John Hydrusko, vice president of Sales for dvm360 (left) and Adam Christman, DVM, MBA (right).

 conferences than ever before including 3 new locations for our Directions in Veterinary Medicine (DIVM) symposiums in Arlington, Virginia; Miami, Florida; and Nashville, Tennessee. The dvm360 editorial team also traveled to our regular round of Fetch conferences in Charlotte, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Atlantic City, New Jersey; and for the first time in Long Beach, California.

 team was pleased to bring back our Fetch conferences in 2023, happening throughout the country. Charlotte, North Carolina, was our first stop of 2023 in March, and it featured an array of clinical and business topics and even included a women’s panel discussion to celebrate Women’s History Month.

Our second stop was Kansas City, Missouri, one of our biggest Fetch conferences featuring all our usual specialty topics. While in Kansas City, the 

 team hosted the third annual Veterinary Heroes gala to celebrate all the incredible winners. Our annual Hospital Design Competition winners were also honored during a special lunch ceremony. One of our keynote speakers from Fetch Kansas City—Bob Murtaugh, DVM, MS, DACVIM, DACVECC—told 

, “Fetch conferences bring a level of excitement and energy that is unique in the conference realm.”

If you previously attended our veterinary conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey, you may remember it as the Atlantic Coast Veterinary Conference, or ACVC for short. However, we recently rebranded to Fetch Coastal for consistency across all our Fetch conferences that offer 3 days of veterinary education.

Finally, our last Fetch stop was in Long Beach, California, for the first time in this city. One of our Long Beach keynote speakers, George Robinson III, DVM, MSPH, reflected on his time at the conference, stating, “I always left a Fetch meeting with turnkey information, stuff that I could use. That’s when I said, ‘Wow, this is a really noteworthy conference.’”

Our DIVM symposiums are a 2-day, single-track conference with a targeted focus to allow attendees to get a deep dive into a specific veterinary specialty. Following the success of the first DIVM symposium in 2022, this year offered 3 new locations including Arlington, Virginia, focusing on emergency and critical care topics; Miami, Florida, focusing on pain management; and Nashville, Tennessee, focusing on oncology and nutrition topics.

“Our Fetch conferences and Directions in Veterinary Medicine events are excellent opportunities for veterinary professionals to soak in actionable insights from our brilliant speakers,” said Adam Christman, DVM, MBA. “While education is a large part of our events, the events are also about coming together with likeminded people from every niche in the industry to inspire one another.”

Check out our coverage of these conferences and other industry conferences 

Articles

Highlighting an impressive 2023 with a look at our veterinary conferences

Recapping a year of dvm360 conferences: More than ever before!

Learn how to start with in-house diagnostics

In house analyzers for veterinary care

And Dr. Clary, can you give me an example where, you know, we've had an opportunity where you've used in-house diagnostics on a patient that has really provided a good outcome?

Yeah. And that almost happens if not hourly, daily. With you know, with all this advent of the veterinary shows on TV, people see some of the care that's available. And they come in our clinic expecting that care. Well, with things like the Imagyst, our in-house diagnostics, we're able to really meet a lot of those needs that maybe weren't able to meet 10 years ago. With a shortage of veterinarians, the one thing I like about the Imagyst is it kind of spreads out the specialist...lets everybody have access to them without, you know, having to go to Dallas or far away from us. It's been a game changer for me, because even if I think I know it, if I have somebody backing me up, that client has a lot more belief in my abilities.

Yeah. And we have clients that say, I want to treat today, not tomorrow. And I know you had an example where it was a fecal analyzer that you were using, right?

Yep. In our part of the world. we probably go years without really diagnosing Giardia. Since we've had the fecal analyzer and stuff, it's a lot more common. We have a lot more animals this summer that had Giardia that I would have never diagnosed. And it's pretty neat to take in a picture that Imagyst takes...take it in here and show the client "Hey, this is how many are in there.” How many pictures of have hookworms? I had a cat where the coccidia was like 1200. Literally drives home the point, "Hey, this is what your animal has; this is how we're going to treat it." And those, I think we have a lot better client compliance with that those results because they can see it, you know, and we're such a visual society anymore. If you can't see it, you may not believe it. But can you see that picture? Like, "Oh, wow, how do we treat this?" And it’s done today; we’re not sending out for tomorrow. You know, I hear people say, well, most diarrheas will get better. I don't want diarrhea in my house for three days. I want to treat it now be done with it. And also I don't have to call the client back taking up valuable phone calls, phone time.

And you think a zoonotic perspective, Dr. Penn with something like this too. I mean sometimes I would have to wait two, three days to get a stool sample back. But now you know, you're worried about zoonotic risk. So, this is a great example, just what you were just talking about, right?

Absolutely. You have that report that you can literally say, "Hey, I would like to, you know...here's what we've got going on." To Dr. Clary's point, here's the medication that we're going to utilize to tailor an individualized treatment for your pet and the compliance from the pet owner, as Dr. Clary mentioned, they're going to say, "Oh, wow, yeah, we need to get this taken care of," and you can really have that face-to-face conversation. And then, you know, in that case, where you say, "Hey, I would maybe like a little guidance on a case, you know, with the Zoetis virtual laboratory, and having that access to specialists, you can really individualize that patient care for that patient with that consultation, and you can do that. For those cases where you're like, "Hey, maybe I'd like maybe a little bit of somebody from a specialist standpoint to come in here and provide me some information to help me guide that treatment plan and path moving forward.

Videos

See how in-house diagnostics have provided fast results, individualized treatment, and better care

In-house analyzers allowing you to treat patients today

#4: Chemotherapy as a general practitioner

Rachel Venable, DVM, MS, DACVIM, founder of Pet Cancer Care consulting, explains more on what chemotherapy can look like in general practice, what exactly United States Pharmacopeia General Chapter <800> is, and how you can prepare and educate clients and fellow staff members.

Podcasts

We have compiled a countdown of our top Vet Blast Podcast Episodes in 2023, here is number 4

Top Vet Blast Podcast episodes of 2023: #4

4. Incidence of venomous animal accidents with cats in Brazil

At the 2023 American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) forum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Fernanda Vieira Amorim da Costa, DVM, PhD, MSc, associate professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, presented a poster entitled “A Retrospective Study of Venom Animals Accidents in Cats in South Brazil.”

We have compiled a countdown of our top 15 content in 2023, here is number 4

Top Vet Blast Podcast episodes of 2023: #5

5. The new Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine breaks ground

By Kristen Coppock Crossley, MA, Associate Editorial Director

Rounding out the top 5 is a story on Rowan University’s groundbreaking ceremony held on April 28, 2023, in celebration of its new Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine.

We have compiled a countdown of our top 15 content in 2023, here is number 5