JAVMA News
More drugs seem to be on back order in veterinary medicine, with a variety of factors contributing to shortages. Five recent graduates will carry far less debt after receiving loan repayment assistance from an AVMA/AVMF program.
See page 1104
Letters to the Editor
See page 1127
What Is Your Diagnosis?
See pages 1131, 1135
Pathology in Practice
See page 1139
ECG of the Month
See page 1142
Animal Behavior Case of the Month
See page 1147
What Is the Evidence?
See page 1151
Sedative effects of acepromazine and hydromorphone in clinically normal dogs
In a randomized controlled trial, 46 dogs were treated IM with acepromazine (0.5 mg/kg [0.23 mg/lb]; n = 12), hydromorphone (0.1 mg/kg [0.045 mg/lb]; 11), a combination of acepromazine and hydromorphone (12), or saline (0.9% NaCI) solution (11), and degree of sedation was scored periodically for the next 60 minutes with a subjective scoring system and a numeric rating scale. Acepromazine and the acepromazine-hydromorphone combination, but not hydromorphone alone, caused significantly greater sedation than did saline solution. There was a significant correlation between sedation scores obtained with the 2 systems, but the numeric rating scale was less sensitive for detecting clinically important sedation.
See page 1155
Findings for dogs with presumptive or confirmed progressive myelomalacia
Findings of a new study suggest that in at least some dogs with intervertebral disk disease, it may be possible to diagnose progressive myelomalacia by means of magnetic resonance imaging prior to the onset of clinical signs. Medical records of 12 dogs (5 with confirmed and 7 with presumptive progressive myelomalacia) with paraplegia and signs of lower motor neuron lesions secondary to intervertebral disk disease were reviewed. In all dogs, the length of the region of abnormal spinal cord signal intensity on magnetic resonance images was at least 6 times the length of the body of L2. In addition, all 6 dogs in which CSF analysis was performed had hemorrhagic xanthochromia.
See page 1160
A questionnaire for self-assessment of infectious disease control practices at equine boarding facilities
Providing equine boarding facilities with a tool for objectively evaluating their own biosecurity programs could encourage adoption of more stringent biosecurity measures, and a new study may be able to provide them with such a tool. In the study, a questionnaire designed to elicit information on biosecurity practices was developed and mailed to equine boarding facilities in Colorado. Agreement between self-assessments by survey respondents and results of evaluations performed by members of the research team ranged from fair to substantial, suggesting that most self-assessments of infection control practices were accurate. Findings also suggested that many facilities have opportunities to improve their biosecurity practices.
See page 1166
Wooden, metallic, hair, bone, and plant foreign bodies in horses
See page 1173
Meningitis and neuritis associated with Borrelia burgdorferi infection in a horse
A 12-year-old Thoroughbred was examined because of signs of depression, neck stiffness, and poor performance. No radiographic or scintigraphic abnormalities of the neck were found.
See page 1180
Scapulohumeral joint luxation in alpacas
Although luxation of the scapulohumeral joint has been identified as an infrequent cause of lameness in various large animal species, little is known about this condition in alpacas. In a review of 10 alpacas with scapulohumeral joint luxation (including 3 in which the luxation recurred twice in the same limb), closed reduction was used in 5 alpacas, but luxation recurred in 3 of the 5. Extracapsular stabilization with a lateral extracapsular tension band suture technique was attempted in 5 alpacas (including 2 with reluxation following closed reduction), and was successful in 4 (in 1, luxation recurred because of self-inflicted trauma). Arthrodesis was performed in 2 alpacas, but residual lameness was evident 1 year after surgery.
See page 1186
