Good afternoon dvm360 readers! We hope that you had a weekend full of rest and relaxation and are ready to tackle another work week with us! With Fetch Nashville behind us, the dvm360 team is preparing to head to Louisville, Kentucky for the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine’s Forum later this month and Fetch Kansas City later on in the summer. You can find all of dvm360’s coverage of the conferences throughout the year in the dedicated 

While we all begin to prep for a busy summer of conferences, check out the news you could see this week on dvm360.com:

Recent research coming out of University of California, Davis, worked with pet owners across the United States and Canada to figure out if video telehealth visits could improve care and their home environment for feline patients with degenerative joint disease.

Elanco Animal Health announced a first of its kind report that includes data from multiple surveys demonstrating how bad pets around the country are itching, including nearly 9 in 10 dogs in the United States have experienced symptoms of itchiness at some point in the year.

On this week’s episode of The Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360, our host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, welcomes Adam Conroy, DVM, to talk about practice ownership and partnership, plus what paths his career took to get him to where he is today.

The American Kennel Club recently shared some recent news on epilepsy research taking place at the University of Guelph where doctors are working to find a better way to diagnose and treat epilepsy in canine patients.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed legislation last month that will establish a grant program to incentivize large animal veterinarians to work in underserved areas in Virginia by offsetting the costs of obtaining a veterinary degree.

Articles

Sneak peek: Survey finds 9 in 10 dogs in the United States have symptoms of itchiness, and other news 

The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital has welcomed 2 new clinical professors. Meanwhile, ELIAS Animal Health, a medical biotechnology company focusing on cancer immunotherapies for veterinary medicine, has a new addition to its Scientific Advisory Board: a distinguished veterinary oncologist who was instrumental in developing the only canine melanoma vaccine.

Continue reading to learn more about each of these individuals.

Sandra Valdez, DVM, DACVS, DABVP (Equine), clinical professor, UC Davis

Sandra Valdez, DVM, DACVS, DABVP (Equine). (Image courtesy of UC Davis)

Earlier this year, the Equine Surgical Emergency and Critical Care Service from the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital announced that Sandra Valdez, DVM, DACVS, DABVP (Equine), would join its team as a clinical professor. In 2005, she completed her equine surgery residency at UC Davis.

With 30 years of international experience as an equine veterinarian and surgeon, Valdez has treated endurance Arabians, racing Thoroughbreds, Warmblood sport horses, and pleasure-riding horses. Valdez’s prior roles include associate veterinary surgeon at San Luis Rey Equine Hospital in California; locum veterinary surgeon in Ohio, Virginia, California, and Dubai; and associate veterinary surgeon at the Dubai Equine Hospital in the United Arab Emirates.

“The Emirati people are very warm and welcoming, and I will miss their generous hospitality, but coming back to UC Davis feels like coming home,” said Valdez in a UC Davis release.

 “The years I spent at UC Davis were the best of my life, and I’m thrilled to return to such an incredible team.”

Carter Judy, DVM, DACVS, clinical professor, UC Davis

Carter Judy, DVM, DACVS. (Image courtesy of UC Davis)

UC Davis also welcomed Carter Judy, DVM, DACVS, renowned equine surgeon, as a clinical professor at its Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital’s Equine Surgery and Lameness Service. Judy earned his DVM at UC Davis and later returned for a 3-year residency in equine surgery and 1 year as a clinical instructor with the Equine Emergency and Critical Care Service. Over the past 22 years, Judy worked as a surgeon at Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center in Los Olivos, California.

According to a UC Davis release, the ability to mentor and develop the next generation of equine veterinarians and surgeons was a driving force behind Judy’s return to UC Davis. “Many of the problems and issues are expressed by the owners, trainers, and riders when they start discussing the case, and the information can be invaluable,” said Judy of a valuable lesson he plans to share with his students.

 “It can lead you to one of the most rewarding things about being a surgeon—the feeling you get upon finishing a challenging surgery and seeing the look in the owner’s eye when you let them know that everything is going to be ok.”

The school’s longstanding leadership in advanced imaging and the development of its new imaging center are other reasons behind his return. Judy believes UC Davis’ work in PET scan and nuclear scintigraphy, alongside its MRI and CT imaging facilities, will play a critical role in research aimed at advancing understanding of equine musculoskeletal disorders and developing new surgical and nonsurgical treatments. According to UC Davis, one of Judy’s goals is to explore how these advanced imaging techniques relate to more traditional modalities like radiology and ultrasound.

