The line-up:
Don’t miss an international group of speakers who are world leaders in their fields, pioneering modern techniques and cutting-edge science and translating these into practical advice – these are true veterinary rock stars!
Søren is a professor of veterinary emergency and critical care at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. He obtained his DVM from the University of Saskatchewan in 1996, completed a small animal internship at the Atlantic Veterinary College, and a residency at Tufts University, becoming a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care in 2003. He is the former Chief of small animal emergency and critical care at the University of Montreal (2003-2009). A member of several ECVECC, ACVECC and VetCOT committees he continues to actively promote the global advancement of veterinary ECC. Extensively published and a recipient of numerous teaching and research excellence awards, he has become an internationally recognized speaker. He and his colleagues from Tufts published the first small animal focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST) exam, and with colleagues at the University of Calgary, adapted veterinary point of care ultrasound for use in non-trauma patients. With the help of many great colleagues from around the world, he continues to develop ultrasound training techniques and workshops for non-specialist practitioners. Along with point of care ultrasound, his research interests include hemorrhage, coagulation, and perfusion.
BSc, DVM, DACVIM (SAIM)
Serge Chalhoub graduated from the Faculté de médecine vétérinaire (FMV) of the Université de Montréal in 2004. Serge followed this with a one-year rotating small animal clinical internship at the same institution. Serge pursued a residency in small animal internal medicine at the Animal Medical Center (AMC) in New York City. He stayed on at the AMC as their first renal/hemodialysis fellow and then as a staff doctor. Dr. Chalhoub is an Associate Professor (Teaching) at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM) and has been on faculty since 2012. He was the recipient of the 2013 and 2021 Canadian Veterinary Medical Association’s Teacher of the Year Award, the 2015 University of Calgary Team Teacher of the Year Award, and the 2017 Carl J. Norden Distinguished Teacher Award. He has authored and co-authored numerous scientific articles and book chapters on veterinary point of care ultrasound, renal and urinary medicine, and lectures around the world on these topics.
Laura graduated from the University of Bristol in 2001. After a three year period in first opinion practice, she completed a rotating Internship at the Royal Veterinary College, London, followed by a Small Animal Surgical Residency at the University of Bristol. She moved to Cambridge as a Clinical Surgeon in the soft tissue department in 2009 and obtained the ECVS Diploma in Small Animal Surgery in 2010. She currently holds the position of Associate Professor in Small Animal Surgery and continues to enjoy all aspects of soft tissue surgery, with particular interests in urology, wound management & reconstructive surgery and minimally invasive techniques.
Dr. Allyson Berent is a DVM and residency/fellowship-trained veterinary internist who specializes in veterinary interventional radiology and interventional endoscopy. Dr. Berent graduated from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2002 and then from 2002-2003 Dr. Berent completed a small animal rotating internship at the University of Minnesota. This was followed by a residency in small animal internal medicine at the Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania from 2003-2005. From 2005-2006 Dr. Berent completed the first veterinary fellowship in Interventional Radiology at the Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and a fellowship in Endourology at Thomas Jefferson University. She served as Adjunct Assistant Professor in Internal Medicine and Interventional Radiology/Interventional Endoscopy at the Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania helping to establish the first Interventional Radiology/Endoscopy service in veterinary medicine. In 2006 Dr. Berent helped to grow the IR/IE fellowship program and has since been responsible to help train 6 additional IR/IE fellows and 8 IR/IE specialty interns. Dr. Berent has also helped to train over 50 internal medicine residents over 300 small animal rotating interns since 2006.
In 2009 Dr. Berent joined the Animal Medical Center in New York City as the director of the Interventional Endoscopy Service where she co-founded the first full time Interventional Radiology and Endoscopy program for veterinary medicine in the world. Dr. Berent has received numerous teaching and research awards throughout her career. Dr. Berent also serves as Adjunct Professor at Purdue University and University of Guelph-Ontario Veterinary College.
