On successful completion of this course students should be able to:

1. Apply to clinical veterinary medicine knowledge learnt in previous courses, especially anatomy (surgery and imaging), physiology (medicine), pharmacology (medicine and surgery) and pathology.

2. Describe medical and surgical disorders of companion animals, including their pathogenesis, pathophysiology, investigation, diagnosis, management and prognosis.

3. Use patient histories and clinical examination findings to evaluate the medical condition of companion animals.

4. Construct differential diagnosis lists for medical and surgical conditions of companion animals and use the lists to propose a diagnostic approach to patients’ clinical problems.

5. Interpret results of clinical pathology, diagnostic imaging, and other clinical investigations in order to reach a diagnosis for medical and surgical conditions.

6. Recognise common diseases and disorders in companion animals and plan therapeutic approaches to them, knowing when to refer complicated or uncommon cases to specialist veterinarians.

7. Plan and employ, under supervision, safe anaesthetic practices for common simple procedures in companion animals.

8. Plan and perform, under supervision, basic surgical procedures safely.

9. Work well in a team when conducting basic surgical and anaesthetic procedures.

Personal stethoscope
One pair of dark green scrub suits must be sourced, purchased and ready to wear prior to your
Orientation Day in the Desexing clinic.
Students are responsible for laundering of these garments.
They must be clean when attending the Desexing clinic otherwise students will not be able to
participate in the class.
Library – various online references

General texts
100 Top Consultations in Small Animal General Practice, 2011, Hill, Warman and Shawcross
Clinical Veterinary Advisor Dogs and Cats - 2nd Ed, 2010, Cote
Blackwell's Five-minute Veterinary Consult: Canine and Feline, 2006, Tilley
Blackwell's Five-minute Veterinary Consult: Lab Tests and Diagnostic Procedures Canine and Feline, 2009, Vaden, Knoll, Smith & Tilley

Discipline specific texts

InternalMedicine
Small Animal Internal Medicine, Nelson & Couto, 4th edition 2009
Feline Medicine and Therapeutics - Chandler, Gaskell and Gaskell - 3rd Ed, 2007
The Cat, Little
Canine and Feline Endocrinology and Reproduction, Third Edition - Feldman and Nelson - 2003
Kirk's Current Veterinary Therapy XIV & XV - Bonagura, 2008/2013 (useful potted summaries of latest recommendations for selected
conditions)
Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine - 2009, Ettinger +
Feldman. Gold standard 2 volume text, but advanced content.
Infectious Diseases of the Dog and Cat, Greene, 2013

Surgery
Small Animal Surgery – 4th Ed, 2013 Fossum
Veterinary Surgery Small Animal – 1st Ed 2012, 2 Volume set, Tobias and Johnson
Fundamentals of Small Animal Surgery - 1st Ed 2011, F. Mann
Manual of Small Animal Soft Tissue Surgery 1st Ed, 2010, Tobias
Handbook of Small Animal Orthopedics and fracture repair 4th Edition 2006 – Piermattei, Flo and DeCamp
Miller's Anatomy of the Dog – 4th Ed, 2013 Evans and De Lahunta

Anaesthesia and Analgesia
These three are good basic practical books, especially for small animals.
Veterinary Anaesthesia, Principles to Practice – 2010, Dugdale A
Small Animal Anaesthesia and Analgesia – 2008, Carroll, GA.
BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Anaesthesia and Analgesia - Seymour and Duke

The most comprehensive veterinary anaesthesia text, and most useful as a reference book.
Lumb and Jones' Veterinary Anaesthesia - 4th Ed, 2007, Tranquilli et al

These are good general books covering pain and its control.
Pain Management for the Small Animal Practitioner - Tranqilli, Lamont and Grimm 2004
Pain Management in Animals - 2005, Flecknell & Waterman-Pearson
Handbook of Veterinary Pain Management – 2nd Ed, 2009, Gaynor and Muir

Oncology
BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Oncology 3rd edition. Useful basic handbook.
Withrow and MacEwen's Small Animal Clinical Oncology, 2013, Withrow and Vail, 5th Ed. Gold standard text.

Drug Formularies
Plumb's Veterinary Drug Handbook - 7th Ed, 2011 - Donald Plumb.
BSAVA Small Animal Formulary - Ramsey

This course will use a combination of lectures and practical classes and interactive sessions. This course utilises Canvas and resources including announcements, lectures, and further reading material will be available on the course pages.

This 6 unit course will be delivered over 2 semesters split over 1-2 teaching days per week as
• 4 hours lecture per week
• 7-8 x 2-3 hour practicals per semester
• 4 Neutering Clinic practicals per student per semester.
Students will receive lecture notes and other materials online and will be required to log on weekly to MyUni.

A student enrolled in a 6 unit course, such as this, should expect to spend, on average 12 hours per week per semester on the studies required. This includes both the formal contact time required to the course (e.g., lectures and practicals), as well as non-contact time (e.g., reading and revision).

