Guidelines for the helping veterinary teams deliver a high standard of care for feline oral and dental care has been release by the Feline Veterinary Medical Association (FelineVMA). The 

2025 FelineVMA Feline Oral Health and Dental Care Guidelines 

are a comprehensive, resource that has been published in the 

“Oral and dental diseases are among the most common health problems in cats, yet they’re often unrecognized,” Heidi Lobprise, DVM, DAVDC, guidelines task force co-chair, said in a news release.

 “These guidelines equip veterinary professionals with practical, evidence-based recommendations to diagnose and manage these diseases early, improving quality of life for feline patients.”

A task force of board-certified veterinary specialists and a veterinary technician specialist in dentistry wrote the guidelines. Supported of an educational grant from Dechra, the guidelines contain the latest knowledge and expert consensus on feline oral health, according to FelineVMA. Figures and tables are included.

“These experts have compiled evidence-guided recommendations for optimal oral health and dental care, including therapeutic interventions, in general feline practice. The focus is on the most commonly encountered oral and dental diseases in cats,” the authors of the guidelines wrote.

Feline oral and dental diseases addressed in the guidelines include periodontal disease, early-onset gingivitis, chronic osteitis/alveolitis, developmental abnormalities, chronic gingivostomatitis, tooth resorption, masses and growths and miscellaneous conditions. Oral and dental trauma is also covered in the guidelines.

A section on anesthesia and analgesia provides guidance for pain management during surgery as well as preoperative and postoperative care. Considerations for administering anesthesia and analgesia as well as oral and dental surgical care are also addressed.

“Because feline patients with oral and dental diseases, as well as those convalescing from surgery, generally experience pain, multimodal perioperative analgesia and anesthesia are standard features of oral and dental care,” the authors wrote in the guidelines.

Notably, the guidelines cover spectrum of care in dental health and aim to empower every member of the veterinary team to participate in patient care. This includes various facets of dental care, from client communication to postoperative support.

The guidelines also highlight continuum of care principles, recognizing that individualized dental care decisions depend on patient needs, caregiver goals, and available resources, according to FelineVMA. Caregivers are encouraged to play an active role in preventive oral health and home dental care.

Other key contents of the guidelines are as follows

Patient assessment, evaluation, and documentation

Typical workflow and staging of procedures

Considerations in relation to tooth extraction

Supplemental resources such as videos, client materials, and a scoring chart

“These guidelines reinforce that oral health is central to feline health and wellbeing,” Kelly St. Denis, MSc, DVM, DABVP (Feline), guidelines task force co-chair, said in the release.

 “By aligning veterinary teams and educating caregivers, we can ensure that more cats receive the dental care they need and deserve.”

New 2025 FelineVMA guidelines set the standard for oral health and dental care. News release. FelineVMA. December 4, 2025. Accessed December 8, 2025. 

https://catvets.com/news/oral-health-dental-care-guidelines/

Lobprise H, St Denis K, Anderson JG, Hoyer N, Fiani N, Yaroslav J. 2025 FelineVMA feline oral health and dental care guidelines. 

Articles

FelineVMA is providing the resource that was authored by a task force of board-certified veterinary specialists and a veterinary technician specialist in dentistry.

New guidelines for feline oral health and dental care are released

Pamela D. Jones, DVM, DACVIM (Oncology), DACVR (Radiation Oncology), trained at Colorado State University and completed a rotating small-animal internship, a 3-year medical oncology residency at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and a 2-year radiation oncology residency at Southwest Veterinary Oncology. She’s board-certified in medical oncology and radiation oncology, has practiced in Arizona and Texas, and now works in industry as a specialist support veterinarian at IDEXX.

Pamela D. Jones, DVM, DACVIM (Oncology), DACVR (Radiation Oncology), delivered the day 2 keynote session at the Fetch dvm360 Conference in Long Beach, California, addressing canine lymphoma with a focus on practical diagnostic techniques, staging protocols, and emerging treatments. Jones highlighted that lymphoma is one of the most common and clinically significant cancers in dogs and drove home the need for individualized patient care.

