AAEVT Recent Meeting

AAEP  AAEVT Annual Convention San Antonio, TX  2011

San Antonio, Texas was a beautiful and fun filled backdrop for the 7th Annual AAEVT / AAEP Convention November 19 – 21, 2011.  For those that could not attend, a Keynote Speaker, a day of wetlabs that included two separate equine facilities, two focus sessions covering anesthesia and practice management running concurrently with a full day of scientific lectures were new features on this year’s schedule of events. 

Mr. Douglas Jack, a practicing lawyer from Ontario, Canada, kicked off the program on Saturday as our Keynote Speaker.  He presented an excellent and very well received lecture centered on Risk Management Strategies for Equine Clinics.  The annual AAEVT General Membership Luncheon directly followed highlighting our current projects, new business, scholarship awards, the member of the year award, and the induction of the new AAEVT 2012 Executive Board.  The Academy of Equine Veterinary Nursing Technicians having offered their first Academy exam this year had four applicants that participated and passed with flying colors.  Recognition and induction of the charter members into the AEVNT was assisted by Jeannie Jeffery from Butler – Schein Animal Health.  Afternoon lectures on cytology, the digital vet practice and a roundtable update on the technician profession in the practice served to finish out our first day.  The evening AAEVT Welcome Reception and Scholarship Raffle was an enjoyable time for all to wind down, mingle, eat, drink and win some awesome donated items offered during our scholarship raffle.  This year we were fortunate to raise $1000.00 to put toward a member scholarship for 2012! 

Wetlab day started bright and early Sunday morning with a bus ride to our first of two equine clinics.  Retama Equine Hospital graciously hosted our morning sessions in which participants were able to complete two of three wetlabs.  Labs concentrating on surgery room and sterilization protocols, shockwave therapy and radiology techniques were offered during the morning sessions.  The next stop was Bracken Equine Clinic who was as equally gracious to host our lunch and afternoon sessions.  Each participant was again given the opportunity to complete two of three wetlabs.  Afternoon topics comprised of ultrasound “knobology” and techniques, regenerative medicine including PRP and stem cell procedures, and large animal rescue / disaster preparedness rounded out that day.

Our final day, Monday, was one of eight hours of scientific sessions, four hours of anesthesia focus and four hours of practice management focus.  The scientific sessions offered a range of topics including reproduction, ambulatory medicine, vaccines, bio-security measures, drug selection / calculations, nutrition, MRI, and emergency medicine.  We were very honored to have such outstanding speakers from all areas available to present their topics and answer questions posed by all that attended.  Attendee evaluations reflected a great deal of satisfaction with this year’s scientific portion of our meeting and offered many additional helpful suggestions for future meeting topics.

Our anesthesia focus session was a concentrated 4 hours period spearheaded by Dr. Lori Bidwell covering topics such as monitoring, breed variations under anesthesia, specific cases under anesthesia, along with induction and recovery techniques.  The practice management focus session divided their 4 hour period equally between the interactive session, “Tools to Make your Biz Better” by Dr. Andy Clark and “Making Cents of Inventory” presented by Mary Brookings, RVT, ChPT.  Rave participant reviews regarding both focus sessions will definitely mean a great deal when scheduling future meetings.

The AAEP held their Foundation Celebration on Monday night providing dinner along with a silent and live auction benefitting their Foundation.  The night ended with dancing to the music of the Randy Rogers Band.  Those attending had ample opportunities to network and catch up with old friends while having a little fun too!   

A special “Thank You” goes out to all our sponsors, speakers, and wetlab host clinics that helped make this meeting possible for everyone to attend and enjoy.  Without your continued support, we would not be able to offer our members near the opportunities to grow and in turn contribute back to the veterinary community in which we all depend.

To our registrants and the clinics which supported their attendance, we appreciate you very much!  We hope you were able to take away some great information to apply and to share with your individual clinics.  We also appreciate all your feedback.  It definitely helps us to adjust and plan future meetings based on what you want to see offered.

Finally, to the AAEVT team helping to put this meeting together, a heartfelt thank you for a job well done!  I so appreciate all your hard work – it is an honor to work with such a motivated group!  You’re the best!

Here’s to seeing everyone in Anaheim, CA next year!  Happy Holidays!