Penn Vet

09/20/2024

As summers continue to get warmer year-over-year, new research from the Penn Vet Working Dog Center (PVWDC) reveals the best way to prevent dogs from overheating.

After comparing various cooling methods, researchers found when a dog voluntarily submerged their head in clean, room-temperature water to retrieve a treat or toy, they not only cooled off faster, but also avoided dangerous post-exercise temperature spikes.

“During heat stress, blood flow to the head, nose, tongue, and ears is increased,” said Cynthia M. Otto, VMD, PhD, lead author of the study and executive director of the PVWDC. “Cooling the tissues of the head allows for rapid cooling of the whole body with limited amounts of water.”

🔗 Learn how to correctly teach your dog this game-changing method by visiting: https://bit.ly/4eajKuy

09/16/2024

A new study from the lab of Kyla Ortved, DVM, PhD, the Jacques Jenny Endowed Term Chair of Orthopedic Surgery and associate professor of large animal surgery, is investigating a potential treatment for equine osteoarthritis, a joint disease in which cartilage progressively breaks down. 🐴 🦴

Ortved’s team is looking at the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway, a signaling pathway in cartilage that promotes tissue growth and has been previously found to decrease osteoarthritis. Between breakthroughs, Ortved still finds time for mentorship, showing University of Pennsylvania undergraduate student Sidney Wong the ropes.

Through the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program, rising second-year Sidney Wong has conducted research in the lab of Kyla Ortved at Penn Vet.

09/13/2024

Today, Interim President J. Larry Jameson announced the reappointment of Andrew Hoffman, DVM, DVSc, DAVCIM, as the Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine for a second term, running through June 30, 2030. Under Dean Hoffman’s leadership, the School has experienced numerous achievements and outstanding growth.

Congratulations, Dean Hoffman!

🔗 More at: https://bit.ly/3B2n2S9

09/10/2024

Join us in congratulating V’26 for receiving their white coats! 🎉🥼

Last weekend, friends and family celebrated V'26's transition from classroom to clinic at this year's White Coat Ceremony.

Before the festivities, students spent two weeks in clinical orientation, preparing to take the next step in their veterinary school journey with lectures, tutorials, and clinical skill labs.

Best of luck during your clinical rotations!

09/05/2024

Registration Open: Penn Annual Conference 2024 🔔

Earn up to 15 CE credits, connect with local veterinary professionals, and meet the fresh faces helping to shape the future of animal care at Penn Vet by attending our annual continuing education conference. Along with veterinarians, registration is open to vet techs, nurses, and students, so there is opportunity for every member of your veterinary team!

🗓️ September 26-27, 2024
📍 Inn at Swarthmore
🔗 Register today: https://bit.ly/3AvSjKl

09/04/2024

See how we learn about wildlife health? Very mindful. Very demure. 🦉✨

Penn Vet’s provides education, training, and outreach opportunities for future wildlife researchers and veterinary practitioners not just on , but every day.

Educating the next generation of wildlife health professionals is crucial for preserving biodiversity and safeguarding ecosystems against emerging diseases in Pennsylvania and beyond!

09/03/2024

Congratulations to Erin Gibson, DVM, DACVS-SA, for being appointed as the Pamela Cole Career Development Chair of Small Animal Minimally Invasive Surgery. 🎉

Gibson joined Penn Vet’s faculty in 2022 and quickly distinguished herself as an outstanding role model and clinical educator. This endowed professorship will help support her research on new techniques in minimally invasive surgery.

🔗 Learn more: https://bit.ly/3AMy6md

08/28/2024

Penn Vet alumni Harvey Bendix, V’75, and George Melillo, C’81, V’85, have been recognized by the PA Veterinary Medical Association (PVMA)! 🎉

Bendix received the PVMA Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring a career dedicated to the health and welfare of animals. Through the years, Bendix has mentored a generation of veterinarians, pre-veterinary students, and veterinary technicians. He is the owner of Norwin Veterinary Hospital, located in the Pittsburgh area.

Melillo received the 2024 Veterinarian of the Year Award. Melillo is the co-founder and chief veterinary officer of Heart + Paw, a network of veterinary medical centers spread throughout the Mid-Atlantic. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in veterinary medicine.

Congratulations to both of these stellar alums!

