A new online educational course, produced by Dr Sue Dyson and Equitopia, is giving everyone the opportunity to learn how to listen to horses and spot the early signs of pain in ridden horses. By aiding prompt detection and quick treatment the course will help improve horse welfare and performance. www.EquitopiaCenter.com The 12 part course, how to recognise the 24 behaviours indicating pain in the ridden horse, is presented by international equine lameness specialist Dr Sue Dyson. It has been produced by the US’s popular evidence-based online educational resource Equitopia and helps translate Dr Dyson’s extensive research involving six studies and 400 horses, into action. It illustrates why pain is so poorly understood, the signs to look for, how to use an "ethogram" to score pain, and what to do once you find pain. An ethogram is a catalogue of behaviours with very clear definitions. Most of the previous pain-related behavioural work related to horses has only looked at the facial expressions o ...

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) has produced a six-point checklist poster for use in the practice setting to help veterinary surgeons remember the key things they need to consider when delegating work to veterinary nurses under Schedule 3.   Schedule 3 to the Veterinary Surgeons Act provides that vets may delegate medical treatment and minor surgery (not involving entry into a body cavity) to registered veterinary nurses (RVNs) and student veterinary nurses (SVNs) under certain circumstances. Following an RCVS survey of the veterinary professions to gauge how well both vets and vet nurses understood the provisions of Schedule 3, it was clear that both groups, but especially vets, could benefit from some additional guidance and greater clarity around some of the terms and language in the Schedule.   Following the publication of the survey report, the RCVS Veterinary Nursing Schedule 3 Working Party made a number of recommendations, including the production of a number of case stud ...