Vapor Wake dogs are a new breed of dog that is scientifically bred for superior scenting ability, intelligence, physical soundness and a high desire or drive to search and hunt. Auburn University’s Canine Performance Sciences has developed a proprietary training regime for Vapor Wake dogs, including a patented name and process for training dogs to detect and to identify the … [Read more...]
PEDV, PDCoV have taught hard lessons
Aaron Lower, DVM, reminds us that the swine industry is embarking on its fifth winter of managing porcine epidemic diarrhea virus and porcine deltacoronavirus. As we enter the seasonal epidemic, it is important to review the key exclusion and management principles learned over the past five years. Source: National Hog Farmer, November 22, 2017. Sit down with your production … [Read more...]
Marketers, the future looks whack-a-mole
The number of consumer touch points is growing exponentially. Mike Herrick believes that for brands to keep up, they should rethink their marketing technology stacks. He cautions assumptions that mobile is a template for the post-mobile age. It’s not. Source: Martech Today, November 29, 2017. The truth, says Herrick, is that post-mobile computing will be an infinitely … [Read more...]
What the duck?!
Erika Eigenbrod, DVM, shares an emergency experience with Twizzler, a Pekin duck. As more chickens and ducks move into suburban areas, veterinarians will likely receive more calls like this one. Thanks for sharing your egg-perience Dr. Eigenbrod. Source: Vetted, November 23, 2017. Being a doctor of veterinary medicine, your career, patients and situations will never happen … [Read more...]
Top urinary tract and prostate antibiotics
Articles like this one make great staff training and discussion tools. Seasoned veterinarians can help newer colleagues by sharing experiences while younger, less experienced DVMs bring new perspectives from their education or discussions with classmates. Encourage a trusted sales representative to help facilitate the discussions at a scheduled meeting. Source: Clinician’s … [Read more...]
Pick the right dog collar for safety and specialty
“Punishment gets compliance; reinforcement gets cooperation.” Animal health pros are frequently asked about dog collars. Each situation is different. Pat Miller offers collar advice from her force-free perspective. She says, “There are some types of collars we wholeheartedly endorse, some we support with caution and some that we regard as unnecessary and risky.” Source: … [Read more...]
Managing the skinny, older horse
Impending winter weather and loss of good pasture should make all owners of thin senior horses anxious. An underweight horse is a concern regardless of age, but seniors have additional considerations. Eleanor Kellon, VMD, shares perspectives on dentistry and nutrition. Source: Horse Network, November 23, 2017. Problems such as heart failure, kidney failure, liver disease or … [Read more...]
Feed bees so they survive the winter
The implementation of the VFD has increased animal health pros’ apiary concerns. Angi Schneider writes about feeding bees in winter to help them survive. Unlike other insects, bees do not hibernate during the winter or lay eggs that overwinter and emerge in spring. They stay active all winter long. Source: Countryside Daily, November 24, 2017. Once temperatures reach about … [Read more...]
Producers learning to live with VFD
Those in the swine business discovered in the last year that the VFD process is more than just having a veterinarian’s signature on a piece of paper. Because there is no allowance for using feed-grade medications in an off-label manner, veterinarians completing the VFDs have had to pay extreme attention to every detail on the label, including the dose, duration of feeding, … [Read more...]
How to disagree with a client
We’ve all been in this scenario—you try to talk to a customer about using a certain management system or therapy and they insist on doing something different. The challenge here is to guide the customer to understand your recommendation without further offending them. Working through this requires taking three steps: Active listening Explanation while getting feedback … [Read more...]
A conversation with Jim Cleary, AmeriSourceBergen (MWI Veterinary)
Pharmaceutical Commerce sat down with Jim Cleary to find out what’s happening at AmerisourceBergen. Cleary was President of MWI when AmerisourceBergen acquired it in 2014. He is now the head of the Global Commercialization Services & Animal Health unit. This is a must-read for all animal health pros. The marriage of human and animal care approaches is evident. … [Read more...]
How to let go at the end of the workday
No doubt many animal health pros checked work e-mail during the Thanksgiving holiday. Debra Bright encourages her clients to use end-of-day routines to create a psychological barrier between their two worlds. According to a seven-year study on workers’ performance, an inability to make this break between professional and personal time ranked among the top-10 stressful … [Read more...]
The biggest health problem of all
The combination of an aging workforce and increased employee healthcare costs has organizations of all sizes developing wellness programs. Getting people moving and eating better are important. However, adequate and quality sleep is even more vital according to Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience at University of California - Berkeley. Source: Industry Week, November … [Read more...]
10 tips to help master the art of small talk
Some animal health pros are introverts which can make for difficult general conversations. There is more to talk about than the weather, says the Young Entrepreneur Council. Obviously, our favorite from its list is Number 2. AHD provides articles you reference. In fact, it is a good small talk conversation topic where you can share how you use the content. Source: … [Read more...]
Sit Ubu, sit – good dog! (includes video)
At the end of every episode of Family Ties and other UBU productions, Gary Goldberg’s black lab was flashed along with the famous phrase, “Sit Ubu, Sit!.” Pet owners want their dogs to be like Ubu. Mikkel Becker shares a mat training method to help get the sit behavior going. Her video includes comments from Gary Landsberg, DVM. Source: Firstline, November 14, 2017. What we … [Read more...]
