Successful Medical Management of an Acute Traumatic Sternal Luxation in a Cat.

A 5 yr old indoor-outdoor domestic longhair red tabby cat presented for evaluation of a 1-day history of hiding, urinating and defecating outside the litterbox, and vocalizing when picked up. Physical examination revealed significant pain on palpation of the caudal sternum where an approximately 8 × 6 cm contusion was noted. Sedated thoracic radiographs revealed a luxated fifth intersternebral joint with the sixth sternebra being cranioventrally displaced (along with the seventh and eight sternebrae) to the level of the mid fourth sternebra.

What Is Your Diagnosis?

In collaboration with the American College of Veterinary Radiology.

Measuring veterinary client preferences for autonomy and information when making medical decisions for their pets.

Objective: To adapt the 3 scales of the Autonomy Preference Index to veterinary medicine and validate the 3 new scales to measure pet owner preferences for autonomy and information when making medical decisions for their pets.

Sample: 10 small-animal veterinarians and 10 small-animal clients at a veterinary school-based community practice (pilot study) and 311 small-animal clients of the practice (validation study), of which 47 participated in a follow-up survey.

Procedures: Wording of items in the Autonomy Preference Index was adapted, and instrument wording was finalized on the basis of feedback obtained in the pilot study to create 3 scales: the Veterinary General Decision-Making Preferences Scale (VGDMPS), Veterinary Clinical Decision-Making Preferences Scale (VCDMPS), and Veterinary Information-Seeking Preferences Scale (VISPS).

Biomechanical and molecular characteristics of hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia in Quarter Horses.

Hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia (HERDA) is an autosomal recessive skin disorder that has yet to be fully characterized. HERDA is predominately expressed in Quarter Horses, with the majority of these disseminating from elite cutting horse bloodlines, leading to the increased incidence of HERDA in recent years. Affected horses have loose, hyper-extensible, fragile skin and are frequently euthanized due to poor wound healing and disfiguring scars.