Explore the vast range of titles available.

\"Helena loves helping out at the animal hospital where her cousin Lucy works. One day, the girls find a young cat who's been injured by a car. Helena helps to care for the cat she names Caramel, but when it's time for him to go home, Caramel's owner can't be found. Caramel doesn't want to be kept at the animal hospital, and he especially doesn't like the scratchy cast on his leg. But if no one comes forward to claim him, how will he ever have a place to call home?\"--Page [4] of cover.

Background Livestock diseases are major constraints affecting the productivity, health and welfare of animals in dairy sectors in Ethiopia. The prevalence of animal diseases and inadequate animal health services are key barriers to improving animal productivity and health. Studies assessing animal health delivery in Ethiopia are limited. Methods A survey was conducted to assess veterinary service delivery on dairy farms, the level of service provision, and the major service providers in the area. A total of 381 dairy farms were recruited from different towns in central Ethiopia for the survey. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire developed via an online platform ( https://www.kobotoolbox.org/ ) and administered via face‒to-face interviews. The generated data were analyzed and descriptively summarized as frequency distributions and percentages. Results The results of the present study revealed that a wide range of animal diseases have occurred and adversely affected the dairy farms in the study area. Several government and private veterinary service providers have been engaged in providing animal health care to dairy farms. Private veterinary services cover most of the veterinary services of dairy farms at selected sites in central Ethiopia. For veterinary services related to the treatment and control of external and internal parasites, the purchase of drugs, artificial insemination, assisted delivery and pregnancy diagnosis of animals, dairy farmers prefer private veterinary services. The government veterinary sector, on the other hand, was preferred the ability to vaccinate animals against major dairy animal diseases (36.3%) and provide health-related training services (21.8%). In this survey, 61.05% and 45.53% of the respondents were dissatisfied with high service charges and insufficient medicine for the treatment of major diseases, respectively. However, 76.3% and 75% of them were highly satisfied with the good skills of the veterinary professionals and with the recovery of their animals after treatment, respectively. Conclusion The assessment of veterinary service delivery in dairy cattle management systems in central Ethiopia revealed that private veterinary service providers are the most dominant and that the comparative preference for private service, apart from its high comparative cost, may be related to its availability or accessibility. The overall users’ satisfaction was reported to be low. It is advised that public veterinary services maintain professional freedom and acquire adequate physical and financial resources to carry out their tasks. Finally, privatization or the promotion of public‒private partnerships should be supported to foster a competitive atmosphere for high-quality veterinary services.

\"Suzanne is excited to be moving to the countryside, especially because it means that she will finally be able to get a pet. She chooses Boots, an orange kitten with four white paws, and the two of them become inseparable. Then Suzanne has to start at her new school. Boots tries following Suzanne to school every day. But one day, there's a downpour, and he gets lost. How will Suzanne ever be able to find him when she has no idea where he could be?\"--Page [4] of cover.

