagoland area.

"We're thrilled to bring K9 Resorts to Deerfield. Dogs are family, and we believe they deserve the same level of care and comfort we would expect for ourselves,” Zack Nisbet, executive vice president of the Chicago region for Luxury Pet Hotel Investments, LLC, which owns K9 Resorts Deerfield, said in a news release.

 “Chicagoland dogs are going to enjoy a healthy, safe, and loving environment inside our custom-designed resort."

Clay County breaks ground on new animal services building, announces $1M pledge from Chewy Health in partnership with Lincoln Memorial University. News release. Chewy Health. May 27, 2025.

Seymour B. New veterinary clinic in Narragansett eyes late May opening. 

. March 14, 2025. Accessed May 28, 2025. https://www.ricentral.com/narragansett_times/new-veterinary-clinic-in-narragansett-eyes-late-may-opening/article_37d7ea92-00f9-11f0-8d48-cb83fb3817f0.html 

K9 Resorts set to make Illinois debut. News release. K9 Resorts. May 8, 2025. Accessed May 28, 2025. https://prnmedia.prnewswire.com/news-releases/k9-resorts-set-to-make-illinois-debut-302450157.html 

Articles

The latest updates relating to animal care establishments and platforms.

Clinic center: New veterinary learning center and more

Kenichiro Yagi, MS, RVT, VTS (ECC) (SAIM), discusses the unique opportunity for veterinary professionals to learn this emergency rescue technique with a hands-on element.

Practicing CPR with simulation

The North American Veterinary Community (NAVC) is hosting a RECOVER workshop May 28-29, 2025, during the NAVC SkillShop event in Orlando, Florida. The workshop aims to have attendees earn CPR certification and CPR instructor certification. In a 

 interview, Kenichiro Yagi, MS, RVT, VTS (ECC) (SAIM), chief nursing officer for Veterinary Emergency Group and program director for the RECOVER Initiative, discusses the workshop and the opportunity it provides for veterinary professionals to learn CPR with simulator technology.

Kenichiro Yagi, MS, RVT, VTS (ECC) (SAIM)

:The whole premise of the RECOVER workshop, the rescuer workshop [is], to begin with, that [the] workshop has a structure of people learning through a nice, interactive online course the concepts of RECOVER guidelines and how to perform CPR based on an evidence-based guideline. And they come in and actually practice performing CPR with a simulation-based learning, high fidelity simulators that actually makes them be able to believe that they're actually working on a real animal. And that kind of practice is something that is very difficult to get in on the hospital floor, that they have a patient that's dying in front of [them]. That's not the time to practice. You want to be practicing before you get to that point, which is why simulation exists.

Dental mistakes pet owners make

Oral health is a critical component of overall well-being for companion animals, yet pet owners often rely on misguided “rules of thumb” that do more harm than good. In the above video, Mary Berg, BS, LATG, RVT, VTS (Dentistry), FVTE, dispels pervasive myths about pet dental care so your clients can keep their pet's dental health in top shape. 

Eating hard kibble will keep my pet’s teeth clean

Hard kibble fragments on contact rather than scrubbing tooth surfaces, and many pets swallow it whole, rendering it ineffective. Feeding a veterinary dental diet that encourages true chewing—squeegeeing plaque from the teeth—is a far better strategy.

Dogs need to chew on bones and antlers for dental health

Although appealing to dogs, bones and antlers can crack teeth because a dog’s jaw lacks the side-to-side motion humans use to grind food, leading to painful fractures and possible abscesses.


Shiny, white enamel can mask underlying periodontal disease; it’s the gingiva (gum tissue) and subgingival health that truly indicate oral wellness since most periodontal damage occurs below the gum line.

Age itself is not a contraindication for anesthesia—older pets often need dental procedures even more, because untreated infection in the mouth can spread to the heart, liver, kidneys, or other organs.

While a mild “warm, sweaty” odor can be expected, offensive halitosis signals bacterial activity under the gums producing volatile sulfur compounds that indicate periodontal disease.

Dogs have a strong survival instinct and often continue eating despite dental pain; chewing alone is not a reliable indicator of oral health.

From crunchy kibble to old age excuses, many pet owners fall prey to dental myths that put their animals at risk

An industry-wide association—Revitalizing Veterinary Teams, Amplifying Fulfillment and Purpose (REVAMP)—is reaching out to veterinary practice leaders to participate in a pilot survey aimed at improving employee retention and engagement. REVAMP is a coalition of industry and institutional leaders, including individual practitioners, corporations, veterinary medical associations, hospitals, and institutions focused on addressing systemic challenges in the veterinary health profession that may be hindering growth.