Philip J. Bergman, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (Oncology)

At ELIAS Animal Health, Philip J. Bergman, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (Oncology), has joined the Scientific Advisory Board. Bergman has an extensive career in clinical research and cancer treatment advancements with experience in veterinary oncology, immunotherapy, and translational medicine. Bergman has been instrumental in developing novel cancer therapies, including Oncept, a canine melanoma vaccine by Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health.

In his prior role, Bergman was global director of clinical studies for Mars Veterinary Health and VCA. He is also an adjunct faculty member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and has served as chair of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Board of Regents and president of the Veterinary Cancer Society.

"I am particularly excited and honored to be joining the ELIAS Animal Health Scientific Advisory Board. As someone who wholly embraces cancer immunotherapy, I believe their recent USDA license for canine osteosarcoma represents the first of many ELIAS-led advancements to come in veterinary cancer immunotherapy,” Bergman said in a company release.

Warren R. UC Davis welcomes Dr. Sandra Valdez as new equine surgeon. News release. University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. March 25, 2025. Accessed June 6, 2025. 

https://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/news/uc-davis-welcomes-dr-sandra-valdez-new-equine-surgeon

UC Davis welcomes Dr. Carter Judy as new equine surgeon. News release. University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. March 24, 2025. Accessed June 6, 2025. 

https://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/news/uc-davis-welcomes-dr-carter-judy-new-equine-surgeon

Philip J. Bergman, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (Oncology) joins ELIAS Animal Health Scientific Advisory Board. News release. ELIAS Animal Health. April 10, 2025.

New leadership moves, recognition, and achievement

Paws and profits: New faces in equine surgery and cancer immunotherapy 

Collaborative medicine is the best way to do medicine, says Benjamin Bergstrom, DVM, MS, DACVO

Leaning on each other in practice

Benjamin Bergstrom, DVM, MS, DACVO, owner of The Eye Vets in Nashville, Tennessee, shares a piece of advice for all veterinary professionals, advocating for collaborative medicine and emphasizing the importance of open communication among veterinarians, regardless of their specialty. “There’s no such thing as a silly question,” he said.

Below is the transcript of the video, which has been lightly edited for clarity:

 The best piece of advice is: Collaborative medicine, I truly believe, is the best medicine. [This] means, as an ophthalmologist, if I have a patient that comes in with a heart condition and we have to consider putting this animal under general anesthesia, I'm going to reach out to a cardiologist to ask what's going to be the most appropriate protocol for this animal under general anesthesia.

That's collaborative medicine. That's the best way to do medicine. If you're a general practitioner or you're a specialist outside of ophthalmology, and you have a question about eyes, and it doesn't immediately make sense—what's going on in front of you or how you should manage it—reach out to an ophthalmologist.

One of my favorite things to do as a practitioner and now as a business owner is to communicate with general practitioners through text, through quick emails, through phone calls because I think we support each other, they support us. I love to be able to support them.

And there's no such thing as a silly question. If you have a question about how you're managing something, reach out. And I don't believe that's only true for me. I believe that's true for a lot of veterinarians out there. We all want to help each other, so let's lean on each other.

Videos

Collaborative medicine is the best way to do medicine, says Benjamin Bergstrom, DVM, MS, DACVO.

To kick off her lecture at Fetch Nashville, Taylor Root, VMD, asked attendees to picture a busy Friday afternoon in their clinics. The appointments are back-to-back, patients seem to be coming into the clinic without discussing the reason for their appointment, and then you get to an appointment for Binky and Miss Adams. From previous experience, you know that Miss Adams is going to want to chat about something, even though you may not want to chat for long. However, Miss Adams asks you for your thoughts on pet food, especially the one that she is now feeding Binky. You may not want to get involved, or you may not know the right answer, but this scenario can be relatable to every clinician.

“When you’re in practice, nutrition comes up a lot, and we kind of shut down when it does come up. I mean, there are certain people out there who love it and are really into it, but I think for most, especially general practitioners, it’s like, you know, we know we have to talk about it. We know it’s important, and we know that it’s going to come up in every conversation, but we just don’t want to have the talk that’s coming,” Root kicked off her lecture with.

Throughout the rest of her lecture, Root broke down pet food to attendees to help them be more confident when talking about the process of making pet food to help provide evaluations and recommendations to your clinic’s version of Miss Adams.

