Communication as teaching content of veterinary studies - a joint position paper from the DVG specialist group "communication and didactics" and the GMA veterinary medicine committee.

Veterinarians have to face many communicative challenges in their professional capacity. Successful professional communication increases satisfaction among pet owners, staff members and colleagues, and ultimately also the veterinarians' own satisfaction. On the other hand, unsuccessful communication can easily lead to rejection, distrust and dissatisfaction. However, communicative skills are not explicitly taught as part of the compulsory courses in veterinary medicine in Germany. The position paper of the GMA Veterinary Medicine Committee and the DVG work group Didactics and Communication Competence describes the importance of successful communication for working veterinarians as well as the training situation in Germany and addresses topics that are often discussed in connection with the implementation. The authors come to the conclusion that there is both a necessity and a possibility for the introduction of communicative training content and provide recommendations that are intended to support the sustainable introduction of courses and exams to develop the communicative skills of veterinary students.

Relationship between total thyroxine, thyroid palpation and a clinical index in hyperthyroid and healthy cats and cats with other diseases.

OBJECTIVES: Present-day diagnosis of hyperthyroidism is often established in the early stages where clinical signs and physical examination findings typically associated with the disease may not yet be present. The purpose of this study was to investigate thyroid palpation score (TPS), total thyroxine (T4), body weight, body condition score and a clinical scoring index, which assesses severity of illness and quality of life, in untreated hyperthyroid cats, healthy cats and cats with non-thyroidal illness. METHODS: Fifty-five cats with hyperthyroidism, 45 healthy cats and 327 euthyroid cats with non-thyroidal disease were prospectively enrolled. A Kruskal-Wallis test was used to determine any differences between metric data. A χ2 test was applied to compare nominal data between the three subgroups. Correlation between two variables was analysed using Spearman's correlation coefficient. RESULTS: Almost 80% of the hyperthyroid cats and up to 20% of the healthy cats and cats with non-thyroidal illness had a palpable thyroid gland. Median TPS in hyperthyroid cats was 2, which was significantly higher compared with the other groups. Although there was a significant correlation between TPS and T4 when evaluating all cats, this could not be demonstrated in the three subgroups. Hyperthyroid cats with larger thyroid glands (TPS >3) did not have higher T4 levels. Hyperthyroid cats with lower clinical scores had significantly higher T4 levels compared with hyperthyroid cats with higher scores. Hyperthyroid cats were older and had lower body weights and body condition scores than other cats. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Hyperthyroid cats were commonly found to have palpable thyroid glands, but they were smaller than previously reported.

Adrenal function in cats with hyperthyroidism.

Adrenal function may be altered in animals with hyperthyroidism. The aim of the study was to assess adrenal function of hyperthyroid cats (n = 17) compared to healthy cats (n = 18) and cats with chronic diseases (n = 18). Adrenal function was evaluated by adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) stimulation test and the urinary cortisol to creatinine ratio (UCCR) was determined. Length and width of both adrenal glands were measured via ultrasound. Hyperthyroid cats had significantly higher cortisol levels before and after stimulation with ACTH than the other groups. However, the UCCR was not elevated in hyperthyroid cats. The size of the adrenal glands of hyperthyroid cats was not significantly different from the size of those of healthy cats. The results indicate that cats with hyperthyroidism have a higher cortisol secretory capacity in a hospital setting. The normal size of the adrenal glands suggests that cortisol levels may not be increased permanently.