This presentation equips veterinary nurses with the practical knowledge to identify, and help clients manage allergic skin disease in small animals through targeted nutritional therapy. The session opens by detailing how to differentiate environmental allergies (atopy) from adverse food reactions in canine patients, emphasising key clinical nuances such as non-seasonal versus seasonal pruritus, gastrointestinal co-morbidities, and distribution patterns. Attendees will learn the gold-standard protocol for executing a strict elimination diet trial, alongside veterinary nurse-led strategies to support 100% owner compliance—including navigating non-compliant treats, flavoured medications, and multi-pet households. Expanding into feline dermatology, the talk highlights the subtle and varied manifestations of feline allergies.

The second half of the talk focuses on long-term clinical management using Hill’s therapeutic foods, demonstrating how customised nutrition can interrupt the itch-scratch cycle from the inside out. Nurses will gain an understanding of Hill’s Prescription Diet z/d, made with highly hydrolysed proteins that are broken down to avoid detection by the immune system. The presentation also introduces Hill’s Prescription Diet Derm Complete and Derm Complete Puppy, highlighting its dual-action approach that utilises single-source intact protein for food sensitivities alongside the Histaguard Complex, a proprietary blend of bioactives and phytonutrients. The blend helps to normalise the immune system reaction to environmental allergens.

Feline obesity is frequently considered more socially acceptable and normalised than canine obesity leaving many overweight cats under-recognised and sub-optimally managed. Cats pose unique challenges that can mask adiposity such as deceptive coat lengths (he’s not fat, he’s just fluffy!), diverse body conformations (he’s just big-boned) and the primordial pouch (he’s just got a touch of the middle aged spread) causing owners to see a “cuddly” cat rather than a patient with a medical condition with potentially serious consequences.

As frontline patient advocates, veterinary nurses are uniquely positioned to change this narrative. This lecture focuses on the practical, hands-on role of the vet nurse in driving feline weight loss success.

What you will learn:

• Overcoming the Visual Hurdles: How to accurately identify feline obesity and confidently communicate these findings to clients.
• Nurse-Led Action Plans: Practical strategies for setting up successful weight clinics, tracking progress, troubleshooting and keeping owners compliant and motivated.
• Nutritional Science in Practice: How Hill’s therapeutic weight loss foods simplify the weight loss journey. We will explore how these formulas work biologically with a cat’s metabolism to promote fat loss while keeping them full and satisfied.
• Turn clinical conversations into successful transformations and learn how to lead the charge against feline obesity in your practice

The emergency patient is unique in that they can begin to suffer adverse effects of reduced nutritional intake within a few hours of developing illness, owing to high metabolic demands of their illness, and coupled, often-times with gastrointestinal dysfunction, and increased caloric loss in secretions, such as diarrhoea, wound exudates and others. For these reasons, it is vital that the entire veterinary healthcare team working with critically ill patients intervene, not only to provide nutritional support, but also to provide support for the gastrointestinal tract as well, so that administered nutrition can have the greatest effect. Join us for this highly engaging lecture, and work through the practical aspects of providing early nutritional support to these critically ill patients!

Back by ever popular demand, Charisma is back with another offering of the most delicious Indian recipes that are not just easy but super delicious!

The menu and ingredients will be emailed a few days prior to the session. You can cook along or watch and make this after the livestream!

Avian and exotic pet ownership continues to increase in popularity, and with an increase in the keeping of avian pets comes an increase in the need for the management and treatment of reproductive disorders. Many avian species have a high proclivity towards egg laying and thus can frequently become metabolically compromised by the taxing process of chronic egg production, or through associated reproductive conditions. Despite the relative ease of diagnosis, treatment of reproductive disorders remains challenging. Surgical intervention is considered highly risky and carries a guarded prognosis if the patient presents with underlying health problems or in critical condition, and the inability to surgically remove the ovary caries the risk of secondary complications due to persistent ovarian activity. Medical management is reliant on symptomatic treatment, dietary and environmental modifications, owner compliance and a comprehensive understanding of the avian reproductive process. In most cases, a tailored combination of medical and surgical intervention may be necessary.

This lecture will take you through the unique anatomy and physiology of the avian reproductive tract, the neuroendocrine regulation of reproductive activity, the metabolic process of egg production, reproductive emergencies that can occur in any sexually mature hen regardless of species, and the triage, stabilisation, treatment and ongoing management of reproductive disorders.

This webinar explores why some dogs whine, bark, lunge, pull, appear not to listen, or become overwhelmed when out on lead, especially when they encounter people, dogs, bikes, cars, or other triggers. The lecture will cover how to recognise signs of stress and arousal, understand the emotions that drive these behaviours, touch on the neuroscience behind them, and introduce practical management strategies you can use to help your clients keep walks safe and successful. We’ll cover ways to build calm focus, with an emphasis on realistic progress, practical applications, clearer communication, and helping both dogs and their people feel more relaxed and capable on walks.

New to VNCON this year! 🍹 Join us for a fun and refreshing session of Mindful Mocktails, where we’ll mix, muddle and shake our way through a selection of delicious, creative alcohol-free drinks.

The recipes and ingredients will be emailed to you a few days before the session. Mix along with us or simply sit back, sip and enjoy the livestream!

Domestic cats are a unique species, who display a range of behaviours and characteristics that are different from other domestic species encountered in the veterinary practice. When it comes to illness – it’s no different! The cat with emergency or critical illness, will display clinical signs and symptoms quite separate from their canine counterparts with similar disease processes. Both veterinarians and veterinary nurses/technicians must be aware of the unique physiology and behaviours of the feline patient when assessing them for illness, as failure to do so may result in undiagnosed illness, delays in diagnostics and treatment, and prolonged morbidity and increasing mortality. Join us for this highly informative lecture and learn the key differences between dogs and cats in acute illness – and how you can use this knowledge to help them!