HVMA 2024 Conference Labs

This year we are providing hands-on lab experiences with orthopedic repair and behavioral animal handling skills, as well as hosting a workshop on palliative care for chronic pain and end of life cases.

General conference registration is not required for lab registration. However, general conference registration is required for any lecture or exhibit hall entry. If you are interested in a lab that is at full capacity, please email us to be put on the wait list.

Orthopedic Lab – Wednesday Nov 6, 2024
Advanced CCL repair in Dogs with Excessive Tibial Plateau Angle (TPA)

Instructors: Brian Beale, DVM, DACVS & Don Hulse, DVM, DACVS
Sponsored by Movora/Veterinary Orthopedic Implants

Now that you have mastered surgical correction in routine cases of CrCL injury in dogs, are you ready to tackle more difficult patients? Routine extracapsular repair of CCL tears often fail in dogs having an excessive slope of the tibial plateau. This course will introduce you to 3 straight-forward techniques that can be used successfully to treat these patients. Additional training is suggested to develop the techniques more completely. We will demonstrate a new planning application (vPOP PRO) that can be used on your phone, computer or tablet to plan any orthopedic problem. Surgical treatment of this condition can be simple and rewarding.

Course Objectives:
1. Understand the effects of an excessive angle of the tibial plateau (eTPA) in dogs with CCL tears.
2. To learn how to plan and perform a modified cranial closing wedge osteotomy (mCCWO) to stabilize dogs having CCL and eTPA.
3. To learn how to plan and perform a double-cut TPLO to stabilize dogs having CCL and eTPA.
4. To learn how to plan and perform a CORA-based leveling osteotomy (CBLO) to stabilize dogs having CCL and eTPA.

Schedule:
8:30 CCL tears with excessive TPA
9:00 Simple correction using mCCWO
9:30 Break
9:45 Lab 1 – mCCWO on plastic bone
11:30 Double-cut TPLO
12:00 Lunch
1:30 Lab 2 – Double-cut TPLO on plastic bone
2:30 CBLO
3:00 Lab 3 – CBLO on plastic bone
4:30 End of course

Orthopedic Lab – Thursday Nov 7, 2024
CCL Injury with Patellar Luxation in Dogs

Instructors: Brian Beale, DVM, DACVS & Don Hulse, DVM, DACVS
Sponsored by Movora/Veterinary Orthopedic Implants

Toy and large breed dogs are commonly affected by medial patellar luxation and concurrent CCL tears. Successful treatment requires proficiency in decision-making, planning and execution of appropriate surgical techniques to avoid recurrent luxation. This course will focus on techniques used to treat concurrent MPL and CCL tears using the latest technology to simplify repair and give the best outcome.

Course Objectives:
1. To learn how to plan and perform a trochlear groove prosthesis.
2. To understand the effects of concurrent MPL and CCL tear in dogs.
3. To learn how to plan and perform basic MPL repair techniques in dogs.
4. To learn how to plan and perform an isometric CCL repair in dogs undergoing MPL repair.
5. To learn how to perform a TTT with TPLO or CBLO

Schedule:
8:30 Making decisions when MPL and CCL tears occur together
9:00 The basics of MPL – Groove deepening and TTT
9:30 Break
9:45 Optimizing extracapsular CCL repair and MPL
10:15 Lab 1 – Extracapsular CCL repair and MPL on plastic bone
11:30 Combining MPL repair with TPLO and CBLO
12:00 Lunch
1:30 Lab 2 – MPL and TPLO/CBLO on plastic bone
3:00 Patellar groove prosthesis (PGR)
3:30 Lab 3 – Patellar Groove Prosthesis on plastic bone
4:30 End of course

Chronic Pain and End of Life Palliative Care –
Thursday Nov 7, 2024 10am-12pm

Instructor: Carolyn Naun, DVM, CHPV

Do you wonder if you could be doing more for your patients with chronic pain or illness? Are you looking for ideas to maximize a pet’s comfort when they’re terminally ill, but it’s not yet time for euthanasia? This workshop will work through some cases together and explore how a multimodal approach to care can help you best serve your geriatric and end of life patients and support their owners. Open to vets, vet techs, and support staff. Capacity: 20

Behavior Lab: Low Stress Handling –
Thursday Nov 7, 2024 1pm-3pm

Instructor: Ariel Fagen, DVM, DACVB

Hands-on workshop with mannequins to practice canine and feline restraint and handling techniques that are both safer and low stress. Open to vets, vet techs, and support staff.

