I am delighted to be the new editor for UK-Vet Companion Animal. Having worked on the editorial teams of Veterinary Record, the Journal of Small Animal Practice and In Practice some years ago, I look forward to reacquainting myself with the small animal arm of the veterinary profession. I look forward to continuing the success of the journal in 2021 with the veterinary editorial team at Mark Allen Group and assisted by the valuable input of the journal's editorial board.
In this, the penultimate issue of the year, we have papers on how to perform venipuncture in birds (Madonna Livingstone), managing secondary brain injury in small animals (Mark Lowrie), adverse drug reactions resulting from ectoparasiticides (Anna Copland and Hany Elsheikha), and a comparison of analgesic requirements in two approaches to tibial plateau-levelling osteotomy in dogs (Robyn Thomson and colleagues). I hope you enjoy this variety of papers, chosen to aid vets in their everyday practice.
Meanwhile, are your clients reporting any issues with their companion animal pets over the course of this year's lockdown and the societal changes that have followed (e.g. people wearing face masks regularly, reduced social contact with other dogs and more familial activity in a pet's home)? I am particularly interested in how spring's lockdown and its subsequent forms and the changes in human patterns and behaviour have affected companion animals, particularly dogs and cats. The PDSA, Battersea and the Dogs Trust have online advice for pet owners on acclimatising their dogs to the regular use of facemasks, including the changes they cause in how their owners' voices sound. In May the journal ran articles on how lockdown might affect pets, but now we have the majority of the year to look back on, which enables us to assess the effects based on longer-term evidence.
A point of note as we draw towards the year's end is the upcoming changes to the preparations Britons will have to make in order to travel to the EU and back with their pets, now that we have formally left the European Union. Travelling with a pet to the EU will change on January 1, 2021, depending on how Great Britain is categorised. Clients will likely already be discussing this subject with you, as the Government's advice for pet owners has been to talk to their vet 4 months before travelling. If Great Britain becomes a Part 2 listed country, the official advice is that pet owners apply for Animal Health Certificates not more than 10 days before travel. For anyone wanting to travel on January 1 or soon after, this will be in the middle of the pre-Christmas rush.
It is this time of year when we look ahead to the coming year and plan the content that will be most useful for readers. We are planning a variety of content to ensure an interesting and useful read, covering a wide variety of topics and species. If there is anything you would like to read in the journal, or subjects that we have not covered recently, do contact me (email below) or an editorial board member.
The journal welcomes unsolicited proposals and papers. Should you like to discuss particulars before submission, please do get in touch.
I would also love to hear from you the readers about what you have particularly enjoyed/found useful in UK-Vet Companion Animal, since our primary service is to our readers; we are foremost a journal for vets in practice.