19
6 1 5
4 Florida
Bayer HealthCare and the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) have teamed up to improve health care for cats by getting more of them through the doors of veteri- nary clinics. They have been busy learning about barriers that are keeping cat owners from regularly
taking their pets in for veterinary care, as well as how veterinarians can do a better job of encouraging more clients to visit. Representatives from the organizations held a presentation at NAVC to share the results
of “The Bayer Veterinary Care Usage Study III,” which polled 401 practice owners to under- stand changes occurring since their last study regarding visit numbers, focus on cats, and attitudes toward feline practice. Certain statistics indicated that veterinarians have room for improvement when it comes
4
to increasing cat visits, including: 31% of practices have not trained their staff on how to make cat visits less stressful. More than half of the practices said their appointment books were less than 70% filled, meaning there is still plenty of capacity to see more cats.
95% sent reminder postcards and 79% made phone calls to encourage future appointments, but only 42% of practices monitored whether those efforts resulted in the client making another appointment.
5 Maryland
Veterinarians who are dealing with declining feline patient num- bers might have one untapped source of feline patients right in their own neighborhoods. According to the CATalyst Council and AllPoints Research,
veterinarians should consider cultivating a mutually beneficial partnership with local animal shelters to encourage more people to adopt cats, which in turn can garner more referrals from the shelters. The veterinarian–shelter relationship was the subject of an
NAVC session by the two organizations titled “Finding Feline Clients in an Unlikely Place.” The CATalyst Council and AllPoints Research conducted a study in 2012 where they interviewed 195 cat owners, 53% of whom had adopted cats from a shelter. According to Tara Olson, AllPoints Research co-owner, 12% said they had selected a veterinarian based on a recommendation from a shelter or animal rescue.
6 Massachusetts A new study has revealed that pet owners who feed their dogs bully sticks may unknowingly be adding excessive calories and potentially harmful bacteria to their dogs’ diets. American and Canadian researchers from the Cummings School
of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and the University of Guelph conducted the study to examine the caloric density and bacterial contamination of bully sticks, also known as “pizzle sticks,” according to a news release from Tufts. The caloric content range for the treats they tested ranged from
9 to 22 calories per inch, which researchers said works out to 88 calories contained in the average 6-inch bully stick. For a 50-pound dog, the 88 calories amounts to 9% of its daily diet. A 10-pound dog would get as much as 30% of its daily calorie requirements from one bully stick, researchers said. Researchers also tested all 26 bully stick treats to learn whether they contained bacterial contaminants. Researchers reported that their analysis found bacterial strains in a few of the treats such as Clostridium difficile, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Escherichia coli.
Trends magazine, April 2013
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68