Register at https://hawaiivetmed.org/events/2024confreg/

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2024 Hawaii Legislative Update

The 2024 legislative session is up and running! Several introduced bills may have direct impacts on veterinary practice in Hawaii. Here are the bills we are watching:

  • HB2086 / SB2749 RELATING TO HEALTH. Requires the administrator of the narcotics enforcement administration to make an emergency scheduling by placing xylazine into schedule III on an emergency basis. [HVMA working to include a veterinary use exemption]
  • HB1527 / SB2562 RELATING TO VETERINARY MEDICINE. Prohibits animal owners and their employees from performing any surgical procedures on the owner’s animal or animals. Prohibits the elastration, or castration via banding, of a pet animal. Provides that a violation of the prohibitions is a class C felony. Clarifies that the offense of cruelty to animals in the first degree does not apply to accepted veterinary practices and cropping or docking as customarily practiced when the procedures are performed by a licensed veterinarian.
  • HB1580 RELATING TO ANIMAL CRUELTY. Amends the criminal penalties for various animal cruelty offenses by increasing the category of offense
  • SB2114 RELATING TO FERAL ANIMALS. Prohibits the feeding of feral animals within a certain distance from Department of Education public school campuses; establishes fines
  • SB2564 RELATING TO PET ANIMALS. Prohibits insurers from refusing to issue, refusing to renew, canceling, or establishing higher rates for a homeowners insurance policy or dwelling fire insurance policy based on the breed of any dog that is kept on the premises. Requires any pet animal found on the premises during an eviction to be given to the owner or taken in by an animal control agency. Limits the monetary amount of pet deposits and pet rent. Clarifies that a provision allowing a lien on an animal to secure payment for caring for or feeding the animal does not apply to pet animals.
  • SB2692 RELATING TO DANGEROUS DOGS. Establishes requirements and penalties for owners of dangerous dogs. Allows for impounding of dangerous dogs under certain conditions. 

Please keep an eye out for calls to submit testimony on these bills in the near future. We will send out an alert once any of the bills that may impact veterinary practice are scheduled for a hearing. At that time testimony may be submitted online at https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/.

One Health Month

Governor Green has declared January 2023 as Hawai’i One Health Month! #OneHealth represents the intersection of human health, animal health, and environmental health, and helps us address complex health problems in Hawaii and beyond. See the proclamation here.

Awareness of the One Health approach helps to inform our decision-making, particularly for policy makers and leaders seeking to comprehensively address current issues such as climate change and emerging infectious diseases like COVID-19 or avian influenza. Thinking about how human health is inextricably related to animal health and environmental health also informs our individual everyday decisions: our food choices, the products we buy, appropriate use of antibiotics or other medications, how we care for the native species and habitats we live near, etc.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is a recent example of a zoonotic disease that can pass from humans to animals and vice versa, causing illness and death in multiple species. The more humans encroach on wild habitats and interact with non-domesticated animal species, the more opportunities there are for viruses or other infectious organisms to spread and mutate into forms that can cause global pandemics. But zoonotic disease spread is just one example of the interplay between human, animal, and environmental health. Other important examples include how the use of pesticides has decimated bee populations, which in turn decreased pollination, crop yields, and human food supply; or how medication prescribed in human and veterinary medicine can pass through their patients to enter the environment and cause developmental deformities in wildlife and drug-resistant infections; or how lead shot used in hunting has resulted in lead toxicity in scavenging animals such as birds of prey and humans alike.

One Health concepts have been a part of many veterinary curricula and may seem obvious to veterinarians, but many of our colleagues in other health and science disciplines were not trained to think outside of their specific fields. Keep the One Health perspective in mind, and encourage others to do the same!

Read more from the AVMA on One Health

Recover CPR Lab at HVMA

When an arrest happens, are you and your team prepared??
Get certified in RECOVER CPR at the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association Conference on Thursday November 9, 2023.
You’ll learn all of the concepts of effective CPR:
Rapid Diagnosis
Chest Compressions
Ventilation
Drugs and Defibrillation

Hands on and interactive! Become more confident, competent, and connected with your team!
Register Now!

LEARN BY DOING!
Hands on practice of chest compressions and ventilation.
Pull it all together with high fidelity simulators with pulses, heart / lung sounds, and more.

Pre-registration is required! Sign up today!

Thursday November 9
8.00 AM-10.00 AM Basic Life Support Group 1
10.15 AM – 12.15 PM Basic Life Support Group 2
1.15 PM – 5:15 PM Advanced Life Support

Join us at the HVMA Conference in Honolulu!

