Pawfect Beginnings

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Navigating Urolith Identification in Dogs and Cats Possible

Beyond Diagnosis and Treatment: The Art of Monitoring for Success

Spectrum of Care for New Graduates: When Gold Standard Isn’t Possible

Dermatology in the Real World: Streamlining the Approach to Dermatology Cases

Speaker: John Hutt

Lecture Description:
Dermatology is easy! You may think it’s an endless list of diseases that all look the same but are treated in vastly different ways, but it’s not. In this lecture we’ll cut through all the confusion and show you how to deal with the dermatology cases that appear in your consulting room day in, day out. We’ll show you how to reach a diagnosis quickly and efficiently, how to communicate the plan and options to the owner, and how to recognise those rare situations when things aren’t quite as obvious as they seem. But don’t worry: mostly things are as they seem in dermatology, after all – the skin is on the outside of the patient: you can see it!

Dogs vs Cats: Practical Ophthalmology for the New Graduate

Speakers: Dr Vicki Liddle and Dr Ben Reynolds

Lecture Description:
Dogs and cats share many ophthalmic diseases, but important species differences influence how ocular disease presents and how it should be investigated. This lecture will highlight the most clinically relevant differences between canine and feline eyes, with a focus on conditions commonly encountered in general practice. Practical tips will be provided to help new graduates recognise species-specific diseases, interpret ophthalmic findings and determine when referral is appropriate.

Raw food diets – Current concepts – information, misinformation

Speaker: Dr Nick Cave


Lecture Description:
What actually is a “raw food diet”? What are the motivations for feeding one? What are the risks, and how likely are they? Could there actually be some benefits? There is an enormous amount of hyperbole and misinformation from what seems like sides in a debate, and many of us struggle with what to believe. This talk will discuss what veterinarians should be aware of when discussing the topic with owners, so that we can all be sympathetic, informed, and articulate, without hiding behind the partisan statements of some manufacturers like frightened corporate sycophants.

Consult Tips and Tricks

Speakers: Dr Lachlan Campbell and Dr Mari-Leen Kroezen

Lecture Description:
The aim of this lecture is to reduce the anxiety many new grads may feel when first stepping into the consult room as the primary clinician responsible for their patient. We look at the foundations of what a good consult is built on and how to use these to deliver a great client experience and excellent patient care. The speakers share many practical tips and tricks they learnt through years of experience in the consult room and how you can benefit from learning from their mistakes and successes on how to best advocate for your patient.

New Graduate Guide to Management of Acute Liver Failure

Speaker: Dr Philip Judge

Lecture Description:
A collapsed, jaundiced dog with liver enzymes that are off the scale can be one of the most daunting cases to manage, as a new or recent graduate – and can feel like a diagnostic and therapeutic minefield.

This webinar will replace your anxiety with a clear, logical roadmap. We’ll strip this complex syndrome back to its fundamentals, using the liver’s core functions – detoxification, synthesis, and metabolism – as a framework to understand why these patients are so sick. From there, we’ll build a step-by-step diagnostic and therapeutic pathway to help you provide the best supportive care for your patient. You will learn how to manage complications like hepatic encephalopathy and coagulopathies, and how to buy your patient the vital time they need for their liver to regenerate.

Key Learning Points
From Function to Failure: Understand how the liver’s key roles in detoxification, synthesis, and metabolism directly relate to the clinical signs (e.g., encephalopathy, hypoglycaemia, bleeding) you see in your patient.

1. Learn a systematic, tiered approach to investigating ALF, moving beyond elevated enzymes to interpret functional markers and create a practical rule-out list.
2. Get practical guidance on managing complications of liver failure, including hypoglycaemia, hepatic encephalopathy, and coagulopathies, among others.
3. Understand why early nutritional support is critical for liver regeneration and how to choose the right diet without precipitating encephalopathy.
4. Identify the red flags that signal a poor response to therapy, and when to have honest conversations with owners or consider referral.