Introduction Sustainable livestock production remains crucial for attainment of food security globally and for safeguarding the livelihoods of many households in low- and –middle income countries. However, the high prevalence of infectious livestock diseases, coupled with inadequate provision and adoption of effective control measures, leads to reduced livestock productivity, increased animal mortalities, and emergence of antimicrobial resistant pathogens. This study sought to assess the management strategies employed by farmers for priority diseases affecting their animals and the utilization and performance of veterinary services. Methods We conducted the study in three districts, namely, Mion, Pru East, and Kwahu Afram Plains South Districts, which represent the main livestock production belts in Ghana. We used questionnaires in surveys, to collect pertinent data from 350 ruminant livestock farmers and 13 professional veterinary officers (VOs) in the study districts. Additionally, we conducted seven focus group discussions (FGDs) with 65 livestock farmers in the study districts. The survey data was analyzed, and we describe the distribution of the priority livestock diseases, the disease management strategies employed, and the performance of veterinary services in Ghana. We also analyzed the raw FGD transcript texts deductively based on the study objectives. To validate findings across the different datasets, we used triangulation. Results Almost all the farmers (98%) reared small ruminants, with about 25% also rearing cattle. The main priority livestock diseases identified includes pestes-des-petits-ruminants and mange infection in sheep and goats, as well as contagious bovine pleuropneumonia and foot-and-mouth-disease in cattle. We found that majority (82%) of the farmers relied on treatment, while only 20% opted for vaccination services. Additionally, the veterinary system in Ghana did not adequately regulate the antimicrobial medications employed by farmers to manage diseases. Thus, in most of the cases, the medicines applied by farmers were not useful for the target diseases. Although our findings show the farmers perceived VOs to perform highly compared to informal providers on most of the attributes evaluated including medicine availability and quality, treatment effectiveness, advisory services, service affordability, and competence, only 33% utilized VOs services. The majority of the farmers (51%) used the services of informal providers, who were better in proximity and popularity with farmers. Conclusions The livestock sector in Ghana faces a substantial challenge due primarily to vaccine-preventable diseases. Even though VOs demonstrated superior performance on key veterinary service performance indicators, their services are underutilized by livestock farmers. Additionally, the absence of regulatory oversight by the veterinary system over antimicrobials utilized in animal production contributes to their misapplication by livestock farmers, posing a considerable risk to both public health and food security. It is thus imperative to introduce new initiatives that enhance the uptake of animal vaccines and better antimicrobial stewardship to ensure sustainable livestock production.

\"Dr. Kate Turner is happy with her new life in Oak Falls, upstate New York. Working as a relief veterinarian at a small house-call practice, she truly enjoys helping her patients. All that changes when client Claire Birnham is found dead, an apparent suicide. A talented artist, Claire had everything to live for: new job, Manhattan apartment, her Cairn terrier Toto. As feisty as the Wizard of Oz Toto, he and Claire were devoted. Kate can't imagine Claire simply abandoning her pet. Was her death murder? Questions end in the police arresting young kennel helper Eugene. The fragile friendship between Kate and police officer Luke Gianetti frays as she ignores his advice and keeps asking questions. House calls provide gossip and clues, some helpful, some not so much, as she treats her animal patients. Did Claire's recent insurance windfall prove too tempting for her hard working and hard drinking mother? What does trouble in the art gallery where Claire worked signal? How huge a grudge did heavy metal rocker A.J. hold against high-school sweetheart Claire after she dumped him? Was Claire a threat to AJ's rich new girl? Dr. Kate mixes real medicine with murder as she risks her life over Claire's death, aided by insights from a former fire investigator, aka her Gramps\"--Page 4 of cover.

Pet ownership, veterinary use, and beliefs regarding veterinary care were elicited through the use of a nationally representative survey of 997 U.S. residents. Fifty-one percent of respondents have or had a dog in the past five years and 37% have or had a cat in the past five years. Over ninety percent of cat and dog owners had visited a veterinarian at any time, but only about 40% visited a veterinarian annually. With the rise of options in veterinary medicine, including low-cost options for vaccines and spay/neuter, further study and analysis of pet-owners use of veterinary care is warranted. Fifty-four percent of dog owners and 40% of cat owners who went to a low-cost spay/neuter clinic also went to a veterinarian/clinic/practice. This finding suggests that pet-owners who use low-cost options do so in a manner that supplements rather than replaces traditional veterinary care. Logit models were employed to evaluate the relationship between dog and cat owner demographics and visiting a veterinarian. The probability of visiting a veterinarian increased with age and income for dog owners.

\"Christy is thrilled when her aunt's dachshund has puppies. And her parents have a wonderful surprise-she is going to get to keep one! Christy knows exactly who to pick-the beautiful puppy she's already named Lucky. Christy loves playing with Lucky and can't wait to take him for walks. But on an outing to the woods, Lucky's curious nature gets the better of him, and he runs off in search of adventure. Soon he is lost, frightened, and all alone. Will he ever be reunited with his beloved Christy?\"--Page [4] of cover.