Photo 1: Dean Andrew Hoffman (right) catches up with Bendix (left) at Penn Vet’s alumni luncheon during PVMA’s Keystone Veterinary Conference in Hershey, PA.
Photo 2: Melillo

08/23/2024

Welcome to Penn Vet, class of 2028! 🩺

After three jam-packed days spent connecting with classmates and exploring the Philadelphia and New Bolton Center campuses, New Student Orientation has officially wrapped up.

Best of luck as you begin your VMD journey, V’28!



Photos 1 and 7 courtesy of Liana DeNino, V'26
Photos 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 14 courtesy of Elizabeth Parra, V'27

08/16/2024

08/15/2024

🐝 Have you caught the buzz?

🌸 Honeybees are one of the many species that benefit from the outside of the Wildlife Futures Building. This pollinator-focused garden, maintained by Penn Vet Wildlife Futures Program personnel, provides safe, native habitats and food sources for many migratory and local species.

🦋 This year’s visitors to the garden included monarch butterflies, Eastern black swallowtails, various bee species, ruby-throated hummingbirds, American goldfinches, American toads, and even a garter snake.

👀 Check it out next time you’re on the Penn Vet New Bolton Center campus!

08/13/2024

Now streaming: Netflix’s new documentary “Inside the Mind of a Dog” featuring Penn Vet Working Dog Center Director Cindy Otto, DVM, PhD.

Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62ZAsnbSuyY

Penn Vet Working Dog Center and our own Dr. Cindy Otto were honored to be included in Netflix’s new documentary ‘Inside the Mind of a Dog.' The documentary explores the science behind how dogs think and the reasons they have become man’s best friend.

Catch a glimpse of the groundbreaking work we're doing with working dogs and how we’re unraveling the mysteries of their amazing minds. Don’t miss it—and keep an eye out for a viewing party!

https://decider.com/2024/08/09/inside-the-mind-of-a-dog-netflix-review/

08/07/2024

🎉 We are thrilled to announce two new leadership appointments for ’s Ryan Hospital Director and Chief Medical Officer Brady Beale, VMD, DACVO, and Penn Vet New Bolton Center Hospital Director Barb Dallap Schaer, VMD, DACVS, DACVECC.

🩺 Beale has been appointed Associate Dean of Clinical Enterprise for Ryan Hospital, and Dallap Schaer as Associate Dean for Clinical Education and Operations at New Bolton Center’s hospital.

📓In their new roles, both hospital directors will continue to oversee the management and operations of their respective medical centers while initiating and supporting clinical and educational programs that further elevate our academic mission.

🤗 Congratulations, Beale and Dallap Schaer, on this well-deserved recognition of your many contributions to Penn Vet!

🔗 Read more: https://bit.ly/4cmPTNL

08/05/2024

Congratulations to CSU College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and Penn Vet for receiving the first AKC/AKC CHF Canine Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation Residency Program awards! This funding will support the training of 2 veterinary specialists to meet the unique needs of active and working dogs. Learn more at www.akcchf.org/sportsmed.

08/01/2024

to Working Animal Appreciation Day!

Earlier this summer, Penn Vet’s Wildlife Futures Program Conservation K9 handlers Elle and Robyn traveled to Harrisburg’s Capitol Complex to demonstrate how conservation K9s Victoria and Vega sniff out chronic wasting disease (CWD) in the field.

Hosted by the Senate of Pennsylvania and the PA State Working Animal Foundation, the event highlighted the contributions of working animals across the Commonwealth.

07/26/2024

✨ Update on Wry Not!

In November, we shared the story of Wry Not, a filly born with a severe wry nose. A few weeks after her corrective surgery, Wry Not was back at Penn Vet New Bolton Center, visiting equine dentist Amelie McAndrews, DVM, DAVDC-Eq, to have a bite plate placed on her lower jaw. The plate will encourage her jaw to grow straight out and not down.

🤩Wry Not is now fully weaned and can enjoy grain, hay, and grass like any healthy equine should. However, her muzzle will never be “perfect.”

But we think she looks flawless! 💙

🔗Get all the details on Wry Not’s story: https://bit.ly/3WGSpcf

07/24/2024

🏃Canine Cancer Crushers at the 10th annual Steps to Cure Sarcoma 5K fundraiser!