The initiative, which is being led by Richard Goldstein, DVM, global chief medical officer, head of medical affairs at Zoetis, is placing special focus on veterinary health teams who have long sought fair compensation, appreciation, career development, and supportive leadership, according to a report by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).

Inconsistencies in addressing the needs of veterinary health teams and “optimally leveraging” these professionals have left veterinary health teams everywhere feeling overworked and unfulfilled.

Launched in 2024 during that year’s Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX), REVAMP aims to help create a strong talent pipeline and empower veterinary professionals to adopt innovative tools as well as programs and frameworks to ensure a well-balanced profession.

 In its mission, the organization identified 3 areas of greatest need for a more fulfilling veterinary career, including the following

Credentialed veterinary technician/team utilization:

 Involves establishing a “standardized, open-source competency framework” for transparency and career advancement of veterinary health teams.

 Involves developing programs centered around a welcoming and collaborative workplace with strong leadership support and accountability, with the aim of helping attract and retain “top talent.”

 Allow practices to implement modern technology into their clinics to help improve patient outcomes and support a flexible veterinary health team.

As part of its efforts to assess workplace well-being and improve employee retention and engagement, REVAMP is commissioning Qualtrics to conduct an engagement survey. The move, which is REVAMP’s most recent initiative in workplace culture, has a target registration of 100 small-animal practices throughout the US, according to the AVMA. Each of these practices will have at least 2 practice leaders, 3 veterinarians, and 15 employees.

The survey will be validated and peer reviewed, covering 25 areas of employee engagement, and it will provide recommended follow-up actions with the results. It will consist of 60 multiple-choice questions that will take approximately 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

The survey is by invitation only and will be distributed June 1 through June 27, 2025. According to the AVMA, representatives of REVAMP are aiming to share the survey results at the 2026 VMX.

REVAMP - Revitalizing Veterinary Teams, Amplifying Fulfillment and Purpose. REVAMP. Accessed May 27, 2025. https://www.revamp.vet/about-us

Industry coalition recruiting veterinary practice leaders to participate in engagement survey. American Veterinary Medical Association. May 23, 2025. Accessed May 27, 2025. 

https://www.avma.org/news/industry-coalition-recruiting-veterinary-practice-leaders-participate-engagement-survey?utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=todays-headlines-news

REVAMP aims to share survey results at the 2026 Veterinary Meeting & Expo.

Industry coalition to launch employee engagement and retention survey 

In this interview with dvm360, Craig Clifford, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Oncology) and Christine Mullin, VMD, DACVIM (Oncology), share more on what makes a veterinary patient a good candidate for ELIAS Cancer Immunotherapy  

Video interview with Craig Clifford, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Oncology) and Christine Mullin, VMD, DACVIM (Oncology)

 interview, oncology specialists Craig Clifford, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Oncology), and Christine Mullin, VMD, DACVIM (Oncology), explain which patients are ideal candidates for ELIAS Cancer Immunotherapy (ECI), a newly released product. Approved in March 2025 for the treatment of canine osteosarcoma, ECI is the first autologous prescription therapy to receive FDA approval for this type of cancer.

Below is a partial transcript, edited lightly for clarity:

Craig Clifford, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Oncology):

 Part of it will depend upon the owner’s ability to be present for all of those time periods. Geography matters—are you near one of the treatment centers? Because if you’re not, then the owner is clearly going to have to make a big drive, maybe even stay at a hotel for the entire course. The logistics of that can be challenging.

I also think about whether the owner is looking to follow [the] standard of care or wants to pursue this instead, or even consider a combination. We know that in human oncology, immunotherapy is often combined with another immunotherapy or paired with a standard therapy, like radiation or chemotherapy, which really helps us get another step ahead. It may be that we start to explore those same kinds of combinations in veterinary patients as well.

Christine Mullin, VMD, DACVIM (Oncology):

 ELIAS is doing just that. There are 2 clinical trials ongoing right now that combine different immunotherapies to see how far we can push the immune system to attack—and really thinking about attacking these cancers from multiple angles. If you just keep doing the same thing over and over against a cancer, it’s going to mutate and evade very quickly, especially with the tough cancers we’re targeting, like melanoma, osteosarcoma, and hemangiosarcoma. So, we’re excited to see what comes out of those studies. Certainly, immunotherapy is the most exciting, inspiring facet of therapy right now for us and on the human side as well.

 Yes, that’s one of the new pillars of oncology.

Craig Clifford, DVM, MS, DACVIM (Oncology), and Christine Mullin, VMD, DACVIM (Oncology), discuss the logistics and implications of immunotherapy treatments for canine oncology patients.