It’s National Pet Wellness Month! Throughout October, we’ll be featuring ACVIM members and sharing their insights into the connection between regular pet wellness exams with primary care veterinarians and their role as veterinary specialists. 

Kevin Finora, BSc, DVM, DACVIM (Oncology & SAIM)

What connections have you seen between regular wellness exams with primary care veterinarians and your role as a veterinary specialist?

"Most times a diagnosis of cancer or a suspect diagnosis of cancer starts with a regular wellness visit. My role as a specialist is to aide the primary care veterinarian with the initial diagnostic steps, providing general information to be passed to the clients, and to facilitate the referral as quickly as possible."

Share a story from a time that you worked closely with a general practitioner after a pet wellness exam to identify a more serious condition allowing you to save or prolong the animal's life with specialty veterinary treatment.

"I mean there are too many to tell but the classic tale is a dog who is just a bit "off", perhaps have developed a selective appetite and on examination is noted to have generalized lymphadenopathy. The finding leads to a diagnosis of lymphoma with a poor prognosis with no treatment but with a far better outcome possible with treatment."

How is specialty veterinary medicine paving the way for advances in veterinary science?

"Veterinary medicine has the ability to advance so many areas of science and medicine for both pets and humans. We can benefit from a "trickle down" development where some of this is discovered or developed for people which we then adapt for use in animals. Also we benefit from "trickle up" developments where animals act as models of human disease and basic veterinary science leads to treatments which demonstrated benefit to animals, which can act as models of disease. Essentially, veterinarians are all clinician scientists. Every veterinarian is a scientist, a biologist, and a veterinarian. Together we advance science in many ways."

Jamie Kopper, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (LAIM), DACVECC-LA

What connections have you seen between regular wellness exams with primary care veterinarians and your role as a veterinary specialist?

"I enjoy getting to work with primary care veterinarians - we are all part of the same team - and their role is just as important if not more so than mine. They are the ones keeping the animal happy and healthy on a day to day basis and also help get them to us in time to pursue more advanced diagnostics and treatments when necessary. Without their prompt attention to changes in patients we will not be as successful and on the other side, without good follow up our plans will not be successful."

Share a story from a time that you worked closely with a general practitioner after a pet wellness exam to identify a more serious condition allowing you to save or prolong the animal's life with specialty veterinary treatment.

"One memory that sticks out to me, is a horse that we successfully treated and cardio converted that had atrial fibrillation. Time is of the essence with this disease - the sooner it is identified, the more likely conversion will be successful. The veterinarian had performed a wellness exam with vaccinations two weeks prior and had documented that the horse had a normal sinus rhythm at that time. Then, when the horse was having performance issues two weeks later they noted that the horse had atrial fibrillation as part of their work up. The fact that they had taken the time to auscultate the horse carefully two weeks prior and document the normal sinus rhythm as well as identify the abnormal rhythm was key for not only success in treating this horse but also in providing the client expectations with treatment."

How is specialty veterinary medicine paving the way for advances in veterinary science?

"Specialty medicine gives me multiple opportunities to embrace the "bench to stall side or cage side" philosophy as well as "one medicine". By combining my love for clinical patients and research I get to observe clinical problems that I encounter when treating patients and then take those problems back to the laboratory where we can work on finding solutions. Once we think we have a solution, we then get to come back to the patients with clinical trials and the cycle continues."

Marios Charalambous, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (Neurology)

What connections have you seen between regular wellness exams with primary care veterinarians and your role as a veterinary specialist?

"Primary vets are one of the most important factors for allowing the public to reach us. Without the valuable contribution and referral of cases from the primary veterinarians, it would be quite hard to offer our focused services to animals that need access to specialty care."

How is specialty veterinary medicine paving the way for advances in veterinary science?

"Being a specialist offers to an individual the opportunity to see rare cases and then describe and report as well as study new or rare disorders. In addition to this, by conducting high quality research studies, specialists can introduce new paths for treating animals and enhancing veterinary science."

Jessica Romine, DVM, DACVIM (SAIM)

What connections have you seen between regular wellness exams with primary care veterinarians and your role as a veterinary specialist?

"Trends are so important. Being able to look through a patient's records and see their weight trending down, or their ALT slowly creeping up, etc. can be invaluable, and these changes allow for detection before an animal is in a critical state. And in our best case scenario, my role as an internist is temporary or limited, and care can be transitioned back to a primary care provider who is attentive to management!"

Share a story from a time that you worked closely with a general practitioner after a pet wellness exam to identify a more serious condition allowing you to save or prolong the animal's life with specialty veterinary treatment.

"A young Golden Retriever was referred by his primary veterinarian for asymptomatic but progressive anemia. It was picked up on a wellness exam, and at that time his owner reported he was absolutely fine and an "easy keeper" with no concerns for weight loss or other clinical signs. His veterinarian encouraged a recheck and when the anemia continued to trend slowly down without regeneration, sent him to us. We were able to diagnose thyroiditis with thyroglobulin antibodies and get him started on treatment; his anemia resolved and his energy levels shot through the roof - the owner didn't realize his low energy was actually a symptom and not a personality trait! He then transitioned care back to his primary vet for long term hypothyroid treatment and continues to do very well!"

How is specialty veterinary medicine paving the way for advances in veterinary science?

"Specialty medicine is where research meets practice for the first time, and techniques and therapeutics get honed. New drugs, new approaches to case management, new diagnostics, etc. usually filter through specialists first, and specialists are able to identify practical needs while applying their deep understanding of pathophysiology."  

Bill Tyrrell, DVM, DACVIM (Cardiology)

What connections have you seen between regular wellness exams with primary care veterinarians and your role as a veterinary specialist?

"Early detection of disease is paramount. Annual, if not biannual visits to the primary veterinarian are indicated for any age animal. The ability to diagnose disease early in its process enables us to do much more for the animal ultimately extending the pet's longevity."

Share a story from a time that you worked closely with a general practitioner after a pet wellness exam to identify a more serious condition allowing you to save or prolong the animal's life with specialty veterinary treatment.

"We work every day with primary care veterinarians that have found a new murmur or arrhythmia on a cat or dog at their annual examination. This early detection allows us as cardiologists to diagnose the cause and institute treatment early in the heart disease process to help the dog or cat live a longer and high quality life."