One Health Collaboration

Michelle Barbieri, DVM, MS, speaks to first and second-year medical students at the John A. Burns School of Medicine One Health Symposium in September. Dr. Barbieri is a Veterinary Medical Officer with NOAA and currently leads the Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program. She shared her passion for conservation medicine and ecosystem health through the lens of her work with the endangered Hawaiian monk seal, discussing her team’s approach to threats posed from toxoplasmosis, canine distemper (morbillivirus), stray fishing gear, and rising sea levels. Her engaging presentation helped demonstrate the One Health concept: the inextricable interconnection of human, animal, and environmental health.

Board Nominations 2022

The HVMA Annual Business Meeting will be held on Saturday November 12 from 12-1pm at the Hilton Waikiki Beach Hotel in the Prince Jonah Room. Even if you are unable to attend the conference, all HVMA members and interested veterinarians are welcome to attend the business meeting. This year elections for board positions will also be held.

Our current slate of board nominees are as follows:
President-elect: Heather Kihara
Vice-President: Malia Lyons
Secretary: Jamie Furutani
Treasurer: Caren Tamura-Taira
AVMA delegate: Carolyn Naun
AVMA alternate delegate: Jenee Odani
Maui County delegate: Leo Murakami
Hawaii County delegate: Jacob Head
Executive Vice-President: Jill Yoshicedo

Other nominations may also be made at the Annual Business Meeting. If you are interested in serving on the board or on any of our committees, please speak to any current board member. We would love to have your participation!

ByLaws Amendment Proposal

The ByLaws Committee has proposed a change to Article 1, Section 1, regarding Active Members. This section currently reads:

Section 1.  Active Members. An Active Member shall be a graduate of a college or school of veterinary medicine accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association and shall reside in the State of Hawaii.

To align with current Hawaii veterinary licensing requirements of the Hawaii Board of Veterinary Medicine (recently updated with the passage of SB2798 CD 1 in 2022), the proposal is to change Article 1, Section 1 to read:

Section 1. Active Members. An Active Member shall be a graduate of a veterinary college meeting all the standards established by the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education or a foreign college of veterinary medicine who has successfully completed the requirements established by the American Veterinary Medical Association Educational Commission for Foreign Veterinary Graduates or the American Association of Veterinary State Boards Program for the Assessment of
Veterinary Education Equivalence, and shall reside in the State of Hawaii.


The ByLaws amendment will be voted on at the Annual Business Meeting on Nov 12, 2022.

HVMA Mentorship Program Update

The Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association (HVMA) Mentorship program is a voluntary program that offers guidance and resources for new graduate veterinarians and mentoring opportunities for senior veterinarians in Hawaii. In addition, the program aims to foster mentee-mentor relationships among the veterinary community. 

The HVMA has recently partnered with MentorVet, which is a national organization that offers a structured platform for new graduate veterinarians and mentors in online modules, coaching, and resources. If you’re a new graduate veterinarian who has recently graduated within the past five years (class of 2017 to 2022) or you’re a veterinarian who has practiced for many years, please apply for the HVMA mentorship program below:

New Graduate Veterinarians/Mentee
Senior Veterinarians/Mentor

Meet a Board Member – Jerrisa Ching, DVM

Jerrisa Ching, DVM

Jerrisa was born and raised on the island of Oahu. She graduated from Moanalua High school and received her Bachelors of Science in Animal Science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Jerrisa then attended Washington State University and received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in May 2021. Shortly after, in December 2021, Jerrisa completed her Masters of Public Health with a Veterinary Public Health focus at University of Missouri – Columbia. Jerrisa is currently working in small animal general practice at Kama’aina Pet Hospital & Vetco Total Care. 

As the New Graduate Delegate, Jerrisa provides resources and information to new graduate veterinarians in Hawaii. She oversees the HVMA Mentorship Program for new graduate veterinarians, who graduated within the past five years, and veterinarians who have many years of experience in the veterinary profession. Jerrisa’s goal as a New Graduate Delegate is to strengthen the relationship among veterinarians in Hawaii while improving the veterinary medical profession.   

In Remembrance – Russell Shoji, DVM

Russell Shoji, DVM

Dr. Russell Shoji of Kaimuki passed away on June 9, 2022. He was a loving husband and father, former veterinarian, enthusiastic golfer, and avid fisherman. Russell is survived by his wife Laureen Shoji (née Katsuda); daughter Alyson Shoji; stepchildren, Daniel (Christina) Kong, Jenilee (Chris) Green, and Justin (Keiko)Kong; brother Dean (Renee) Shoji and sister Sandy (Paul) Hoshino; nephews Rane (Rie) Shoji and Lon Hoshino. Visitation from 10:00 a.m. Saturday, July 23, 2022, at Borthwick Mortuary, Maunakea Chapel; service 11:00 a.m. No flowers. Casual attire.