Jones anchored her discussion in a core philosophy for veterinary oncology: One size does not fit all. According to Jones, the fundamental objective in treating lymphoma is to establish a goal with pet parents, enabling them to "make the best decision for their pets."

The diagnostic process in oncology can generally be broken down into 3 questions, Jones said: "What is it? Where is it? How do we treat it?"

Jones said the simplest way to initially diagnose lymphoma is typically through fine needle aspiration. However, she offered practical advice for improving diagnostic yield, noting that the harvested cells are "fragile, fragile cells.” She urged practitioners to stain and review just 1 slide in-house to confirm they have a diagnostic sample, emphasizing the importance of avoiding the "absolute worst" phone call to a pet parent: a "nondiagnostic" result.

Jones described immunophenotyping as a key refinement in diagnosis, noting it began receiving widespread attention at the beginning of the century. She emphasized that looking at immunophenotype is essential because "T and B cells have different prognoses," a fact she said drives treatment decisions. Jones explained that traditional methods for immunophenotyping include biopsy and immunohistochemistry, but medical oncologists today increasingly utilize flow cytometry. She noted that flow cytometry offers detailed analysis but requires the sample to contain "live cells" and proper handling, and she mentioned newer approaches like polymerase chain reaction for antigen receptor rearrangements.

Practical staging and intentional testing

Jones said staging determines the extent of the disease and is crucial for prognosis and treatment planning. She said that although lymphoma patients often present as clinically well (substage A), the majority of canine lymphoma cases are diagnosed at stage 3, 4, or 5. Jones stressed the importance of intentional diagnostic testing rather than defaulting to a "minimum database.” When running basic lab work, she advised looking for early indicators such as hypercalcemia, which is associated with lymphomas, as well as cytopenias, which can suggest bone marrow infiltration.

Standard staging tests, Jones said, include thoracic radiographs and abdominal ultrasound. She said she often relies on abdominal ultrasound to assess visceral involvement, explaining that the liver and spleen are often involved in later stages. Jones pointed to evidence suggesting that once common tests such as thoracic x-rays and abdominal ultrasounds are performed, adding a bone marrow aspirate often "didn't really change anything as far as staging" or "move the needle much.”

Treatment customization and novel therapies

Jones said treatment of lymphoma requires finesse, likening it to an art, because achieving different goals for pet parents requires high variability. She described treatment options as spanning a spectrum from highly aggressive, multiagent protocols, such as CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone), to single-agent regimens and palliative care. Jones noted that multiagent protocols are often considered the "gold standard" but represent a significant financial and time commitment for the family. Jones stated that conversations must establish that "There's no right or wrong here. The only answer here is what's best for you, your family, and your pet," taking into account the family's capabilities and dynamics.

Jones described an emerging treatment option, verdinexor (Laverdia CA-1; Dechra), as a conditionally licensed drug that is orally bioavailable and does not cause resistance to other chemotherapy types. She explained that it functions as a selective inhibitor of nuclear transport, preventing tumor suppressor proteins from being exported from the nucleus and degraded. Jones reported that verdinexor has demonstrated a 37% overall response rate and may be particularly effective for T-cell lymphoma.

Regarding patient quality of life, Jones reassured attendees, saying, "The majority of studies say no, it doesn't impact quality of life.” She added that quality of life must be assessed through the lens of the pet parent's subjective perception.

The final part of the session addressed a common question clinicians receive: "Can't you just do a blood test and tell me [whether] my dog has cancer?” Jones introduced IDEXX Cancer Dx, a blood-based platform developed to screen specifically for lymphoma, with plans to expand its coverage to more than 50% of canine cancers in the future. She framed the test as aiming to diagnose cancer earlier.

