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The aim of this article is to give a brief guide to scientific writing to encourage more clinicians to take the plunge and write up that unusual case or present the results of their experience with a new treatment or surgical technique. Its target audience is the practitioner who wishes to publish clinical material and the young academic, clinical resident or research fellow. Both groups require guidance in the early days of their publishing career.

We would like to thank Dr Lowrie and colleagues for their interest in our paper and for taking the time to express their concerns. As an inclusion criteria of the study, all dogs had to undergo decompressive surgery within 48 hours of presentation, therefore the sentence "'delayed' was defined as surgery that did not happen between the time of admission and the following morning but occurred at some time thereafter" is incorrect. (2016) that a majority of colleagues perform decompressive surgery with some urgency, but will delay some surgeries if they would commence " I before a certain time cut-off in the evening i .". [Extracted from the article]

Presents information on peer reviews, which is used by the journal for its articles. Definition of a peer review; purpose of peer reviews; Effectiveness of peer reviews.

A good, nutritious diet is essential for the health and well‐being of our domestic pets. Today, most pet dogs and cats are fed highly processed food bearing little resemblance to canine and feline ancestral diets. Additives are included in processed pet food to provide nutritional benefits, ensure food safety, and maintain the desirable features of colour, flavour, texture, stability and resistance to spoilage. This paper reviews the safety of various additives in processed pet food. Labelling, safety assessment, and ethical concerns regarding existing toxicity testing procedures are also considered. The adequacy of testing for many additives and the scientific basis for determining safety are questioned. Additives can be synthetic or 'natural' although the distinction can be blurred when naturally derived substances are synthesised in the laboratory, or extracted using a high level of physical and chemical processing. Although additives play important roles in processed food production, updated strategies and technologies may be required to establish their safety in the pet food industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To report the clinical outcomes of different surgical treatments used to manage feline corneal sequestra in a large number of cases. Materials and Methods: Medical records of 172 cats affected by feline corneal sequestra and surgically managed by different techniques were retrospectively evaluated. Signalment, surgical technique, visual outcomes, postoperative corneal clarity and recurrence were evaluated. Results: One hundred and seventy‐two cats (175 eyes) of different breeds, ages and sex were included in the retrospective case series. The Persian was the most represented breed (123/172; 71.5%), followed by Exotic Shorthair breed (21/172; 12.2%), Domestic shorthair breed (21/172; 12.2%) and a smaller group of other different breeds (7/172). Surgical management included a superficial (84/175 eyes) or deep (91/175 eyes) lamellar keratectomy in association with the following covering techniques (tectonic support and/or protective support): nictitans membrane flap (n=84), conjunctival pedicle graft (n=52), BioSISt graft (n=9), corneoconjunctival transposition (n=7), corneoconjunctival transposition+nictitans membrane flap (n=6), conjunctival free island graft (n=6), BioSISt+conjunctival pedicle graft (n=6), BioSISt+nictitans membrane flap (n=4) and bridge conjunctival graft (n=1). At the end of the retrospective case series, visus was present in all patients and no or mild corneal opacity was detected in 86% (151/175 eyes) of the patients. Sequestra recurred in 20 eyes (20/175; 11.4%) within 2 years. Clinical Significance: This paper describes the clinical outcomes of a large number of cases of feline corneal sequestra treated with varying surgical techniques and provides useful insight regarding the prognosis and outcomes of these techniques within feline ophthalmology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first edition of the Journal of Small Animal Practice published in February 1960, contained a paper entitled "Recent Treatments of Malignant Neoplasia" by Dr Larry Owen. Now we have reached the 60th anniversary of JSAP, that article provides a baseline from which to review subsequent advances in veterinary oncology, which now includes worldwide networks that have resulted in veterinary oncology becoming the multidisciplinary speciality that it is today. There certainly have been many advances in understanding of the pathology and epidemiology of animal cancers and in methods of diagnosis and treatment. However, the subject has become so large and diverse that not all aspects can be covered in detail here. It should also be acknowledged that there are still many gaps in knowledge in this field and that, because of a lack of randomised clinical trials, the evidence base for what is often regarded as "standard of care" is weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In 2012 and 2013, the World Small Animal Veterinary Association ( WSAVA) Vaccination Guidelines Group ( VGG) undertook fact-finding visits to several Asian countries, with a view to developing advice for small companion animal practitioners in Asia related to the administration of vaccines to dogs and cats. The VGG met with numerous first opinion practitioners, small animal association leaders, academic veterinarians, government regulators and industry representatives and gathered further information from a survey of almost 700 veterinarians in India, China, Japan and Thailand. Although there were