💫 Penn Vet’s Comparative Immunotherapy Program members teamed up to form the Canine Cancer Crushers, one of 50 teams coming together to raise more than $250,000 to support sarcoma research at Penn Vet, Penn Medicine, and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

❤️‍🩹 At the event, the Penn Vet team caught up with Pat Wiedman and his dog Batman, who, in 2018, received a then-experimental vaccine to prevent metastatic disease after his osteosarcoma diagnosis. Today, Batman is cancer-free, almost six years after his initial diagnosis. The clinical trial that Batman participated in provided important information that helped to inform a clinical trial using the same vaccine in pediatric human patients with relapsed metastatic osteosarcoma.

Way to go, Canine Cancer Crushers! ✨

07/23/2024

Abigail Hamilton, V’26, is spending her second summer working in the van Eps Laminitis Laboratory with Andrew van Eps, BVSc, PhD, DACVIM professor of equine musculoskeletal research at Penn Vet New Bolton Center. 🐴

🔬Growing up around horses in Chester County, PA, the challenges of laminitis are familiar to her. As part of the NIH/Boehringer Ingelheim Summer Research Program at Penn Vet, Abigail is analyzing the behavior of cells in horse hooves affected by supporting limb laminitis in order to help improve the understanding of the disease process.

🌟“I’ve always had an interest in incorporating research into my future career, and the NIH/BI program has reaffirmed that for me,” she says. “This experience has allowed me to incorporate my interest in equine medicine and be a part of research from the earliest stages of grant writing to presenting my results at the Veterinary Scholars Symposium, which has been very fulfilling.”

🔗 Learn more about the NIH/BI Summer Research Program at Penn Vet: https://bit.ly/3PlebPZ

07/19/2024

We were delighted to welcome a group of rising seniors from Walter B. Saul High School, the largest agricultural high school in the US, to Penn Vet New Bolton Center last week.

The five students explored how veterinary researchers and veterinarians impact agriculture, wildlife health, climate change, and large animal clinical care through interactive workshops, site visits, and so much more!

W.B. Saul Home & School Association

07/19/2024

𝗩𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞 𝗧𝗢 𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧 𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗖𝗔𝗨𝗦𝗘! https://www.donate-hsapvwdc.com/

Canine hemangiosarcoma (HSA) is a cancer of the blood vessels of the liver, spleen and heart that is hard to diagnose until it is too late. Every two minutes, a dog dies from hemangiosarcoma. There is no screening test. New diagnostic tests are urgently needed to improve outcomes.

In our research study, we will train dogs to tell the difference between blood samples from dogs diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma versus dogs that are healthy or have other diseases. This research will aid the development of future techniques for diagnosing hemangiosarcoma.

We are looking for both canine blood donation and monetary support for this project.

07/18/2024

Are you planning to adopt a dog or cat? 🐱🐶

Penn Vet researchers are seeking human participants - who plan to adopt a dog or cat in the next month – to understand how pet ownership can affect mental health.

🔗 To learn more and sign up: https://bit.ly/3zGlPiz.

❗️Please note, our researchers will not be assisting in your adoption process.

07/16/2024

Join us in welcoming a new group of residents and interns, known collectively as House Officers, to our veterinary hospitals! 👋🩺

💫 This group is entering the next phase of their professional veterinary careers, and we can’t wait to see what is in store for them.

07/05/2024

Pennsylvania’s lawmakers are continuing to negotiate the state’s budget, but the latest proposal for Penn Vet jeopardizes our work. We are asking students, alumni, and supporters to visit pennvetproud.org TODAY before legislators take final action! Contact your lawmakers and share how important Penn Vet is to Pennsylvania!

The latest piece of legislation would not fund Pennsylvania student tuition discounts, nor fund the services we provided the Commonwealth last year. If the Commonwealth does not fully cover these expenses, that could mean higher tuition for Pennsylvania students; fewer Penn Vet graduates to fill critical workforce shortages; reduced diagnostic services and clinical services; and less support for animal health/public health initiatives that benefit the animals and residents of Pennsylvania.

This is a critical moment. We need to have your voice heard in the state Capitol Building! Contact your lawmakers at pennvetproud.org!

07/04/2024

Wishing everyone a happy 4th of July! 🎇

🔗For tips on how to keep pets safe during today's booming festivities, visit: https://bit.ly/3HWKZti.