Jones reported that a key metric for the test is its high accuracy in ruling out disease, explaining that Cancer Dx demonstrated a 99% specificity. She cautioned that the test should be used in an appropriate screening population to maintain accuracy, recommending its use in pets 7 years and older, or 4 years and older for at-risk breeds. Jones warned that using it on very young, low-risk dogs would result in unnecessary false positives. She suggested that integrating early screening into wellness protocols—similar to heartworm testing or human colonoscopies—marks the future of cancer care.

Jones PD. Confidence in cancer care: practical approaches to lymphoma diagnosis and management. Presented at: Fetch dvm360 Conference; December 5-6, 2025; Long Beach, CA.

To read more news and view expert insights from Fetch Long Beach, visit 

’s dedicated site for conference coverage at 

https://www.dvm360.com/conference/fetch-long-beach

Pamela D. Jones, DVM, DACVIM (Oncology), DACVR (Radiation Oncology), shares strategies for diagnosing and treating canine lymphoma, emphasizing personalized care and emerging therapies.

Key takeaways: Practical approaches to canine lymphoma diagnosis and management

Alex Sigmund explains considerations and treatment options for senior pets

Eye care for senior pets

 interview, Alex Sigmund, DVM, DACVO, shares practical tips for assessing ocular changes in senior pets, balancing treatment risks and benefits, and recognizing when to refer to specialty care.

 I’m Alex Sigmund. I’m a veterinary ophthalmologist based in Atlanta, Georgia. I focus on the practical application of ophthalmology, helping general practitioners feel more comfortable with ophthalmic problems, apply that knowledge in the real-world environment of general practice, and know when a case is outside their scope so they can communicate expectations to clients and refer appropriately. Most of my talks concentrate on the basics...of general practice ophthalmology—corneal ulcers, glaucoma, entropion, cherry eye, [and] dry eye—and how to make those topics practical and accessible.

That particular talk came from having a senior dog myself and being more involved in the care of aging patients. Pets are living longer, which is wonderful, but they also accumulate more issues as they age, including eye problems that cause cloudiness and changes in vision or light perception. When we examine senior patients, I prioritize their comfort. That helps guide decisions about whether to pursue surgery or to take a more conservative approach. It’s important to define realistic goals for each patient and to assess frailty. Age alone isn’t a disease, but frailty often accompanies age. I’ve seen 10-year-old dogs that were too frail for surgery and 16-year-old dogs that were not frail and did well with cataract surgery. Evaluating frailty helps gauge which interventions are appropriate.

When examining senior patients, dilated ophthalmic exams are especially helpful. Dilation lets us assess the lens to determine the cause of cloudiness—for example, age-related nuclear sclerosis vs cataract—and allows a better fundic exam to look for retinal degeneration that can cause night vision problems. Retinal disease can make a pet hesitant in low light. Corneal deposits, such as mineral or calcium, can be painful and predispose to corneal ulcers, so be attentive to surrounding white deposits when you see an ulcer. A calcium-associated ulcer may require different treatment than a routine corneal ulcer.

Overall, most topical ophthalmic medications are well tolerated, but they have potential systemic effects to consider. Topical timolol, a glaucoma medication, can cause bradycardia and, in susceptible patients, bronchoconstriction. So, use caution in animals with preexisting cardiac or pulmonary disease. The carbonic anhydrase inhibitor dorzolamide has been associated with hypokalemia in cats and has been flagged in some dogs, so if you use it in patients at risk, consider monitoring electrolytes. Topical steroids are systemically absorbable but usually do not produce clinically significant liver changes; still, it’s worth considering systemic absorption when patients have concurrent disease or are on interacting medications. Some topical NSAIDs [nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs] have been linked to gastrointestinal [GI] adverse effects comparable to systemic NSAIDs in some studies, so choose therapies carefully for patients with GI sensitivity and consider monitoring.