Make winter calf care a priority
Don’t let calf care take a back seat, writes Karen Anderson. Her article addresses feeding and housing concerns for those who raise pre-wean calves during winter. Just because animal health pros have been through these considerations many times is no excuse for avoiding the topic during farm visits. A key point Anderson makes is to consider each calf individually. Her tips … [Read more...]
Help your clients value preventive healthcare with these free videos
Research shows that pet owners are willing to embrace preventive healthcare, but do not completely understand its importance. Partners for Healthy Pets is focused on preventive care. They offer a free, downloadable series of videos to help your team to make your communication with clients more effective and make sure everyone is involved in the conversation. Source: AAHA … [Read more...]
375 kittens help identify obesity risks
A prospective study attempted to identify early life risk factors for cats to become overweight or obese. Results largely agreed with previously reported investigations of obesity risk factors. At two years of age, 25.3 percent of the study population was overweight or obese according to owners. The proportion was 36.8 percent when body condition score was measured by a … [Read more...]
November is Pet Diabetes Month
Pet Diabetes Month is observed in November and is a fitting opportunity to work with pet owners to achieve and manage a healthy weight for their pets. The AVMA offers good resources to guide those discussions. Direct clients to view information on Your Pet’s Healthy Weight page Keep healthy weight brochures on-hand in your clinic for easy distribution Discuss … [Read more...]
What to do when a personal crisis hurts your professional life
We all confront a stressful life event or personal crisis that distracts us from work at some time. Amy Gallo offers principles to remember during these periods: Do: Determine what type of support you need — at home and at work. Tell your colleagues what’s happening so that they feel compassion for your situation. Make clear, specific requests of your coworkers … [Read more...]
Marketing is about your customers’ values, not yours
Marketing is about how customer values translate into aspirations, insecurities, fears and motivations. They only want to know what a company stands for as it relates to them. Sound familiar? Kris Gage sounds a bit cynical in her article that will likely hit home with marketers as they make decisions for 2018. Source: The Startup, November 11, 2017. Marketing is about … [Read more...]
December’s Journal of Dairy Science
We’ve linked to the Interpretive Summaries in this issue. Of special note are several summaries reviewing 100 years of dairy production in a variety of categories. If you like seeing how dairy production has advanced, these historical reviews will be of interest. Source: Journal of Dairy Science, December 2017. The table of contents is linked here < table of contents … [Read more...]
4 tips to manage parasiticide inventory
As colder weather sets in and year-end total inventory looms, parasiticides need to be looked at strategically. Use history, inventories on hand and trends to allow for the proper adjustments to reorder points and quantities. Sarah Wooten, DVM, shares tips to get a handle on parasiticides and other inventory items since the holidays often reduce client traffic. Source: … [Read more...]
Tony Robbins: motivating an employee who seems lazy
"Labeling someone 'lazy' is the worst thing you can do, because that just shuts [them] down and now it's a character defect," says Robbins. It's a leader's job to help employees see that everyone has goals, but perhaps those goals are not serving them well. Source: CNBC, November 14, 2017. You've got to find something that is a motive — that is their motive — in other words … [Read more...]
Managers aren’t doing enough to train employees for the future
David Ballard says a workforce that can adapt to changing environments and acquire the skills necessary to be successful in the future is a shortfall in today’s companies, big or small. In the surveys of the U.S. workforce conducted at the American Psychological Association, training and development consistently emerges as one of the areas with which employees are least … [Read more...]
Dogs can smell human fear and mirror our moods
A new study, "Interspecies transmission of emotional information via chemosignals: from humans to dogs (Canis lupus familiaris)," in the journal Animal Cognition, confirms what many have known. Dogs do smell human fear using chemosignals and they, too get scared. A dog's nose is an organ that's evolved to be an incredibly sensitive to odors. Source: The Bark, November 15, … [Read more...]
75% of marketing leaders don’t get consumers
Adobe has been working with Goldsmiths, University of London, to find out what happens when your customers and their needs are constantly changing. In the first report from the studies on the experience era, they found that half of consumers are overwhelmed by choice (46%) and would buy from an unknown brand that offers a better experience (50%). When it comes to which brands … [Read more...]
Embed customer-centricity into your DNA
Customer-centered focus becomes part of the DNA of a business or practice when its customers are at the center of every decision. This article is the 11th in a series of 12 on this subject. Animal health pros closest to customers’ needs often find themselves in conflict with leadership. But focused, customer-centric behavior is a primary context to the most successful … [Read more...]
Content marketing set to change
Just as content marketing seems to come of age, John Ellett challenges marketers to quit developing content marketing strategies and start developing plans that address how content supports marketing strategies. Studies indicate two of marketers’ biggest challenges in addressing changing buyer behaviors are: lack of buyer insights developing content that satisfies … [Read more...]
Understanding the decision makers
Pat Malone writes about the decision makers in this thoughtful article. It is a must-read for animal health pros. He writes: When your customer goes into decision-making mode, he/she is being influenced by two considerations: What do I know? This is the logical side of our brain calling up all the data and facts that we have that pertain to the decision at hand. How … [Read more...]