Amanda Shelby talks about what an ECG can and can't tell you

Amanda Shelby interview ECG

How many veterinary professionals does it take to properly preoxygenate a brachycephalic dog? Amanda Shelby, RVT, VTS (Anesthesia; Analgesia), breaks it down and explains a common mistake practitioners make.

Amanda Shelby, RVT, VTS (Anesthesia; Analgesia): 

Hi, guys—it’s Amanda Shelby back again here to talk about another session I’ll be giving at Fetch Charlotte, and then, hopefully, it will be available on demand for your viewing at a later time. If you couldn’t join me in person, this one is going to be about breaking cephalic breeds: how you can optimize their experience and anesthesia, as well as providing them adequate analgesia. Keep in mind—it’s more than just them not being able to breathe. Well, a lot of them have heart concerns, eye concerns, you know, those droopy eyelids and tropion things like that, so lubing becomes important. Orthopedic concerns, their body condition scores not necessarily ideal—even if it’s ideal for them and their breed standard—they have GI concerns, obviously, that make the airway even more compromised. So: a lot of things—skin concerns; placing a catheter is even stressful in them.

So, there are so many considerations when we go to anesthetize a brachycephalic. You attend this talk, you listen to this talk, and my key takeaways are going to be increasing your level of comfort when managing these patients; ensuring you’re mitigating against any increased risk associated with them in the anesthetic, peri‑anesthetic phase (pre, during, and post—all the way out the door to recovery); and then really giving you some tools to help minimize their already increased risk during and after anesthesia. So—that’s the hope—that you walk away a little more confident in providing them outstanding anesthesia, with appropriate analgesia, and optimizing their outcome in the brachycephalic patient.

Okay, everybody—I know we know with brachycephalics we preoxygenate. But here’s a common mistake people make with pre‑oxygenation: preoxygenation is most effective for a minimum of at least 3 minutes, up to the point of intubation. That means that it might take 3 people to intubate this brachycephalic patient—a restrainer, a person performing the intubation, and, if the restrainer can’t comfortably hold the oxygen mask appropriately on the face of the patient, then a third person to do that—and it’s up to the point of intubation. As soon as you take that oxygen mask away, the benefits start to subside. So, again, that’s just a common mistake and one key concept that you’ll get from attending this presentation.

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Amanda Shelby, RVT, VTS (Anesthesia; Analgesia), shares a common anesthesia pitfall

A common mistake with preoxygenation and brachycephalic dogs

During this interview with dvm360, Renee Schmid, DVM, DABT, DABVT, from the Pet Poison Helpline, provides tips on how to educate clients whose pets are suspected of cannabis ingestion 

Video interview with veterinary toxicologist Renee Schmid, DVM, DABT, DABVT

When a client brings their pet in for a potential cannabis exposure, they may hesitate to be honestdue to fear of legal repercussions, embarrassment, or other concerns. However, because cannabis exposure can be dangerous—and the type of product involved  affects treatment—it’s essential to gather complete information as soon as possible. But how do veterinary teams encourage full disclosure?

 interview, Renee Schmid, DVM, DABT, DABVT—senior toxicologist and director of veterinary medicine at Pet Poison Helpline—explains how a judgment‑free approach helps clients share the necessary details for effective treatment. She also offers additional strategies to improve patient outcomes.

Below is a partial transcript, edited lightly for clarity 

So educating pet parents is really important for them to understand that we're here to help treat their pets. We want, we don't want their pet to suffer because they're afraid to admit that their pet got into some type of a cannabis product. It's really important for that pet to be able to be treated for what it is they got into. So for that veterinarian to be able to know that animal, it does have a cannabis exposure, and we need to treat it that way, as opposed to just kind of treating unknowingly what it is that they make it into, especially with the different types of cannabis products that are out there. There's different types of THC products with different concentrations. There's synthetic cannabinoids, which cause other issues as well, and other different products, and even CBD products that could potentially be problematic. 

And so really, just educating that those pet parents on it's okay, we're here to help, and we're not going to be judgmental in these cases. We just want to know what it is that your pet got into so that we can make the right choices, one to help minimize the stress for the patient, help to increase the likelihood and the recovery of that patient, and also help to ease some of the financial expenses that come along with that as well, if we're doing a lot of treatments that aren't going to be necessary and sometimes, you know, if they get into chocolate in cannabis, chocolate is a stimulant, and cannabis is more of a depressant, and so it may be difficult for that pet parent to see this, to see the signs they might be very subtle in that patient.