According to Root, companies producing pet food tend to follow multiple phases. The first is concept, which is brainstorming. This is where the company gets together to go over ideas and determine whether the second step is feasible. When moving on to whether it is feasible, the companies assess what they came up with in the development phase to determine whether their concept is possible to execute or would really work.

“So the concept phase is sort of like a blue sky approach.... The world is your oyster. If you could have anything, if we could make anything, what would it be? And that’s really what you want to have—that’s what their goal is during this phase: Don’t ask questions, don’t challenge things. Just say, ‘But what if? What if we did this? What if we did that?’ The questioning and the poking holes and things are coming later, but this is the time that...all the ideas can come together,” she explained.

When evaluating the concepts, it can be useful for these companies to also rely a little bit on the trends in human health and mimic what they are doing. Sometimes, the trends, like fatty acids, Root said, carry over into the animal space, and companies begin putting them into a lot more foods for joint support. The human food world also has bigger group sizes and things of that nature when it comes to testing products, so their research can sometimes be helpful when creating concepts for pet food.

After working through all the feasibility questions needed to determine whether the product could work, pet food companies need to determine whom the food is for. Is it for puppies? Geriatric dogs? Just adult dogs? This needs to be determined before looking into any ingredients, macronutrients, and micronutrients because, according to AAFCO, each group needs different things for whom they are targeting, so this needs to be defined before anything else. When patients then ask you the difference, this can help explain why their puppy food may not have all that is needed for their adult dog and vice versa. Once all of this is established, it may not guarantee the product will work.

“Sometimes, you think it’s going to work, and on paper it’s going to work, but when you put the formula together, it doesn’t actually do it. The ingredients and the manufacturing process don’t go together. You might run a batch along the way and have to reevaluate there. We also start to learn about: What does the food look like, feel like? What is the aroma? Does it run consistently every time we run it? How long does it take to run? How long does it take to cook? What temperatures are we looking at, all of that? And then we go into analytical testing, which includes nutrient analysis and shelf life testing,” Root explained to attendees.

When it comes to talking to pet parents about pet food, it may be the last thing you want to do, but it could be the most important thing they think to ask you during the appointment. Your understanding of how the pet food industry works and what they consider when creating products can help you better educate your clients and get your patients the right food for them.

Root T. You can't judge pet food by the cover. Presented at: Fetch Nashville. May 31, 2025. Nashville, TN.

Are you confident in talking about the pet food process with your clients? 

The pet food landscape 

We are living in a world that often feels divided, and finding safe and welcoming spaces matters more than ever. For many individuals in our LGBTQ+ community, our pets are a source of love, comfort, and stability. They give us a sense of peace in a world that doesn’t always embrace who we are. They don’t judge, they don’t question, and they don’t care about labels. They just love us.

That kind of unconditional acceptance is powerful, and it is something we should also experience when we step into a veterinary clinic or hospital. Whether we are there as pet parents or as part of the veterinary team, feeling accepted and respected should be the baseline.

For our LGBTQ+ clients, the experience at a veterinary clinic can be personal, as our pets are part of our chosen families. They have helped us through depression, anxiety, grief, and rejection. They have also grounded many of us with routine and have brought joy during difficult times. For most of us, pets are our “kids.” But when someone walks into a space that feels unwelcoming or judgmental, that support system can suddenly feel compromised.

That’s why inclusive care matters. It is not just about providing excellent medical treatment. It is about being seen, heard, and valued as a whole person. I believe that inclusivity isn’t just for clients, as it starts from the inside, with the veterinary team.

Creating a supportive, respectful environment for staff is just as important as creating one for our clients. LGBTQ+ team members deserve to work in places where we can show up as our full selves, without fear of judgment, bias, or exclusion. When all team members feel safe and accepted, we thrive, collaborate better, communicate more openly, and deliver more compassionate care.

I want to share some ways in which we can incorporate inclusivity into our daily routine. Start by clearly stating your commitment to inclusivity on your website, intake forms, and/ or employee handbook. Include protections based on gender identity, sexual orientation, race, disability, and more. You can also ask for and use pronouns in client intake forms and staff introductions. Train the team to respectfully correct mistakes and normalize asking pronouns when unsure.

It is important to recognize and respect nontraditional family structures. Make space for partners, roommates, or friends who are important in a pet’s care. Consider regularly training your team on cultural competency, LGBTQ+ terminology, and inclusive communication. Make it part of onboarding and ongoing education. It is also important to make sure everyone knows how to report discrimination and that they will be taken seriously.