Alex has been a qualified veterinary nurse for 25 years. She is mostly interested in feline nursing and behaviour, and has completed the ISFM nursing certificate, diploma, and advanced certificate in feline behaviour. Alex is currently a member of the feline wellbeing panel and is studying towards gaining her ABT (animal behaviour technician) qualification. Alex still occasionally works as a locum RVN in practice and is currently the Senior Vice President of the BVNA (British Veterinary Nursing Association). Alex also teaches feline nursing and preventative/first aid behaviour to other veterinary professionals and has two very energetic and playful Siamese cats called Monkey and Spud.
BVSc, PhD, Diplomate (Nutrition) of the ACVIM (Board-Certified Veterinary Nutritionist®), Diplomate ECVCN (EBVS® European Specialist in Veterinary and Comparative Nutrition)
Cecilia obtained her veterinary degree in 2000 and her PhD in animal nutrition in 2005 from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain. She worked as a post-doctoral researcher in feline nutrition at the University of California Davis, where she also completed a residency in small animal clinical nutrition at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. She is board certified in veterinary nutrition by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Nutrition) and by the European College of Veterinary and Comparative Nutrition (ECVCN) since 2010 and is currently the past president of ECVCN. After working as the chief of service of the veterinary teaching hospital nutrition service in Barcelona (UAB) for 6 years, she is now a consultant in clinical nutrition for Expert Pet Nutrition (www.expertpetnutrition.com) and Veterinary Information Network (VIN). She is the co-chair of the WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee and has written several articles and book chapters on the topic of companion animal nutrition.
After 3 years teaching English to school students, Clementine made the decision to get a passion job in connection with animals and she completed 1 year of training to become a veterinary nurse. She did a one-month internship at the CHV Atlantia (the referral veterinary hospital in Nantes) in August 2022, then she gladly joined the team of “Mon Chat et Moi” as a veterinary nurse in November last year. For 8 months, she has been practicing and learning among experienced veterinarians and assistants who all undertake their duties in a warm and benevolent atmosphere. To further support her passion, Clémentine is also a volunteer at an animal shelter and a pet-sitter.
Dr.Berg graduated from Nantes Veterinary School in 1998 and worked in general first opinion practice for 13 years, as well as contributing to Le Point Vétérinaire, a specialist veterinary publication. In 2012, he opened a cat-only practice named “Mon Chat et Moi” in the city of Nantes. He opened a second one in 2018 in the same city and a third one in Angers, always in the West of France. He is currently Chairman of the Board at the GRIF (Groupe de réflexion et d’intérêt félin), official partner of the ISFM in France and he is very active in the promotion of the Cat Friendly Clinics Program.
DVM, MsC, PhD, Dip ECAWBM (BM), Dip ECAWBM (AWSEL)
Gonçalo has a veterinary degree from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Lisbon, has a masters in Clinical Ethology and Animal Welfare at the Faculty of Veterinary from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a PhD in Veterinary Science at the Institute of Biomedical Science Abel Salazar in O’Porto. He is an EBVS specialist in Behavioural Medicine and Diplomate of the European College of Animal Welfare and Behavioural Medicine in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Legislation. He is also an invited professor of Animal Welfare, Ethics and Behaviour in the Veterinary Master and in the Veterinary Nurse Degree at the University Egas Moniz and regularly lectures at seminars, conferences and congresses nationally and internationally. He is past-President of the European College of Animal Welfare and Behavioural Medicine (ECAWBM) and Vice-President of the European Society of Veterinary Clinical Ethology (ESVCE). Additionally, he is founder and past-President of PsiAnimal – Portuguese Association of Behavioural Therapy and Animal Welfare. Gonçalo is also an author, co-author and coordinator of several studies in animal behaviour and welfare science.
Jill is currently Professor of General Practice at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) and Director of Professional Development overseeing the college’s continuing education programmes. She is course director for the CertAVP programme.
She is actively involved in undergraduate teaching and continuing professional development (CPD) at the RVC in the areas of clinical reasoning in small animal medicine and clinical pharmacology. She is the senior editor of Small Animal Clinical Pharmacology, the 2nd edition of which was published by Elsevier in 2008. She is also senior editor of Clinical Reasoning in Veterinary Practice, the 2nd edition of which was published by Wiley-Blackwell in April 2022.