Background Today’s globalised and interconnected world is characterized by intertwined and quickly evolving relationships between animals, humans and their environment and by an escalating number of accessible data for public health. The public veterinary services must exploit new modeling and decision strategies to face these changes. The organization and control of data flows have become crucial to effectively evaluate the evolution and safety concerns of a given situation in the territory. This paper discusses what is needed to develop modern strategies to optimize data distribution to the stakeholders. Main text If traditionally the system manager and knowledge engineer have been concerned with the increase of speed of data flow and the improvement of data quality, nowadays they need to worry about data overflow as well. To avoid this risk an information system should be capable of selecting the data which need to be shown to the human operator. In this perspective, two aspects need to be distinguished: data classification vs data distribution. Data classification is the problem of organizing data depending on what they refer to and on the way they are obtained; data distribution is the problem of selecting which data is accessible to which stakeholder. Data classification can be established and implemented via ontological analysis and formal logic but we claim that a context-based selection of data should be integrated in the data distribution application. Data distribution should provide these new features: (a) the organization of situation types distinguishing at least ordinary vs extraordinary scenarios ( contextualization of scenarios ); (b) the possibility to focus on the data that are really important in a given scenario ( data contextualization by scenarios ); and (c) the classification of which data is relevant to which stakeholder ( data contextualization by users ). Short conclusion Public veterinary services, to efficaciously and efficiently manage the information needed for today’s health and safety challenges, should contextualize and filter the continuous and growing flow of data by setting suitable frameworks to classify data, users’ roles and possible situations.

Changes in client behaviour and expectations, and a dynamic business landscape, amplify the already complex nature of veterinary and animal health service provision. Drawing on prior experiences, veterinary clients increasingly pursue enhanced involvement in services and have expectations of relationship-centred care. Co-production as a conceptualisation of reciprocity in service provision is a fundamental offering in the services sector, including human medicine, yet the role of co-production in veterinary services has been minimally explored. Utilising a service satisfaction framework, semi-structured interviews (n = 13) were completed with three veterinary stakeholder groups, veterinarians, allied animal health practitioners, and veterinary clients. Interview transcript data were subject to the qualitative data analysis techniques, thematic analysis and grounded theory, to explore relationship-centred care and subsequently conceptualise co-production service for the sector. Six latent dimensions of service were emergent, defined as: empathy, bespoke care, professional integrity, value for money, confident relationships, and accessibility. The dimensions strongly advocate wider sector adoption of a co-produced service, and a contextualised co-production framework is presented. Pragmatic challenges associated with integration of active veterinary clients in a practitioner–client partnership are evident. However, adopting a people-centric approach to veterinary services and partnerships with clients can confer the advantages of improved client satisfaction, enhanced treatment adherence and outcomes, and business sustainability.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a threat to public health, impacting both human and animal health as well as the economy. This study sought to describe antibiotic prescription practices and use in the Kintampo North Municipal Veterinary Clinic in Ghana using routinely collected data. Of the 513 animals presented for care between 2013 and 2019, the most common animals were dogs (71.9%), goats (13.1%), and sheep (11.1%). Antibiotics were prescribed for 273/513 (53.2%) of the animals. Tetracycline was the most commonly prescribed class of antibiotics, (99.6%). Of the 273 animals that received antibiotics, the route of administration was not documented in 68.9%, and antibiotic doses were missing in the treatment records in 37.7%. Details of the antibiotic regimen and the medical conditions diagnosed were often not recorded (52.8%). This study recommends appropriate documentation to enable continuous audit of antibiotic prescription practice and to improve quality of use. There is also the need for a national survey on antibiotic prescribtion and use in animal health to support policy implementation and decision making in One-Health in Ghana.