The Fish Vet's Blog

We are now into Day 3 of the Seavet program and I’m learning heaps of interesting stuff. One common question the students ask of their teachers is,”How do I get to work in the field of aquatic veterinary medicine?” and a related question,”How do you get experience, without experience?”

One of my co-students this week expressed that when he was applying at several places to work as their aquatic veterinarian, the various establishments often asked him whether he had the AquaVet or SeaVet certificate. This is one way of getting your foot in the door. You’ll learn heaps and create a great network of colleagues.

These questions were also asked of the teachers. Many have side-stepped their way into the aquatic field. Dr Tom Waltzek got into it by being into virology (study of viruses), Dr Don Samuelson got into it by being into ophthalmology (study of eyes), myself and Dr Ruth Francis-Floyd got into it by being into pathology (study of diseases)… and the list goes on. Some volunteered heavily earlier in their careers and gained a lot of experience and earned trust such as Dr Mike Walsh and some had shown such commitment and perseverance that he earned a recommendation for a job by his colleague/mentor (Dr Gregory Lewbart), and this is how Dr Roy Yanong got his gig at the University of Florida! I’m sure that there’ll be many more such stories from the other teachers who have yet to present at this year’s SeaVet.

The veterinary degree really opens up many possibilities beyond the more common small animal (dog and cat) work often portrayed on TV like Dr Harry Cooper, Dr Chris Brown and Dr Katrina Warren.

For those veterinarians or veterinary students who can’t get to such courses, I strongly recommend you get into the two critical networks to find out more – register in the on-line Directory and subscribe to e-News at www.AquaVetMed.info, and consider joining the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association (WAVMA) at http://www.wavma.org/Become-a-member.

For those of you who are not veterinarians, no need to fear. There are many, many ways of getting in on the action too. I’d like to draw your attention to the information that can be found at the following link –
http://www.iaaam.org/getting-into-aquatic-animal-medicine/

Good luck to you and I hope to meet with you in this field in the future, and to exchange notes.

—
Yours sincerely,

Dr Richmond Loh
DipProjMgt, BSc, BVMS, MPhil (Pathology) Murdoch, MANZCVS (Aquatics& Pathobiology).
The Fish Vet, Perth, Western Australia.
Veterinary Medicine for fish.
W: http://www.thefishvet.com.au
E: thefishvet
P: +61 (0)421 822 383

I’ve just completed Day 1 of the SeaVet intensive training course. We covered water quality for marine mammals as compared to fishes presented by Dr Ruth Francis-Floyd (pictured with me below). There were in-depth presentations on the effect of air quality on the health of Cetaceans, and on their anatomy, behaviour and medicine. This was delivered by Dr Mike Walsh who is kind enough to help fast track the attendees with what took him over 20 years to gather.

There was a lot to take in because tomorrow, we will be taking a field trip to Marineland to observe and interact with the dolphins.

This fact-finding trip has been made possible by the George Alexander International Fellowship, awarded to me by the International Specialised Skills Institute.

In just a little over 1.5 hours, I’ll be starting my Seavet training. I’m so excited that I woke up before my alarm clock!

See more about what the program delivers at this link – http://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/ame/seavet/

—
Yours sincerely,

Dr Richmond Loh
DipProjMgt, BSc, BVMS, MPhil (Pathology) Murdoch, MANZCVS (Aquatics& Pathobiology).
The Fish Vet, Perth, Western Australia.
Veterinary Medicine for fish.
W: http://www.thefishvet.com.au
E: thefishvet
P: +61 (0)421 822 383

… to deliver important messages about keeping our oceans safe.

See link to the video –
http://m.insideedition.com/v/Videos/WomanTurnsIntoMermai/?KSID=5f8bc876abec5f36a301107d854ce44f&type_specific=&ints_viewed=1

—
Yours sincerely,

Dr Richmond Loh
DipProjMgt, BSc, BVMS, MPhil (Pathology) Murdoch, MANZCVS (Aquatics& Pathobiology).
The Fish Vet, Perth, Western Australia.
Veterinary Medicine for fish.
W: http://www.thefishvet.com.au
E: thefishvet
P: +61 (0)421 822 383

Q: Where do abalone go for a shower and a dump?

A: At the Ab-blue-cean (ablution).

I’ve just uploaded a video and some pictures at EPCOT.

