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LIVE VET COURSE

Abdominal Emergencies in the Cat

A practical 2-week online course delivering the latest evidence-based strategies to confidently resuscitate trauma patients with life-threatening injuries and complex polytrauma.

  • Veterinarian
  • Starts March 23, 2026
  • 19:30 AEDT
  • 2 Weeks
  • 10 Race-Approved CPD Points

This course includes

  • Live Online Weekly Tutorials
  • Access to Tutorial Recordings
  • 10 Race-Approved CPD Points
  • Protocols For Your Practice
  • Graded Course Assessment
  • Discussion Forums
  • Comprehensive Learning Resources
  • Extra Course Resources

Course Blurb

The Emergencies in the Cat: Decoding the Feline Enigma

Does your mindset and approach to acute abdominal disease in the cat default to a canine model? It’s not surprising – given the majority of literature published on abdominal diseases focuses on the dog. That’s about to change! This intensive two-week online course reshapes your diagnostic framework for the critically ill feline patient. Cats present unique challenges; their signs are often muted, pain perception is masked, and disease processes like pancreatitis and cholangitis follow distinctly feline patterns. Relying on extrapolation from dogs can lead to missed diagnoses and delayed interventions.

This course dives deep into the peer-reviewed evidence on the pathophysiology and clinical presentation of major causes of the feline abdominal emergencies. We move beyond the textbook “acute abdomen” to focus on the reality of feline medicine: the vague, decompensated patient. Guided by current literature you will develop a more nuanced, evidence-based, and effective approach to diagnosing and stabilising these challenging feline cases.

Course Outline

Welcome to Week 1. We begin by deconstructing the principle that a cat with a surgical abdomen rarely presents like a dog. This week focuses on the feline patient’s unique behavioral and physiological response to serious abdominal disease. Why is overt pain behavior like a tense abdomen and vocalising less common? We’ll explore the literature on how conditions like feline pancreatitis often manifest with lethargy and anorexia rather than vomiting – and how the classic triad of “fever, pain, vomiting” in septic peritonitis is frequently incomplete. Our goal is to recalibrate your index of suspicion, allowing you to identify the often-subtle historical and physical exam clues that signal a true emergency in a cat. In addition, we’ll dive into literature and case-based examples that cover key causes, diagnostics and therapeutics in the management of acute peritonitis in the cat – including those caused by intestinal foreign bodies!
Building on last week’s foundation, you will delve into the specific diseases that constitute the majority of feline acute abdominal emergencies. You will dissect the complex and intimate relationship between the pancreas and the liver in cats, examine the evidence for the “triaditis” complex, and cover the latest diagnostic and therapeutics in cholangitis syndromes, with a special focus on their acute presentations. What’s more, we’ll also dive into the diagnosis and emergency management of acute feline pancreatitis, and complete the study with a review of acute necrotising hepatopathy. By the end of this week, you will have a structured, disease-specific approach to navigating these critical conditions.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this two-week course, you will have a sound understanding of how to:
  • Interpret the subtle and often non-specific clinical signs of an acute abdomen in cats, distinguishing them from the more overt canine presentation.
  • Develop a systematic, evidence-based diagnostic plan for the feline acute abdomen, prioritizing point-of-care tests, imaging (with a focus on abdominal ultrasonography), and fluid analysis.
  • Differentiate the key clinical features, diagnostic criteria, and pathophysiological interplay between feline acute pancreatitis, neutrophilic cholangitis, and septic peritonitis.
  • Critically evaluate current peer-reviewed literature to inform clinical decisions regarding the diagnosis and initial stabilization of the feline acute abdominal patient.

Course Tutor

Dr Philip Judge

BVSc MVS PG Cert Vet Stud MACVSc (Vet. Emergency and Critical Care; Medicine of Dogs)

  • Enrol Today and Grab Your Bonuses
  1. Finding the Feline Pancreas: Your free guide to finding and diagnosing pancreatic pathology using ultrasound!
  2. When to Cut: Your simple guide to abdominal radiographic interpretation of the feline abdomen.
  3. Shock in the Cat: Your free guide to knowing how to diagnose and treat shock in the cat.