Jill is coordinator for the main small animal clinical CPD streams at The London Vet Show. To keep in touch with the realities of private general practice she regularly consults at the RVC’s first opinion practice, the Beaumont Sainsbury Animal Hospital.
Dr. Jody Lulich is the director of the Minnesota Urolith Center. He specializes in nephrology and urology and has earned an international reputation as a clinical investigator and educator in this field and has published more than four hundred publications in scientific journals and books, and awarded over $6,000,000 in funded research. Among his contributions to veterinary medicine is the technique of voiding urohydropropulsion, a nonsurgical method to remove uroliths in seconds from the urinary bladder. In 2007, he was voted as Speaker of The Year at the North American Veterinary Conference held in Orlando, Florida. He was awarded the Norden-Pfizer-Zoetis Distinguished Teacher Award in 2001 & 2013. He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Tuskegee Veterinary Alumni Association in March of 2009, and the Mark L. Morris Life Time Achievement Award in January of 2012. A published memoir of his veterinary career path, In the Company of Grace will be released in April of 2023. He is the 2023 President of the R.O.C.K. (Research on Calculi Kinetics) Society, the first veterinarian to hold this office. He has two dogs, one cat and studies classical piano.
Karen is a lecturer in Veterinary and Animal Ethics at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC). Alongside this, she is a resident with the European College of Animal Welfare and Behavioural Medicine specialising in animal welfare science, ethics and law, an area of research she became interested in after completing an MSc in applied animal behaviour and welfare, and an MA in medical ethics and law. Karen has a background as a clinical vet in both the UK and New Zealand where she trained, as well as experience in numerous countries working as a volunteer vet, in particular being involved in feline neutering campaigns. She has always had a strong interest in animal welfare and a special interest in cats, which she built on with six years in an advisory position at Cats Protection working in shelter medicine and as a teaching fellow at the School of Veterinary Medicine at Surrey University where she led on feline welfare, veterinary ethics and shelter medicine teaching. Karen remains heavily involved in animal welfare charities as a trustee, including as a Trustee Director for iCatCare, consultant and educator.
Laura qualified as an RVN in 2010 and gained the RCVS Diploma in Advanced Nursing in 2014. She began working as an internal medicine nurse at a multidisciplinary referral centre in 2015, where she fell in love with feline medicine, completing the diploma in feline nursing in 2019, and becoming a veterinary technician specialist in small animal medicine the same year. Laura now works as the Senior Medicine Nurse at The Ralph Referral Centre in Buckinghamshire, UK, and is passionate about all aspects of medical nursing, especially intensive care and emergency medicine, endocrinology and renal and urinary medicine.
Marc-Antoine graduated in 2013 from National Vet School of Lyon, both for his DVM Degree and a MSc in applied Biostatistics.
After a couple of years in small animal practice, he set his sights on a feline veterinary position. For 5 years, he has been in charge of a cat-only clinic in Nantes (“Mon Chat et Moi”). He enjoys serving in a multitude of roles: Feline Practitioner (with a special interest in Internal Medicine and Dentistry), Team Manager and Practice Manager.
Marc-Antoine is a member of the Board of the GRIF (“Groupe de Réflexion et d’Intérêt Félin”) which is the French National Partner or ISFM. This job gives him the opportunity to help his colleagues to improve their Feline Practice skills.
Martha is an RCVS Recognised Specialist in Feline Medicine and co-owner of the Oxford Cat Clinic, a first opinion and referral cat-only veterinary clinic in Oxford. She combines her full-time role in specialist feline practice with a commitment to providing continuing education for veterinary surgeons and nurses, focussing on practical approaches to diseases that are commonly encountered in day to day veterinary practice. While her clinical work at the Oxford Cat Clinic is with referral medical cases, she is closely involved in the day to day running of the first opinion practice, which keeps her grounded in the realities and practicalities of general practice.
Myles graduated from University College Dublin (UCD) in 2013. After some time in general practice, he completed a small animal internship at Cornell University and a small animal internal medicine residency at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC). During these years he also completed Masters degrees at the University of Edinburgh and the RVC, focusing on the subjects of One Health and the early diagnosis of renal disease respectively. He worked in private referral practice in the UK and Australia before returning to Ireland where he was appointed as an assistant professor at UCD. In 2021, he joined Zoetis Diagnostics where he is director of the global clinical consultation service. He is an American and European specialist in small animal internal medicine and has special interests in renal disease and feline medicine.