Decisions about whether to use a medication come down to a patient-specific risk-benefit analysis. How likely is an adverse effect in this patient? Can we monitor for it, or should we choose an alternative therapy? Doing due diligence—informing owners, adjusting monitoring, and choosing the least risky effective option—helps us provide safe care.

Videos

Alex Sigmund, DVM, DACVO, explains how to evaluate senior patients’ eyes, weigh medication and surgical risks, and use simple exams to guide compassionate and practical care.

Practical ophthalmology for senior pets

Benita Altier, LVT, VTS (Dentistry), discusses the importance of good posture when caring for patients and how dentistry tools can help.

Maintaining good posture in patient care

Benita Altier, LVT, VTS (Dentistry), owner of Pawsitive Dental Education, provides professional dental instruction and consultation to veterinary practices and conferences, both in the US and internationals. Altier is president-elect for the Arizona Veterinary Technician Association as well as a past president for the Academy of Veterinary Dental Technicians.

Altier presented a continuing education (CE) session about lighting, magnification and seating, during the 2025 Fetch dvm360 Conference in Long Beach, California. In a 

interview, she discussed key points of this CE session including the importance of maintaining good posture while treating patients. This video is a portion of the interview.

The following is a transcript, lightly edited for clarity:

Why is good posture so important with dentistry care?

: Working in practice for 29 years and actually performing dental procedures, pretty soon you wind up kind of realizing that your body hurts. The things that really start hurting, and the things that I experienced, were things like my neck, my wrists [and] my hands. My back seems to be pretty good, but you know, people have those issues as well. And I started thinking, ‘Well, gosh, how is [it] that I'm dealing with this type of injury or chronic pain, and how could I potentially stop that from happening? And, how could I also help to prevent this from happening to other people?

I started really being more aware of why lighting and magnification was important. That's when I decided to get my first set of loupes, we call them, and light that will help to focus light on the area where I'm working. And when I started employing that, I realized that I was really suffering for no reason before that. I could now sit up [straighter], I can look down through the oculars. I could actually see what I was doing a lot better.

But the most important thing is wearing something like that corrected my posture, because I didn't realize [that] when you're trying to work on a patient, you're adapting your body to that particular animal, the height of the table, whatever type of seating you may or may not have like you're really having to kind of become a contortionist trying to get your head closer to the area where you can see and that's usually going to cause you to be in some sort of uncomfortable posture for a long period of time, which then leads to these sort of maladaptation. The human body can't adjust for that type of thing over a long period of time, and so then you wind up with, you know, injuries which can lead to permanent disabilities and things that could potentially even cause people to have to change industries or not do that kind of work anymore.

To read more news and view expert insights from Fetch Long Beach, visit

’s dedicated site for conference coverage at

Erik Zager explains common congnitive biases and how to combat them

Cognitive biases that impact decision making

Cognitive biases quietly steer many clinical choices. In this 

 interview, Erik Zager, DVM, DACVECC, breaks down blind-spot, hindsight, false-consensus, and affective biases and offers practical steps to combat these intellectual shortcuts that may hamper proper decision making. 

: I think one of the first ones that comes to mind is blind-spot bias. Blind-spot bias is either not knowing how we are biased on a day-to-day basis or believing that we are not susceptible to the biases that everybody as human beings is susceptible to. Our brains work in a certain way. /they’ve evolved to take shortcuts to make things as easy as possible for ourselves. But unfortunately, when we get to more complicated issues those evolutionary advantages start to become disadvantages. And when we don’t believe that we are susceptible to those biases. When we don’t believe that we are the ones who will be affected by, you know, outcome bias, availability bias, etc, that is the first step in a losing battle where we are not going to make the right decisions for our patients.

