An introduction to electrocardiography in small animal medicine, aimed at nurses in emergency practice. Are you frightened of turning on the ECG or scared of what you might find? ECGs can be a really useful tool in emergency practice but understanding what they are telling you about your patients can be hard. This webinar will give an introduction to ECGs and give you more confidence when faced with those funny-looking waveforms. Dave will discuss basic cardiac physiology and explain how the ECG trace is created before running through some common examples of normal and abnormal traces. There will be questions along the way to keep you on your toes and a quiz at the end to cement your learning.

Symmetric Dimethylarginine (SDMA) is a renal biomarker, that is an accurate marker of Glomerular Filtration Rate. The webinar will discuss existing options for evaluating kidney function, and how IDEXX SDMA can be used alongside these tests, highlighting the differences between SDMA and creatinine as biomarkers. There will be discussion of the International Renal Interest Society kidney disease staging scheme, and how this is influenced by SDMA. The effect of pre-renal and post renal disease on SDMA will also be addressed. The approach to patients with an increased SDMA will also be addressed, with a clear plan described. The value of SDMA in other diseases, such as feline hyperthyroidism will also be addressed. Case examples will be utilised to demonstrate the clinical utility of SDMA.

Blood smear examination remains an integral part of the complete blood count (CBC) and is probably the most important aspect of a routine haematological examination. It has the potential to provide the most diagnostically useful information in comparison with any other routine test. Blood smear examination may provide knowledge of the presence of a left-shift, toxic change, atypical cell populations, diagnostic red cell changes etc, which would otherwise remain undetected by other means. It is hence important to maintain a good level of competence with blood smear examination, to compliment (and significantly enhance) the results obtained from automated cell counters. This seminar will review and discuss changes present in a selection of case studies, as an example of diseases that rely heavily on the blood smear examination for a diagnosis.