Dr. med. vet., Dr. habil.
Dipl. ECVIM-CA (Internal Medicine)
Rossi qualified as a veterinarian from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany, in 1997. She did a doctoral thesis in Small Animal Oncology, did an Internship at the Clinic for Small Animal Medicine in Munich followed by a residency in Internal Medicine . During her residency, she spent one year at the Purdue Veterinary Teaching hospital in Purdue, USA. She holds a European Diploma in Veterinary Internal Medicine and is Board Member of the European Society of Small Animal Nephrology and Urology. She has a faculty position at the LMU Munich and her research focus is the feline lower urinary tract, bacterial UTI and feline leptospirosis. In 2016, she left Munich to work at the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia for six months and initiated a joint research project with the colleagues in Chile on feline leptospirosis. She lives in Munich with her husband, their British Shorthair cat Emely and their dog Smilla.
Memberships
European Society of Veterinary Internal Medicine
Board member of the European Society of Veterinary Nephrology and Urology
German Veterinary Association
International Society of Feline Medicine
Veterinarian
Specialty: preventive healthcare for cats
2013 – 2019 Veterinary medicine studies at LMU Munich
2020 – 2023 Doctoral thesis with subject „Feline panleukopenia outbreaks and risk factors in cats in animal shelters “
since 2020 Clinic management at the Clinic for Small Animal Medicine LMU Munich
since 2022 Clinical Instructor for „Cat‘Xpert Consultation Hour“ at the Clinic for Small Animal Medicine LMU Munich
Graduate from the University of Bern (Switzerland), Internship and Residency in small animal internal medicine (University of Bern and Louisiana State University, USA). Fellowship in nephrology / hemodialysis and Lecturer in Small Animal Internal Medicine and Nephrology (University of California Davis, USA).
Currently Lecturer and Head of small animal nephrology/urology (Vetsuisse Faculty University of Bern). This clinical and research program is centred around the manifestations and treatments of uremia and it offers a wide spectrum of blood purification techniques such as hemodialysis, hemoperfusion and plasma exchange.
Teaching Faculty of the Hemodialysis Academy (UC Davis, USA), providing on-line training in blood purification techniques. Founding Member of the new American College of Veterinary Nephrology and Urology (ACVNU
Tom graduated from the University of Bristol and worked for 4½ years in mixed and small animal practice, achieving the RCVS Certificate in Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging in 2007. Following this he worked at the Small Animal Teaching Hospital as a Locum Clinical Teacher in Diagnostic Imaging for 6 months, before starting a PhD on the microbiology and epidemiology of antibiotic-resistant staphylococci and E. coli in horses at the National Centre for Zoonosis Research (University of Liverpool) in June 2007. Following completion of his PhD, he became a resident in Diagnostic Imaging at Liverpool from 2010 to 2013. Tom started as a Lecturer in Diagnostic Imaging in July 2013 and attained the European Diploma in Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging in September 2013.
Yvonne graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1997. After 2 years in small animal practice, she returned to Glasgow Vet School where she completed a residency in small animal medicine. Yvonne was awarded the European Diploma in Small Animal Medicine in 2006 and is both a RCVS and European Veterinary Specialist in Internal Medicine. Yvonne has more than 20 years of experience working in private referral practices across the UK and in France. Yvonne joined IDEXX part time in October 2013 as an internal medicine consultant and continues to work in private referral practice in Angers, France. Yvonne has contributed to many veterinary publications and book chapters including the BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Clinical Pathology. She has a particular passion for critical care medicine, endoscopy and infectious diseases and has recently been lucky enough to be involved with endoscopy of big cats and other zoo animals. In her spare time, she likes exploring the French countryside by bike.
The extensive scientific programme allows you to access all areas from internal medicine and emergency and critical care, to surgery and interventional radiology, combining practical and cutting-edge lectures in an engaging format, including interactive discussion panels and case-based teaching.