Why I can’t wait for highlight of equine vet year
With just three months to go until BEVA Congress, BEVA council member Imogen Burrows explains why the annual fixture designed by and for equine professionals is a highlight in her calendar.
BEVA Congress is taking place in Birmingham from 13-16 September.
With more than 90 hours of live and on-demand CPD across three days – delivered by many of the top speakers in their fields – it’s a tough job to pick programme favourites.
However, some of the standouts for me this year include:
- A shake up of the programme streams. A less conventional approach has been taken this year by including non-clinical elements – especially from human behaviour perspectives –, within the usual traditional, clinical approaches to cases.
- Sarah Freeman on human behaviour. Frustrated by owners who seem to ignore your treatment plans, but are happy to follow the advice of unqualified individuals, or fail to commit to a treatment plan? Sarah will provide valuable insights into understanding and changing client behaviours.
- David Rendle on the realities of wonder drugs. Ertugliflozin may sound like the silver bullet for treating equine metabolic syndrome/laminitis-prone horses and ponies. But is it? David will discuss the research, pinpointing the successes and potential pitfalls.
- Louisa Taylor on feeding recurrent colic cases. We all want to stop the nightmare of repeated conversations, inconclusive tests, feed trials and diary keeping to identify a cause of recurrent colic, and Louisa should deliver some interesting answers.
- Philip Ivens, Sarah Smith and Tamzin Furtado on respiratory medicine. A useful recap on the clinical aspects of managing respiratory cases, but most critically, discussed alongside the commonly encountered, real-life challenges of cases that do not respond, and how vets and nurses can help owners achieve the required understanding, acceptance, compliance and commitment required to successfully manage equine asthma.
- Bronwen Williams, Jonathon Withers, Mark Parbhoo and Tim Mair on optimising surgical performance. This session looks to tackle surgical performance from angles that are often overlooked. It will discuss factors increasingly recognised to impact both the patient outcome and the people involved in ways we must be conscious of and consider from routine field surgeries to complex hospital procedures.
- Teaching from top speakers in their fields. With presentations and leading practical sessions, you are left feeling enthused and ready to form your own views, and tackle subjects there and then – both in terms of the clinical aspects and the human behavioural factors that can so easily obstruct the best-laid clinical treatment plans from working.
- Interactive sessions. Exploring the opinions and moral mazes that exist within our profession – through live debates and Q&As firing up the brain –, encourage us to question what we do, and fuel innovation within our profession.
- Exhibition hall. Demonstrations and displays of new technologies, and pioneering businesses supporting our industry and ensuring we remain at the forefront of equine veterinary provision.
- Networking opportunities. Whether it’s reinforcing existing relationships or forging new ones to help us all grow.
- Friends. Work experience, college, vet school, internships, residencies, first jobs and last jobs. Congress offers a chance to catch up with old housemates over a glass of something, reminisce about old practices with previous colleagues at happy hour, or have a coffee with that person you met on a CPD course last year. It is a chance to see anyone and everyone who may have been part of your life professionally, and socially. BEVA Congress has always been – and will always be – the annual reunion for equine vets around the world.
Not only does BEVA have four exceptional social events lined up, but we also have the choice of more than 200 pubs, clubs and restaurants within a mile of the ICC, which means party time for those who want some downtime fun.
BEVA Congress is the only place where time-strapped equine vets, nurses and students – at any age or stage of their career – can catch up on CPD and with old friends, with the perfect blend of professional and social activities.