Renee Schmid, DVM, DABT, DABVT, emphasizes the importance communicating properly with clients whose pet is suspected of having cannabis exposure

Educating the cannabis using clients

Interview with Dr. Ernie Ward about his Fetch Charlotte 2025 presentations

Ernie Ward Fetch Charlotte 2025 interview

Successful practice begins when leaders stop pointing fingers and start owning their influence so their teams feel inspired to do the same. Ernie Ward, DVM, CVFT, reveals how embracing personal accountability can elevate both patient care and team morale.

: Yeah, another one of my talks that I’m super excited about is “Own It: A Culture of Accountability.” Without a doubt, one of the most common questions practice owners and managers ask me is, “How do I get my team to take ownership?” They just don’t seem to want to be accountable or responsible for their actions—they want to blame me as an owner or leader, or someone else.

I think it all begins with your own attitude and actions. If you’re a leader or manager—or really anyone who works with other people—you have to understand that the behaviors you project on the world are not only how the world sees you, but often how it responds to you in return. That’s why the session is called “Own It.” We have to understand our responsibility and role as leaders: to set the standard and exemplify to staff, coworkers, friends, and family the behaviors we expect of ourselves. Accordingly, we can expect those behaviors from others.

One of the most frustrating things I encounter with practice managers and owners who are struggling is their focus on externals—all the people and problems they can’t control. The first thing I always say is: look in the mirror. We can’t control everything, but we can control our own thoughts, actions, attitudes, and habits—and those shape the world around us. So again: own it. If we want accountable staff members who take pride in their work, it begins with us.

I believe that if attendees apply even a few tenets from this talk on accountability culture, they’ll see immediate improvements in patient outcomes and client service. By nature, when people begin to take pride in their work, they understand that their contributions matter—not just to the patient or client, but to their colleagues and coworkers.

For me, one of the most enjoyable aspects of my veterinary career has been collaborating with other professionals. When we all take ownership of our actions, we elevate and transcend what we thought were our normal boundaries. If you’re looking to spark a new surge of growth in your practice—whether in client service or patient care—this is the session that will leave you inspired.

In this sneak peek, Dr. Ernie Ward, DVM, CVFT, explains how leaders can model accountability to spark a culture of pride and performance

Building a culture of accountability starts with leadership

Aaron Shaw, OTR/L, CHT, CSCS breaks down key indicators that a professional may be burning out

Recognizing the warning signs of burnout

In this video, Aaron Shaw, OTR/L, CHT, CSCS, host of the podcast Healthspan Digest, highlights some of the red flags that may indicate burnout. According to Shaw, key indicators include a persistent sense of dread and preoccupation with work, a lack of control over one's work, and more. 

 with Shaw, he shares some ways to manage stress and prevent burnout.

Below is the interview transcript, lightly edited for clarity:

I think some of the warning signs to be concerned about with vets having some mental health challenges, I think one of the biggest ones would be the sense that the stress of work is on the mind 24 hours a day. So, there's a sense of dread going into work. There's a sense of, you know, [unease] during the work day and stress and feeling overwhelmed, and then leaving work and just being preoccupied with the idea that ‘I’m going to have to go back into the office and do this again tomorrow and the next day’ or the next month, or the next years.

I think those are red flags, because I think that all jobs are challenging, and all careers can be challenging, and so it would be normal to have stressful periods, and then periods where you feel like you have more control. The warning sign is really when somebody feels that they don't have any control over their work, how they do work, don't have any control over themselves and being able to manage stress, that's a sign of being a little bit out of control.

One, it’s certainly a sign for somebody who may not be long for the career and it's really hard to sustain [a] prolonged sense of being uncomfortable and overwhelmed and burned out, but it's really dangerous. I mean, dangerous, you know, from a mental health perspective and a physical health perspective. I mean, our bodies aren't designed to be under constant stress. But there are ways, there are things we can do to help mitigate some of that. Some of these things to decrease stress and to decrease the risk of burnout, require some proactive activities.

How to recognize burnout warning signs

Joya Griffin, DVM, DACVD, offers advice for veterinarians with cases of unusual skin disease in cats

Approaching unusual feline skin disease cases

Earlier this spring, Joya Griffin, DVM, DACVD, practicing dermatologist with the Animal Dermatology Group in Louisville, Kentucky, and star of the National Geographic Wild television series 

Kitty Conundrums: Dermatologic CATastrophies

, presented at the Fetch dvm360 conference in North Carolina, Charlotte.