My favorite bias, which I talk about probably on almost a daily basis in my hospital, is hindsight bias. This is when the outcome of a case determines how we feel about the decisions leading up to that outcome. In medicine, just like in life, there is no perfect solution and there is no perfect answer; things happen. We can do everything right for a patient and still have a poor outcome. That’s just the way things go. What we can’t do is start to beat up on ourselves and think we made the wrong decisions, that we’re bad people or bad doctors, even if we made all the right decisions leading up to a poor outcome. This one really affects our mental health as health-care providers. Because bad outcomes are inevitable, if we take every single one as some sort of personal failure—even if we can look back and say, “I did everything I could for this patient”—we are going to burn out very quickly.

This bias is also a barrier to learning. If we have good outcomes despite making poor decisions, we might not re-evaluate our thought process. In order to learn and grow as clinicians, we need to dissociate the outcome of a case from our judgment of the decisions that led to it and not judge ourselves as “good” or “bad” doctors solely by the outcome instead of by the clinical steps we took.

One danger we can fall for is false-consensus bias, especially as doctors, because we are used to people agreeing with us. Our technicians or clients may sometimes feel intimidated and not want to disagree if we say something about a patient’s history or about a diagnostic impression that might not be accurate. If we do not create psychological safety for our clients and colleagues, we will have false-consensus bias: we’ll believe that everyone thinks the way we do more than is actually true. We need to make sure that every step of the process we are open to criticism, because that is how we grow. And we need to respect our colleagues and clients enough that, if they have questions about what we are doing, what our thought process is, or what our treatment plan is, we respond by explaining our reasoning and building a team-based approach.

Affective bias is almost in a category of its own because it is so dependent on our emotional and physical state. As medical professionals—like many jobs—we are constantly in situations where we feel, “I don’t have time for this,” or “I don’t have time for self-care.” Because some people think self-care is selfish, they skip it—but self-care actually helps our clients and patients, because we’re better able to make appropriate decisions if we are not tired, hungry, or ill. I’ve told staff before: “If you’re sick and have a fever, go home,” not only for your own sake but for the sake of the patients. If you’re hungry, try to eat something. Try to schedule at least five to ten minutes in your day to sit down, collect your thoughts, and be quiet for a moment—lock the door if people keep coming in and asking you things. You need that time for yourself, so you don’t succumb to affective bias, where your emotional and physical state negatively affects your decisions and patient care.

Discover key insights on decision-making biases in veterinary care from Erik Zager, DVM, DACVECC.

How to beat cognitive biases and make better decisions

Monica Tarantino, DVM, MBA, highlights the importance of proactive chronic pain management in elderly dogs.

How veterinarians can proactively address chronic pain in geriatric dogs

Monica Tarantino, DVM, MBA, cofounder of the Senior Dog Veterinary Society in Alexandra, Virginia, shares the key takeaway from her session on strategies for managing chronic pain in geriatric dogs, presented at the New York Vet Show in New York City. She emphasizes that veterinarians need to be more proactive in addressing chronic pain in elderly dogs.

The following is a transcript of the video, lightly edited for clarity and cohesion.

 I'm Dr Monica Tarantino. I am a veterinarian and the cofounder of the Senior Dog Veterinary Society, and we're on a mission to advance the care of elderly canines in [veterinary medicine].

dvm360: What are some key takeaways you hope attendees gained from your session and go on to apply in practice?

 I think the biggest takeaway that I wanted for [veterinarians]...from [the] session was really to be more proactive with our approach. We talked about a poll that I had done online asking pet parents how many of them had heard about chronic pain from their [veterinarians], and almost half of them had never actually heard about it from [them].

And so, to me, that says there's a really big gap and opportunity for us to really bring that up in conversation more frequently and start letting [clients] know about it earlier on. The next thing I always suggest [to other veterinarians] when it comes to things we can do differently, is screening for [chronic pain]—literally having screening forms that we use or looking for signs of chronic pain. We have a really great download available on our website at seniordogvets.com that you can download and use with your patients. I use those at all of my senior wellness exams, and they're really helpful in kind of getting that conversation going between me and my [clients].