I admit it. I liked school. I did well, excelled even, and enjoyed learing new things on a daily basis. When  we graduate we don't stop learning. There are the daily chances to learn by actually doing and watching a case progress. There are also the things we call "Continuing Education." Every state has different requirements for veterinarians and  their post doctoral education education requirements. Some only require 4-8 hours of CE every 2-3 years, others require 40 hours a year. These hours are important because they keep the veterinarian up to date with current therapies, new discoveries, and regulation changes. Oklahoma is a state with realistic goals for continuing education. As a licensed veterinan in Oklahoma I have to obtain 25 hours of continuing education a year. This means I will need to be out of the office for 2 to 5 days for expanding my horizons. This is expensive, but I always hope that I will bring home the latest and greatest for my patients.

This year was no exception. I just got back from the nation's largest veterinary meeting. Five days of meetings with the top researchers and practitioners in the WORLD. Over 15,000 people from all over this country and the rest of the world attended this meeting. It was five days of intense lectures, labs, and discussions. Each morning at 6:30 am the lectures started and we stayed until the last lecture was over at 7:30 pm. What this means is that we stay on top of our game. I learned about the latest real research with real controlled non biased data, not some antedotal story with no proven result. I hope that I will be able to help more of my patients with this new information. 2012 will bring a lot of cutting edge techniques to White Oaks Veterinary Clinic. I can't wait to start performing state of the art stem cell therapy for severe arthritis and other conditions. Our class 4 laser therapy will help even more animals with pain control this year as well. New diagnostics are available for detecting CANCER in your pet before the signs are clinical. What a great new year with such rapid developements in health care! So if you missed me for the past 5 days, I am sorry. However, I have great things in store for your pet and mine. Medicine is truly advancing at a break neck pace. My goal is to always be the best source for your pet's medical needs.