Feline Medicine

Individual Courses and Comprehensive Study Program

The ESAVS Feline Medicine courses are dedicated to veterinarians in practice or in the academic field who are willing to deepen their knowledge precisely in the area of Feline Medicine. The comprehensive study program consists currently of 5 one-week modules and covers different and most important disciplines. A sixth course “Feline Internal Medicine II” is being planned and will take place in 2020. The courses masters and instructors are recognized specialists and /or Diplomates of European and/or American Veterinary Colleges.

Feline Dentistry

Despite there are three major problems affecting most of patients in feline dentistry: periodontal diseases, caudal stomatitis and teeth resorption, cats also suffer from other maladies linked to oral cavity. It is very common that several problems exsist concurrently in the oral cavity. Due to fact that it is difficult to provide home care in cats suffering with oral pain, many diseases are diagnosed in advanced stage. ESAVS Feline Dentistry course is responding to growing need of general practitioners as well as profiled feline clinics to learn more about dental and maxillofacial problems in cats. Participant will receive theoretical and practical knowledge about clinical anatomy, diagnostics oral inflammatory diseases management, oral surgery, traumatology and systemic aspects of dental problems. Lectures, wetlabs and interactive sessions all about the cats will be provided.

Feline Internal Medicine I

This course in feline medicine is designed for veterinarians with an interest in feline medicine. Participants can expect to increase their understanding of feline health and disease with an emphasis on a problem-solving and practical approach using real cases to illustrate key points.

Feline Oncology

“Feline Oncology” is specifically designed to provide feline practitioners with the “A to Z” of cancer in cats. It will start with the diagnostic approach to the feline cancer patient, including biopsy taking, staging procedures, diagnostic imaging options as well as practical cytology sessions. There will be a detailed discussion of the most common feline tumours in clinical practice. A major emphasis will be on interactive and case oriented work using a systematic approach to the feline cancer patient including recognizing symptoms, interpreting imaging findings and choosing staging tests. Further, there will be a comprehensive discussion of cancer treatment options and on formulating suitable therapeutic plans.
This course is ideal for veterinarians with little or no previous knowledge in veterinary oncology, but also highly suitable for feline practitioners, who want to deepen their understanding of feline oncology and get up-to-date with the current state of clinical research.

Feline Orthopaedics

This course includes interactive, case-oriented classroom teaching in combination with intensive practical workshops.
In the workshops, we first repeat basic traumatology on plastic bones before starting to perform surgery on a cat cadaver always together with another participant. Teachers first show, how to do the exercise on a cadaver with the help of video transmission and are afterwards available to support and instruct participants during the workshop.
After the course participants will have repeated AO principles of fracture management and will be able to do correct surgical approaches to the bones as well as have a treatment plan for common fractures. Also participants will be able to perform some common orthopedic surgeries in the cat.

Feline Soft Tissue Surgery

Feline Soft Tissue Surgery: Advanced Abdominal Surgery – This Feline Soft Tissue Surgery course is one part of a three-part course on Feline surgery (parts can be taken in any order). It covers advanced abdominal surgery with a particular focus on urinary tract surgery, advanced intestinal surgery and liver and biliary tree surgery. This course is opened to delegates with some experience in surgery and/or who have taken the previous ESAVS STS courses (especially STS I and III) – there are minimal overlap between those courses and the advanced feline surgery courses. Basic knowledge will be reviewed but focus will be put on advanced practices. This course comprises an equivalent of 8 hrs of recorded webinars and 4 days of face-to-face lectures and practicals.

Feline Soft Tissue Surgery: Head and Neck – This Feline Soft Tissue Surgery course is one of a newly designed three-part course on Feline Surgery (parts can be taken in any order). It covers Head and Neck Surgery with a particular focus on surgery of the ear, pharynx, larynx, and trachea and specific conditions in the cat. One of the unique features of this course is the ability for the delegates to practice endoscopy of the ENT area in the cat, with state-of-the-art equipment.
The course is opened to delegates with some experience in surgery and/or who have taken the previous ESAVS STS courses (especially STS I and IV) as there are minimal overlap between those courses and the advanced feline surgery courses. Basic knowledge will be reviewed but focus will be put on advanced practices. This course comprises an equivalent of 8 hrs of recorded webinars and 4 days of face-to-face lectures and practicals.

Feline Soft Tissue Surgery: Thoracic Diseases and Skin Reconstruction – This Feline Soft Tissue Surgery course is one part of a newly designed three-part course on Feline Surgery (parts can be taken in any order). In a first part, it covers skin reconstructive surgery in cats and focuses on the differences between dogs and cats in terms of local and axial skin flaps, muscles flaps and reconstruction of challenging specific wounds ( eg. indolent wounds). The 2nd part of this course adresses the specific thoracic diseases seen in cats such as pyothorax, mediastinal masses , chylothorax ( different approach to dogs) and how to perform successful thoracic surgery in this challenging species .
Basic knowledge will be reviewed but focus will be put on advanced practices. This course comprises an equivalent of 8 hrs of recorded webinars and 4 days of face-to-face lectures and practicals.

These 3 courses can be taken in any order. They are soft tissue surgery courses with a particuar focus on specific feline surgical conditions and how surgical procedures used in canine are tailored to the feline species.