I personally love recognizing Pride Month, and you can also consider recognizing Transgender Day of Visibility and other cultural celebrations. At my hospital in Texas, we even pay attention to small things like rainbow stickers in the lobby and inclusive signage, like all-gender bathrooms.

Consider supporting local LGBTQ+ events, sponsoring Pride activities, or partnering with advocacy groups. Also, be vocal about your clinic’s values! For example, anytime I interview a candidate for any open position, I always mention that we have an accepting culture and that any sort of discrimination, including homophobia and transphobia, will not be tolerated.

I believe that a strong veterinary team is built on mutual respect, and that means that we need to embrace our differences. We need to listen to each other’s stories and learn from one another.

It also means calling out discrimination when it happens and committing to growth, even when it is uncomfortable. This is not about just “tolerance,” this is about accepting each other for who we are.

At my clinic, we make inclusivity part of our daily culture. From front desk team members to technicians to doctors, everyone is expected to treat clients and coworkers with kindness, respect, and openness. We live our values in every interaction, and it truly makes a difference. I have seen clients open up and I have seen team members feel more confident and empowered because they know they are supported exactly as they are.

Inclusivity is not about politics or checking a box, and this is very important. It is about people and creating spaces where everyone feels safe, respected, and cared for. That’s the kind of environment where healing happens, relationships grow, and trust is built. We all deserve a team that supports and respects us. No one should have to hide who they are to do the job they love. To all my LGBTQ+ people, stay strong and always stand up for your rights!

At the end of the day, our pets are here for us in the purest way possible. Let’s honor that bond by building veterinary spaces that reflect the same love, acceptance, and trust they give us so freely.

, is known as “Dr Josh” and grew up in Puerto Rico. Sanabria earned a bachelor’s degree in veterinary technology at the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus in San Juan, and a doctorate degree from the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine in Columbia. He is the owner of Isla Veterinary Boutique Hospital in Addison, Texas, where he provides medical consultations in Spanish and English.

Josh Sanabria, DVM, discusses cultivating environments where people feel safe, respected, and cared for, in this dvm360 commentary. 

Why inclusivity in veterinary settings matters—for clients, pets, and the medical team

Vet Watch Update: New tick species implicated in alpha-gal syndrome

Is the lone star tick the only vector for alpha-gal syndrome? New evidence says no, expanding the geographic risk for this serious meat allergy across the United States.

 update at dvm360. I’m Christopher Lee.

Alpha-gal syndrome—new studies have shown that this potentially deadly disease may be transmitted by more than 1 tick species.

To review, alpha-gal syndrome, or AGS, is a serious meat allergy in people against galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, a large sugar molecule found in the tissues of nonprimate mammals. People with AGS can no longer eat most mammalian tissue—including beef, pork, lamb, and even rabbit—but they can still eat poultry, seafood, and less common protein sources such as alligator or escargot.

What is unusual about AGS is that it is transmitted through the bite of a tick, 

, the lone star tick. This tick has an enzyme in its salivary glands, alpha-D-galactosidase, that cleaves alpha-gal from mammalian tissue. How alpha-gal then ends up in the tick’s saliva when biting a person is not fully understood, but we do know that partially fed ticks carry high levels of alpha-gal in their saliva.

 tick feeds on a dog, mouse, or deer, and its meal is interrupted—perhaps it gets brushed off. Now it’s searching for a new host. It finds a human, climbs up, and begins to bite. With high levels of alpha-gal in its saliva, that molecule gets injected subcutaneously into the person, triggering a strong immune response and an IgE-mediated reaction. If sensitization occurs, that individual will have AGS for life. Within hours of eating pork or beef, they can experience facial swelling, hives, and even life-threatening anaphylaxis.

, ticks famous for transmitting Lyme disease, may also trigger AGS. This finding expands the geographic risk. 

 is found throughout the eastern half of the United States. The lone star tick’s range overlaps much of this area but does not extend as far north. 

 inhabits the Pacific coast (California, Oregon, and Washington).

So what do we do with this information? We keep prescribing year-round tick prevention to all  our patients.

 here at dvm360, where what you know today protects everybody tomorrow.

Recent research suggests that Ixodes scapularis and Ixodes pacificus may also trigger alpha-gal syndrome, broadening the geographic risk for this potentially life-threatening meat allergy.