This course will apply a body systems based approach to the theoretical and practical aspect of medical and surgical disorders of companion animals, principally dogs and cats.

In practical classes, students will develop clinical problem solving ability using case analyses, use cadavers or purpose-made synthetic materials to practice clinical techniques associated with the diagnosis and treatment of common clinical conditions, and develop anaesthesia and surgical skills.

In the desexing clinic students work in teams to apply & further develop anaesthesia and surgery skills in a real-life setting.
Lectures will encompass different teaching methods such as, but not limited to, traditional lectures, clicker sessions, team based learning to integrate clinical learning with preclinical learning areas such as anatomy, physiology, clinical pathology and pharmacology.

Practical classes held within laboratories will require closed-in shoes and the wearing of a laboratory gown. You will also
need to have your student ID with you. Students must wear any required safety or protective clothing as directed.

Attendance to all lectures and practicals is compulsory as valuable material is learnt from discussions during the lectures.

Assessment Task	Type of assessment	Weighting	Hurdle	Learning Outcome	Due
On-Course Assessments	Formative & Summative	10%	No	1-6	Semester 1 - by week 12, Semester 2 -by week 12
Practical Assessment	Formative	0%	No	1-8	Each Pratical Class
Desexing Clinic	Formative	0%	Yes	3,7,8,9	Weekly, approx 33% of class per week
Mid-Semester Test Semester 1	Summative	10%	No	1-8	Week 6-8
Mid-Semester Test Semester2	Summative	10%	No	1-8	Week 6-8
End of Semester Exam Semester 1	Summative	35%	Yes	1-8	Exam Week
Final Exam Semester 2	Summative	35%	Yes	1-8	Exam Week

An exemption to the hurdle requirements of the Assessment for Coursework Programs Policy has been approved by the Faculty of Sciences for 2019.

Assessment item with hurdle	% needed or requirement to meet hurdle	Is additional assessment available if student does not meet hurdle requirement? Yes or No	Details of additional assessment, if available
Desexing Clinic	Pass/Fail – based on minimum level of competence expected at the DVM2 level.	Yes	Students deemed not yet competent (anaesthesia or surgery or both) by week 9 of Semester 2 will be reassessed for competency in the area concerned during the final 3 classes (weeks 10-12). Further assessment is at the discretion of the course coordinator/s.
End of Semester Exams	Cumulative 50%	Yes	Additional examination covering all material taught during the entire year in a similar or different format.

On-course assessment: Students will undertake two assignments that will consolidate material taught during didactic sessions as well as enhancing their problem solving ability. The assignment formats that might be used include quizzes delivered in class or during practicals or online; written assignments e.g. problem solving through case evaluation and management plans, to be completed out of class; or other assignments at the discretion of the individual instructors. Students receive formative feedback on the assignments, e.g. individual comments on written assignments and publication of “ideal” answers to the cases; correct answers revealed at the end of online assessments.

Practical Assessment: Students will also receive formative assessment of their practical skills within relevant practical activities. The practical classes might be delivered as small or large group clinical problem solving sessions, practical classes in technical/procedural skills, clinical information interpretation.

Mid-semester tests (1.33 hour each) and end semester examinations (2 x 2 hours each) will test a combination of theoretical knowledge, application and practical skills. Question formats that might be used include MCQs, short answers, essay, OSCE, practical
tests and performance-based exams.
The mid-semester tests will serve to guide the students on the level of knowledge required to successfully pass the end of the semester examinations, and give them experience with the various question types.

Desexing Clinic: The Desexing Clinic is a practical class of the Companion Animal Practice course. Each week, one third of the students participate in the class and divide into teams of 3 or 4. Each team member has a different role in the practical exercise, and individual team members may be called to assist another team from time to time.
Students not participating in the desexing clinic are scheduled to participate in the DVM2 practical rotations for other courses

There is no formal examination, however it is a hurdle. Student anaesthetists are assessed by the anaesthesia supervisors and student surgeons are assessed by surgical supervisors and surgical nurses. Anaesthesia and surgery assessments are each given equal weighting in student assessments. Students receive verbal formative feedback during each class as they work in small groups to anaesthetise and prepare an animal for surgery, perform the surgery, monitor the animal’s recovery from anaesthesia, provide post-operative care, keep anaesthesia records, write surgery reports, and finally write discharge instructions for post-operative care when the animals are discharged from hospital. Students will receive a Pass/Fail for each of anaesthesia and surgery. A Pass is required in both areas to be able to pass the course, and indicates that the student has reached a level of competence that is satisfactory for their stage in the DVM program.

Desexing Clinic Assessment Guidelines:
To pass this course, students must meet the minimal competencies specified in the learning objectives by the end of Semester 2. Achieving competence in the desexing clinic is different from learning a skill – competence describes the ability to put together a number of skills to produce a high-level performance judged satisfactory by experts in the field.

If an extension is not applied for, or not granted then a penalty for late submission will apply. Generally a mark of zero will be allocated to late submitions.