substantial differences in the nature and magnitude of the challenges faced by veterinarians in each country, and also differences in the resources available to meet those challenges, overall, the VGG identified insufficient undergraduate and postgraduate training in small companion animal microbiology, immunology and vaccinology. In most of the countries, there has been little academic research into small animal infectious diseases. This, coupled with insufficient laboratory diagnostic support, has limited the growth of knowledge concerning the prevalence and circulating strains of key infectious agents in most of the countries visited. Asian practitioners continue to recognise clinical infections that are now considered uncommon or rare in western countries. In particular, canine rabies virus infection poses a continuing threat to animal and human health in this region. Both nationally manufactured and international dog and cat vaccines are variably available in the Asian countries, but the product ranges are small and dominated by multi-component vaccines with a licensed duration of immunity ( DOI) of only 1 year, or no description of DOI. Asian practitioners are largely unaware of current global trends in small animal vaccinology or of the WSAVA vaccination guidelines. Consequently, most practitioners continue to deliver annual revaccination with both core and non-core vaccines to adult animals, with little understanding that 'herd immunity' is more important than frequent revaccination of individual animals within the population. In this paper, the VGG presents the findings of this project and makes key recommendations for the Asian countries. The VGG recommends that (1) Asian veterinary schools review and increase as needed the amount of instruction in small animal vaccinology within their undergraduate curriculum and increase the availability of pertinent postgraduate education for practitioners; (2) national small animal veterinary associations, industry veterinarians and academic experts work together to improve the scientific evidence base concerning small animal infectious diseases and vaccination in their countries; (3) national small animal veterinary associations take leadership in providing advice to practitioners based on improved local knowledge and global vaccination guidelines; (4) licensing authorities use this enhanced evidence base to inform and support the registration of improved vaccine product ranges for use in their countries, ideally with DOI for core vaccines similar or equal to those of equivalent products available in western countries (i.e. 3 or 4 years). The VGG also endorses the efforts made by Asian governments, non-governmental organisations and veterinary practitioners in working towards the goal of global elimination of canine rabies virus infection. In this paper, the VGG offers both a current pragmatic and future aspirational approach to small animal vaccination in Asia. As part of this project, the VGG delivered continuing education to over 800 Asian practitioners at seven events in four countries. Accompanying this document is a list of 80 frequently asked questions (with answers) that arose during these discussions. The VGG believes that this information will be of particular value to Asian veterinarians as they move towards implementing global trends in small companion animal vaccinology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To describe antibiotic prescription by veterinarians in general practices in the United Kingdom before referral and analyse if UK antibiotic stewardship guidelines were followed., Materials and Methods: The clinical records from dogs and cats referred to the Internal Medicine and Oncology departments of two referral hospitals were retrospectively reviewed., Results: There were 917 cases included, of which 486 (53.0%) had been prescribed antibiotics for the presentation they were subsequently referred for. Bacterial culture or cytology to guide antibiotic prescription had been performed in 43 of 486 (8.8%) and nine of 486 cases (1.8%) respectively. In four cases, both cytology and culture were performed. For those animals who had received antibiotics, 344 of 486 (70.8%) prescriptions did not comply with UK antibiotic stewardship guidelines. Following investigations at a referral centre, a bacterial aetiology was found or suspected in 17.9% of the cases that received antibiotics., Clinical Significance: Use of diagnostics, including culture and cytology, to prove or determine the likelihood of a bacterial aetiology was infrequently performed before referral and may have contributed to overprescription of antibiotics. Encouraging veterinarians to undertake appropriate diagnostics, in combination with education around compliance with antibiotic stewardship guidelines, might reduce antibiotic prescription., (© 2023 British Small Animal Veterinary Association.)

The article discusses the concept of impact factor, a measure of the frequency with which the average paper in the journal has been cited in a particular year or period. It has been used to judge the quality of the output of researchers and their groups. During cutbacks on academic funding, libraries must decide about which publication they hold.

Further studies are needed to confirm that a cut-off value for DGGR lipase that is significantly below the upper limit of the reference interval will achieve acceptable specificity In summary, we would caution overinterpretation of the findings of the current study in suggesting that a cut-off value of one third of the upper limit of the reference interval provides a reasonable specificity for DGGR-lipase activity assays. Therefore, the authors calculated the sensitivity and specificity for the DGGR-lipase assay while the same assay was likely also used to determine whether a dog would be in the pancreatitis or non-pancreatitis group. [Extracted from the article]