Click on the relevant links above to view.

Follow me on: Facebook "Fin Page" – YouTube – Blog – Linkedin – Twitter

—
Yours sincerely,

Dr Richmond Loh DipProjMgt, BSc, BVMS, MPhil (Pathology) Murdoch, MANZCVS (Aquatics & Pathobiology).
Veterinarian | Adjunct Lecturer Murdoch University | President-elect WAVMA |
Secretary Aquatic Animal Health Chapter – Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists (ANZCVS).
The Fish Vet, Perth, Western Australia, AUSTRALIA. Mobile Veterinary Medical & Diagnostic Services for fish and other aquatic creatures.
http://www.thefishvet.com.au
Ph: +61 (0)421 822 383

Looking for more books? Check out this site.

Read more here – http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/05/21/3763135.htm#.Uagi9mS9Kc0

Come and join in with my colleagues and I in Prague!

Download the flyer below –

2013_WVC-Aqua-Pgm_Flyer

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Dr. David Scarfe <DScarfe@avma.org>
Date: Sun, May 26, 2013 at 8:06 PM
Subject: AquaVetMed e-News: 2013 World Veterinary Congress Aquatic Vet Sessions – Prague, Czech Republic (Sept 17-20)
To:

Q: What fish makes sure musical instruments are pitch perfect?

A: A tuna.

Whoops, tis not Monday today! But make sure you keep your feelers out for more like these on Mondays!

Some very good and current information on the status of fish welfare
in the various sectors. Check out the email below from AquaVetMed.

Begin forwarded message:

From: “Dr. David Scarfe”
Date: 24 May 2013 5:29:49 HST
Subject: AquaVetMed e-News: FVE Fish Welfare Conference Presentations Now Available

May 24, 2013
FVE Conference presentations now available: ‘Caring for Health and Welfare of fish: A critical success factor for aquaculture’

This Federation of Veterinarians of Europe Conference, held in Brussels (May 16-17, 2013), was aimed at bringing together the different stakeholders in the field of aquaculture. The objective of the Conference was to review the current situation in the EU and identify animal health and welfare issues that need to be addressed, and examine the role of the veterinary profession in assuring these matters.

The following presentation are available at http://www.fve.org/news/presentations.php:

Session I – Aquaculture and aquatic animal health in Europe: Current and emerging diseases
• Overview of Aquaculture sector (Courtney Hough)
• Mediterranean fish farming (Panos Christofilogiannis)
• Cold water fish farming (Brit Hjeltnes)
• Fresh water farming (Baska Ferenc)
• Shellfish (Tristan Renault)

Session II – Ensuring best practices in aquaculture
• Fish health: prevention is better than cure (Sunil Kadri)
• Fish welfare: a critical success factor for aquaculture (John Avizienius)
• Sustainable fish farming: working at the human-animal-ecosystem interaction (Armand Lautraite)

Session III – The role of Veterinarian in Aquatic business sector
• Veterinary medicinal products in aquaculture (Klaus Hellmann)
• Role and responsibilities of the veterinarian – OIE perspective (Etienne Bonbon)
• EU Animal health law: focus on aquatic sector (Barbara Logar)
• FVE’s roadmap (Christophe Buhot)

___________________________
AquaVetMed e-News provides information to veterinary and veterinary-allied subscribers concerning aquatic animal medicine, health, welfare, public health and seafood safety, obtained from a variety of sources (largely AquaVetMed subscribers). While provided by the American Veterinary Medical Association’s, Aquatic Veterinary Medicine Committee and are for public distribution, they do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the AVMA or the veterinary profession. See the AVMA Terms of Use (http://tinyurl.com/29h2rf) for further information.

If e-News information is used elsewhere please acknowledge AquaVetMed as the source. Encourage individuals to subscribe rather than distribute through list serves.

Messages may contain attachments that will have been scanned for known viruses.

Subscription and Contributions: Interested veterinarians and veterinary-allied professionals can subscribe, unsubscribe, or contribute pertinent news or information, by sending a message with “For AquaVetMed -” and the topic in the subject line, to dscarfe@avma.org.

Note: Undelivered e-mails will not be resent; Subscribers will be deleted from the list after repeated undelivered or bounced messages and will have to re-subscribe.

Visit our website: http://www.avma.org

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