A few more VINners (3471 total!) completed the Veterinary Wage and Benefit survey. The results show that gross income of the participants' practices is fairly evenly distributed over all the categories. Add your 'two cents' to the discussion!

NEWS THAT'S FIT TO CLICK and discuss
News reported for YOU...
Now, share the news with nonVINners -- The VIN News Service (without access to the community discussions) is now publicly available at news.vin.com. Check it out and share it.

Now Playing at a Computer Near You...
Okay, so none of these VIN Member Slide Presentations and Movies were summer blockbusters, but Indiana Jones can't teach you anything about myringotomies!

Your fellow VINners have provided these resources to help you explore different areas of veterinary medicine. If you would like to donate pictures suitable for slideshows or movies, please email Videos@VIN.com.

How To Use VIN -- The Movie!
If you've ever wished for a guided tour of VIN, your wish has been granted!

The How To Use VIN Video covers many aspects of how to get the most from VIN. Email us at Feedback@vin.com and tell us how you like it!

Bugs, Worms and Things that Bite!
Have you been bugged by a parasite question lately? Are you just itching to get to the bottom of a mite mystery? Do ova really get your goats? Resources on parasitology have been compiled in one convenient location: The New Parasitology Specialty Center!

The Parasitology Specialty Center can be found in the Specialty and Species area of the VIN library and on the About Page of the Parasitology folder in the VIN message boards. Keep your eyes peeled for more new information centers coming soon!

New in VeterinaryPartner:

• Xylitol Poisoning new
• To Grandmother's House We Go
• Masticatory Myositis (Eosinophilic Myositis) revised
• Clemastine fumarate (Tavist) revised

Texas Farm Radio

• Advice for New Horse Owners

How we can contribute to clinical research
A centralized veterinary clinical trial Web site that matches investigators, trials, and patients is paramount for the continued growth of evidence-based veterinary medicine. Our profession is too small, funding is too limited, and the need for clinical trials too great for an otherwise well-designed clinical trial to fail because of a lack of sufficient study participants.

10 life-threatening behavior myths
Despite the growing body of data supporting the benefits of proper socialization, many veterinarians continue to be skeptical about the safety of puppy classes and the critical importance of these classes to their patients’ long-term health. The fact is, more of your patients are likely to die because of behavior problems than of infectious diseases.

Review Paper: Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome
Currently, 2 hypotheses are proposed for mare reproductive loss syndrome (MRLS). One hypothesis proposes that an eastern tent caterpillar (ETC)-related toxin with secondary opportunistic bacterial invasion of the fetus leads to MRLS. The second hypothesis suggests that a breach of gastrointestinal mucosal integrity by hairs of ETC leads to a bacteremia and results in MRLS.

Cat illnesses: Orijen feed implicated
Unexplained chronic illness and death among Sydney cats has been linked to a gourmet imported pet food withdrawn from stores over the past three weeks. A cat neurologist, Georgina Child, has put down five cats over the past week and treated or consulted with other vets about more than a dozen others suffering from paralysis.

Meloxicam: perioperative use in cats
At a minimum, if you administer it injectably before or during anesthesia, in my opinion you have to monitor blood pressure accurately, and provide IV fluid support to prevent hypotension from developing. Others may disagree, but I have seen two cats in recent months that presented in renal failure within a few days of receiving meloxicam perioperatively. I can't prove this was the cause, but they had normal lab work prior to anesthesia.

What is the value of fungal cultures in itchy dogs?
And here's yet another opinion! I think that your two most useful tools are skin scrapings and cytologies. I don't do fungal cultures on all my patients.

Puppy vaccine series: what to do if puppy misses last booster?
It would never be wrong to boost twice. When in doubt, do that. The difference is how many memory cells are present, so that the booster can enhance their ranks. If none or very few, like at 8-10 weeks of age, I'd boost twice; if likely that there are some, as with the last booster at 14 weeks of age, one more vaccine should do it.

How To Use VIN: Part 2
Wednesday, December 10, 9:30 p.m. EDT
(Thursday, December 11, 2:30 a.m. GMT)
Learn how to be a Super VINner!
Email Nate@VIN.com for more information about this free, three-session course.

Sunday Rounds
Sunday, December 14, 10 p.m. EDT
(Monday, December 15, 3 a.m., GMT)
Join Dennis Schmitt, DVM, PhD, DACT, and Ellen Wiedner, VMD, DACVIM, for a discussion about elephants.

This Week's Rounds Schedule
Use the Rounds link to join these discussions.

Want to See What You've Been Missing?
Click the Rounds button on VIN's main navigation bar and read the transcripts of the last few Rounds, click the complete list of Rounds to get to the list of the last 300 Rounds transcripts or click on Rounds and Discussions in the VIN Library.

Rounds are also searchable via the Search button. Just remember to choose Rounds (under the Clinical Resources tab) as the "Source" in your search parameters.

For All You Multi-Taskers:
Download VINCasts to your MP3 player and listen to previous Rounds sessions while you run errands, exercise or steal a few minutes of me-time.

Recent Rounds
@ = VINCast available for this session

Member Benefit:
Veterinary Journals Online
When you SEARCH VIN, you scan nearly 2 million content items. Within this mass of information are citations and abstracts relevant to veterinary practice from thousands of clinical and biomedical journals.

In the VIN Library, you'll find a complete (well, likely a few have been missed) collection of citations and abstracts (and sometimes more) from over 150 core veterinary journals.

Get More From VIN
"How to Use VIN" resources:
The three-part "How To Use VIN" course can be taken live (on the first three Wednesday nights of each month), or you can do it as self study.

If you'd like to take the live sessions, email Nate at Nate@VIN.com, and tell him you'd like to sign up for the How To Course.

To keep up with VIN's growth, take the time to explore the Front Page at least once a week, read the VIN This Week (VINTW) newsletter twice a week, explore the VINDEX (VIN's Front Page, right hand column), and click all the buttons on VIN's navigation bars.

Funny Bones:
Climate Crisis
"I often astonish my Hawaiian in-laws by wandering around (gasp) in 50 degree weather in shorts and a t-shirt. When they were here last September (lovely mid-50's to mid-60's) Joan and Tony were in long pants, sweaters, and heavy jackets."

What's Your Diagnosis?
* Archives of the Challenging and Fun Cases
* Ophthalmology Fun 70

Associate - Updated and New:
* Hypertrophic osteodystrophy (HOD) in dogs
* Explore the rest of Associate!

Book Review of the Week
Clinical Radiology of Exotic Companion AnimalsClinical Radiology of Exotic Companion Animals
Purchase it in the VIN Bookstore!

Website of the Week
Spanish For Veterinarians and more

eVetsites Tip of the Week
Picknik Online Image Optimization

Upcoming Conferences
Looking to attend or contribute a paper to a veterinary conference? Check out the On The Road With VIN folder, or the Press Releases folder, to see what conferences are coming up and to visit their Web sites! Links to information about upcoming conferences include: NAVC, WVC and EAAV.

These courses are now open for enrollment. Click on the links below to see the details, register and find more upcoming CE.
Excel for Veterinary Professionals
January 8 - February 19, 2009

This course is designed to instruct veterinarians, practice managers, and office managers in how spreadsheets, functions, formulas and charts can be created in Excel.

VSPN members should register at www.vspn.org.

For information on other CE courses check out the Course Catalog on the CE Main Page.

Please visit How-To's Of Online CE for details about how to register and participate in online CE courses.

If you're looking for information on CE opportunities for veterinary technicians, receptionists or practice managers, please visit the VSPN CE page. VSPN offers courses tailored to veterinary support personnel, and certain VIN courses also are open to VPSN members.