In this video, Griffin shares how she approaches unusual skin disease cases in cats. She highlights the importance of prioritizing advanced diagnostics, such as skin biopsies, to avoid misdiagnosis. Although cats are often associated with itchiness, Griffin explains that clinical signs can point to more serious conditions, such as autoimmune diseases or paraneoplastic syndromes related to internal diseases or cancer.

According to Griffin, disease have different patterns and presentations. Yet, feline patients with severe diseases are often misdiagnosed with allergic disease.

Yeah, so I think that cats are often forgotten, and in veterinary medicine in general and definitely in dermatology there's a lot that we still don't know. But whenever I'm presented with an unusual cat case, I really hone in and I try to prioritize advanced diagnostics like biopsy because I think we often think of cats as just being itchy cats, but there are some clinical presentations that they will come in with that are related to autoimmune disease, sometimes paraneoplastic syndromes where there's internal disease or cancer somewhere that's causing lesions on the skin. And I think those cases look very different. Dermatology is a visually distinctive disease, and after a while, you start to recognize these patterns of lesions. And whenever something looks a little scary or very unusual, I think you always have the right to biopsy, because some of these cats have very severe diseases that are often misdiagnosed for allergic disease.

When Jessie was 10 months old, she was brought to a veterinary clinic in Mount Vernon, Washington for a health check after being rescued by an area organization from a California shelter. While she was at the clinic, she met Ken Baber, DVM, who instantly fell in love with Jessie, and the duo have been together for almost 12 years now.

Fast forward to October 2024, Jessie woke up in the middle of the night and began to frantically pace, alarming Baber.

Jessie had surgery at the Washington State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital to remove a rare tumor on he adrenal gland (Image courtesy of Washington State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital) 

“I thought there must be some animal outside because she was really agitated, panting uncontrollably, shaking, tremors, elevated pulse,” Baber explained to WSU Insider.

 “It was almost like a dog experiencing anxiety over fireworks. After about an hour, she settled down.”

At first, Baber shrugged the incident off, but he knew something was seriously wrong when the episodes continued after that. He brought Jessie to local veterinary clinics for testing and discovered she had a pheochromocytoma, a rare form of tumor, on her left adrenal gland. According to WSU Insider,

 these types of tumors can cause the body to create excessive amounts of hormones that are responsible for the fight or flight response, leading to anxiety and in severe cases, cardiac arrest.

Pheochromocytoma tumors are notorious for aggressively spreading and becoming entangled with the blood vessels surrounding it. The adrenal glands themselves are between 2 major arteries, making removing them surgically a very risky procedure as well. With his medical background, Baber knew he needed to act fast and immediately started looking for a surgeon willing to perform the surgery on Jessie.

“It takes some courage to do adrenalectomy,” Baber said. “They’re fraught with potential complications, so it really should be done by an experienced board-certified surgeon.”

Baber was able to get Jessie in at the Washington State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital after a cancellation provided an opening for Jessie. Baber and Jessie drove the 5 hours to the hospital to meet with Boel Fransson, DVM, PhD, DACVS, whom Baber was already familiar with after taking her laparoscopic workshop 15 years earlier, and now needing her expertise first hand.

A month and a half after Jessie first displayed symptoms, she was at WSU for surgery. Adrenal tumors can be removed through traditional open surgery, laparoscopic procedures are preferred when the tumor has not spread yet because it leads to a shorter hospital stay and faster recovery.

With the assistance of surgery resident Natalie Heape, DVM, Fransson was able to make 3 small incisions in Jessie’s abdomen and carefully move the camera and specialized instruments to separate the tumor from delicate blood vessels and the surrounding tissue. The surgery lasted 2 hours and had no complications, both the tumor and adrenal gland were removed successfully.

Days after the surgery, Jessie returned home and now months later, is not experiencing symptoms from the tumor. Her prognosis is good, as almost 9 in 10 dogs that have successfully undergone the procedure are alive after 3 years.

“We don’t know what the future holds for Jessie, but we’re hoping we’ve bought her some years of continued robust health and that she can remain active as she gets older and more gray, just like me.” Baber concluded.

Rokyta D. WSU surgeons remove rare tumor from retired veterinarian’s dog. WSU Insider. Published April 18, 2025. Accessed April 18, 2025. https://news.wsu.edu/news/2025/04/18/wsu-surgeons-remove-rare-tumor-from-retired-veterinarians-dog/

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Surgeons at Washington State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital removed a pheochromocytoma from a 12-year-old dog named Jessie