FAQs

Yes! If you’re a GP vet, this course was built around your clinical reality. The vague, quietly deteriorating cat that doesn’t read the textbook – with the realisation that cats are very different to dogs.

If you’re an emergency vet, the value of this course is in the depth – providing concise, evidence-based guidance on a whole range of abdominal emergencies, including pancreatitis, peritonitis, triaditis, biliary tract disease and much more.

Throughout the course, we’ll be working through cases alongside your peers from completely different clinical environments – and this is where some of the richest learning happens. 

You’re looking at approximately 5 hours per week. The weekly time breakdown includes a 1 hr live tutorial, a timed quiz assessment, and around 2-3 hours of reading and study time. If you fall behind in your work for the course-  we give you a minimum 3 months access to all materials and quizzes – to help you catch up!

Every live tutorial is recorded, so if the Monday evening tutorial time (Australian Eastern Standard Time) throws you a blocked cat or a trauma case right on cue, you won’t miss out. Watch the recordings anytime, when your schedule allows. 

A standard VetEducation LIVE webinar is a single 1-hour event – great for a topical update. 

This is a  “Deep Dive LIVE” course, which is a fundamentally different learning experience. Over 2 weeks you get structured weekly content, live interactive tutorials with direct tutor access, discussion forums to engage with cases and peer questions, comprehensive learning resources, practice-ready protocols, and a graded assessment. 

It’s the difference between attending a conference talk and actually doing a course and working through the various resources alongside your peers. The learning sticks because it’s guided, focused, and applied – not just a series of webinars bundled together.

Week 1 cover the acute abdomen in the cat – and we examine key evidence that helps us determine the right approach to the feline patient with suspected abdominal disease.

Week 2 covers the latest evidence base in the diagnosis and management of a whole suite of abdominal emergencies, including peritonitis, pancreatitis, biliary and hepatic disease among others. This is not a surface-level overview. It’s a focused, disease-specific deep dive.

The discussion forums are great places to interact with your tutor, and your colleagues from around the world. We’ll be discussing the weeks study content, cases, and common problems and controversies in diagnosis and management of abdominal diseases in the cat – all in a safe learning space! 

This course delivers 10 RACE-approved CPD points. RACE (Registry of Approved Continuing Education) is internationally recognised. 

For vets in Australia and New Zealand, this equates to 10 structured and assessed CE hours. VetEducation’s certificate of completion for this course is recognised in most countries, and if your veterinary licensing body requires specific language on your certificate, we’re happy to customise it to meet your requirements.- just reach out to us directly. 

Updates in the Management of Traumatic Brain Injury

  • Dr. Philip Judge
  • February 4, 2026

AUD 289

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This course is FREE for our Annual Vet Education Member

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Your Colleagues Love These Courses!

I love Vet Education courses. Dr. Phil is such a great teacher, who presents such clear, practical information.

Jess

(USA)

Loving these shorter courses – so much useful information in a nice concise form. Thanks Vet Ed!

Toni

(New Zealand)

Fantastic. I’ll be doing more of these short courses!

Liam

(Australia)

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Dr Philip Judge

BVSc MVS PG Cert Vet Clin Stud MACVSc (Vet. Emergency and Critical Care; Medicine of Dogs)

Philip graduated from Massey University in New Zealand in 1992, and spent 7 years in small animal practice before undertaking a 3-year residency in veterinary emergency and critical care at the University of Melbourne in 1998.

Following his residency, Philip worked for nearly 6 years at the Animal Emergency Centre in Melbourne, becoming the Senior Veterinarian at the centre in 2004. In 2006, Philip undertook a 1-year surgical externship before moving to Townsville to take up the position of Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care at JCU. Philip is also co-founder, and director of Vet Education Pty Ltd (www.veteducation.com) – one of Australia’s leading providers of online continuing education for veterinarians and veterinary nurses.

Philip has published numerous manuals and guides concerning emergency medicine, including a CRI manual, haematology and biochemistry interpretation guide, emergency anaesthesia guide, and a ventilation therapy manual for small animals, in addition to being published in peer reviewed literature.

Philip’s key interests in veterinary science include respiratory emergencies, ventilation therapy, envenomations and toxicology.

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