VETERINARY MEDICINE: AN OVERVIEW OF NEUROLOGY IN THE DOG AND CAT

 

 

RACE Approved Interactive For Veterinarians and Veterinary Technicians/Nurses

Course meets the requirements for 18 RACE hours of continuing education credit for veterinary technicians and veterinarians in jurisdictions which recognize AAVSB's RACE approval. However, participants should be aware that some boards have limitations on the number of hours accepted in certain categories and/or restrictions on certain methods of delivery.

RACE Subject Category: Medical; Delivery Method: Interactive Distance; Program Number 742399 .



This course requires employment at a practice to complete one or more assignments. .

 

Course Focus - Learning Objectives - Completion Requirements

Veterinary Medicine: An Overview of Neurology in the Dog and Cat will fine tune the practitioner’s knowledge of the canine and feline nervous system. The participant will better identify neurologic disease in patients and localize the lesion within the nervous system (forebrain, brainstem, spinal cord, peripheral nervous system). The course gives strong focus on the neurologic exam as well as formulating differential diagnoses based on signalment and history. A general knowledge base of neurodiagnostic tests is covered.

Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:

  • develop comprehensive history taking protocols
  • categorize the sign-time graph for patients with vascular, trauma, metabolic, and neoplastic neurologic disease
  • create an effective neurological examination and lesion localization protocol
  • differentiate between levels of consciousness
  • differentiate between decerebrate, decerebellate, and Schiff-Sherrington posture
  • differentiate the gait of a patient with orthopedic vs. neurologic disease
  • differentiate between proprioceptive ataxia, vestibular ataxia and, cerebellar ataxia
  • name each cranial nerve, describe its function, and major brain origination section
  • outline the clinical signs of unilateral dysfunction of cranial nerves III, IV, VI, VII, and XII
  • define and identify normal and abnormal nystagmus
  • list the general components of the reflex arc
  • describe the pathway of the cutaneous trunci reflex
  • differentiate between superficial and deep pain perception
  • identify abnormal neurologic signs associated with forebrain and brainstem dysfunctions
  • compare and contrast central vs. peripheral vestibular disease
  • identify nerves often concurrently affected by disease of the peripheral vestibular system
  • list differential diagnoses for peripheral and central vestibular disease
  • describe a patient with cerebellar disease
  • define the clinical signs associated with a complete resection at the following spinal cord sites: C3, C6-T2, T12, L4-S2
  • describe the neurologic signs of peripheral nerve, neuromuscular junction, and muscle dysfunction
  • list the common forebrain, brainstem, and spinal cord diseases based on the VITAMIN-D acronym for dogs and cats
  • develop a diagnostic plan for patients with brain, spinal cord disease, and peripheral nervous system disease
  • determine when a cerebrospinal fluid analysis is indicated in a neurologic patient
  • determine when CT is preferable to MRI in patients with neurologic disease

Completion requirements:

Instructor Graded Interactive Critical Thinking and Case Scenario Assignments: Designed to help the participant apply the newly learned skills and knowledge via implementation focused and patient based scenarios provided by the instructor.

Comprehension Quizzes: Must be submitted with a score of 80% or better, multiple attempts

Course Survey

A certificate of completion is provided.

 

How Does the Enrollment Process Work?

This course is designed to be as schedule friendly as possible as we understand it can be hard to fit interactive CE into an already busy life. Open enrollment allows students to enroll in this course at any time.

Once the course payment transaction has been submitted, we will receive a notification of enrollment. In addition, the student will be sent a couple of "heads up" emails. The payment receipt will be sent to the email address designated in the payment page of the shopping cart, by the person who paid.

There is a post-payment manual process we must complete in order to add the new student to the course.

Completing enrollments as quickly as possible is a priority but it can take a full 24 hours, especially on weekends and holidays. Once fully enrolled. the student will be sent a course welcome email containing important information, including how to access and log into the course.

 

Personal Completion Deadline

This is an asynchronous course. Students are not expected to be logged into the course at any specific times as there are no real time lectures or requirements.

Students have 18 weeks from the date of payment to meet all completion requirements. The course welcome email will specify the student's personal completion deadline. If the student has not met the completion requirements by the deadline, they will be processed out of the course and graded as incomplete.

But What If Something Comes Up?

There are times when unforeseen situations interfere with a student's ability to complete by the deadline. In that case, an email to VetMedTeam, as soon as such a situation arises, will allow us to offer the best possible options.

 

Video Creation Assignments

The first module requires the participant to create and upload 3 self-created neurological examination videos so as to provide the greatest learning experience, with expert feedback from a veterinary neurologist.

There is a detailed pdf outlining the submission options and how to steps. If the video file is small enough it can be uploaded directly into the assignment. Otherwise a free YouTube account can be used as well as a personal video share.

 

Technology Requirements

Reading content within the course is provided via PDF therefore the ability to download files and open PDFs is required.

It is recommended that participants utilize a program such as MS Word to create, and save, their assignment submission to their computer. Then the information can be pasted into the assignment submission area.

Access to a smartphone or video recorder is required.

 

Participant Feedback

When asked what aspects of the course liked best some responses were:

...I find neurology so challenging but found the combination of exam questions and case examples to be very helpful. Making the videos of the neuro exam was helpful to solidify how to do it!

... I really liked it. It was very practical, lots of cases that you frequently see and miss many things. I think I have a clear idea of localizing lesions. It was fun to do the assignments.

... Fast and useful feedback from course instructor, and several clinical case assignments.

... I loved the case studies!!! They really help make you think and pull everything together rather than just reading something or hearing someone talk. Moving at my own pace helped keep me motivated and focused to actually pay attention and learn.

... I really enjoyed the video case studies because I am more of a visual person and so seeing the neurologic processes in real life cases was really helpful for me to put all the pieces together.

...I liked the feedback from the instructor. It helped me understand what was being asked better when I didn’t understand the question.

...I liked that it was thorough and actually helped me refresh my understanding of neurology. I learned more than I would have sitting in a lecture.

...I liked the feedback from the instructor. It helped me understand what was being asked better when I didn’t understand the question.

...I liked the case studies and prompt feedback from the instructor. The reading assignments were out standing; the descriptions of the physiology of hearing and balance were in particular were enlightening

...Feedbacks and answers from Instructor Deena were very helpful in letting me know what i have missed out

 

Course Instructor

Deena Tiches, DVM, DACVIM (Neurology)Deena Tiches, DVM, DACVIM (Neurology)

Dr. Tiches is a northern Virginia native that currently resides in North Carolina with her dog, two cats, two horses and a donkey. She received her veterinary degree from the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in 1993. Her small animal internship at Michigan Veterinary Specialists was followed by a neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania. She remained there as a clinical instructor until achieving board certification in 1997.

Dr. Tiches was in private practice in Maryland and Virginia for 16 years before forming Neurowebvet.com, an online consulting website for general practitioners. She designed an interactive online neurology course with VetMedTeam in 2017 to fulfill continuing education requirements for general practitioners. She has been teaching the course since. She enjoys training veterinary students, interns and residents as well as educating veterinarians and pet owners. Her areas of interest are epilepsy and encephalitis.

In her free time, she competes in dressage with her Canadian Sporthorse.

 

Pricing

Price: $220.00 USD


Practices may enroll individual team members. To learn how to assign a specific team member to a course, please visit the Assigning Students page.


Please use this link to view the Withdrawal Policy for this course.