A Sunny Week in Seattle

Last week the annual ACVIM (American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine) Forum was held in Seattle Washington. I was privileged to attend this event both as representative of Purina Animal Nutrition at the trade show that accompanies this meeting, as well as a practicing veterinarian to acquire continuing education. Ordinarily, I don’t mind spending all day inside a convention center when meetings like this are held in Seattle because the weather is usually less than ideal. However this year was different, with bright sun and daytime temperatures in the mid 60’s and 70’s, making it hard to be stuck inside all day. Fortunately, the ACVIM Forum is among the premier veterinary CE events in the country, known for its state of the art presentations by the top veterinarians in the world. The Forum is attended by more than 1300 veterinary internal medicine specialists and general practitioners.

In conjunction with the Forum, the AAVN (American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition) held its 13^th Annual Clinical Nutrition and Research Symposium. This event gives veterinary nutritionists, animal nutritionists and graduate students the opportunity to present their latest research findings related to nutrition and its effects on veterinary health. This year a record was set for attendance with over 160 veterinarians, nutritionists and students in attendance.  Purina Animal Nutrition was proud to sponsor the AAVN Large Animal/Equine Case Report Award, which was presented to Jennifer Gill from North Carolina State University for her submission entitled, “Evaluation of a potential insulin resistance in an obese Paso Fino mare with bilateral hind limb laminitis.” This year’s symposium featured primarily small animal (dog and cat) research abstracts that were very thought provoking. It can very useful and interesting to hear about advances in research involving other species and then to think about how they might apply to horses. An example of this was a presentation about a study investigating the traditional dietary recommendations for dogs with chronic kidney disease. This study found that protein restriction in the diet is likely not as critical as once thought, particularly with the advance of higher quality protein in most diets. It was a very enlightening talk that challenged one of the old dogmas of dietary management of dogs (and most other mammals) with kidney disease and these finding may have implications across all species including horses.

AAEP 2012

The Purina Horse Group spent the first week of December attending the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) Convention in Anaheim, CA. Not only does this meeting provide us a great opportunity to visit with veterinarians from all over the country, but it is also our chance to demonstrate our support of current and future veterinarians alike. At our trade show booth, we showcased our premium Purina feeds with a special emphasis on those developed with a veterinary focus, such as our Wellsolve family of products (L/S, W/C, and W/G). We also “unveiled” our new Hydration Hay product and exclusive supplement line to the veterinary community (stay tuned for more details on these in future blog posts). I am really excited about these products, and it was great to see that the vets were also enthusiastic after learning more about the unique features of the Hydration Hay and the technology behind the supplements.

Purina has been a long-time sponsor of the vet student luncheon held at the AAEP Convention, and this year Dr. Gordon and I also participated in the roundtable discussions following lunch. Our table topic was “The power of nutrition in your practice”, and it was refreshing to see how many future vets recognize the importance of nutrition in the overall health and wellness of the horse. Purina also sponsored an afternoon session that focused on orphan foal nutrition, behavior, and care.

One of the highlights of the week for me was to attend the featured lecture delivered by the world renowned expert on equine muscle disorders, Dr.Stephanie Valberg of the University of Minnesota. She discussed the latest developments related to tying up in horses. I definitely learned some things that I will utilize in my work with horses diagnosed with PSSM or RER. There were many other educational talks at the convention, and TheHorse.com did a good job of covering those that are of interest to horse owners (just search “2012 AAEP” from their homepage). All in all, attending the AAEP convention this year gave me a renewed appreciation for the many dedicated equine practitioners who are truly committed to keeping our horses healthy.  

American Association of Equine Practioners and Well Gel launch!

On December 4-8 our Horse Business Group headed to Baltimore, MD for the AAEP convention. We had a large booth in the trade show and we also attended various scientific sessions and meetings. It is always a busy trip for us, but a great chance to see and catch up with all the veterinarians and veterinary technicians that we work with.

Most importantly, this year we launched a new product in our WellSolve product line, WellSolve W/G Well-Gel. This product is a nutritionally complete supplement for horses that is designed for enteral or oral administration, formulated to supply 100% of the horse's nutrient requirements when fed as directed. The proprietary formula allows for easy administration through a nasogastric tube, and it will be available to veterinarians starting in January. The research on this product has been led by Dr. Kelly Vineyard and the product has been successfully tested and utilized in equine vet clinics across the country. Well-Gel will be distributed via veterinary supply houses such as MWI, Milburn Equine and others.

We had a Well-Gel "ease of tubing" demonstration going on in the booth and as long as we didn't let Randy Raub handle the tube, we all stayed pretty clean.

Once again, our horse themed bags were a hit and we gave away over 1000 of them in 3 days.

Enjoy the pics!

Mary Beth