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Honey bees are food-producing animals, and once you say that out loud, the entire conversation changes. We sit down with Dr. Melinda Wilkins to unpack how federal rules like the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) brought veterinarians and beekeepers into the same lane, especially around antibiotic stewardship and protecting the food supply. Honey isn’t the only product that matters here either: hives produce beeswax, propolis, and royal jelly, and all of it depends on healthy colonies and responsible management.

From there, we zoom out to the real reason bee medicine is gaining traction: beekeepers are fighting to keep colonies alive. We talk through the challenges that feel familiar to any vet, including biosecurity, nutrition, shipping and management stress, and a full spectrum of bacterial, viral, and fungal disease. We also dig into parasites, including why better mite control can be a major lever for improving honey bee health and reducing losses.

One of the most striking points is welfare. Annual colony mortality in the 40% to 50% range would be unacceptable in almost any other livestock system, yet it has become normalized in beekeeping. We discuss what it looks like for veterinarians to bring an animal welfare voice to bees, and how to get started even if you never learned insects in school. Melinda shares practical pathways and resources, including learning directly from beekeepers and tools like Bees Need Vets.

Subscribe for more Veterinary Vertex, share this with a colleague who loves population medicine, and leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. What would it take for bee health to become a routine part of veterinary practice?

JAVMA article: https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.26.02.0114

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A rectal exam is one of the oldest tools in the equine colic workup, but we rarely stop to ask a blunt question: how accurate is abdominal palpation per rectum at telling small intestinal disease from large intestinal disease when it truly counts? We sit down with Drs. Mary Hallsten and George Elane to dig into the data behind rectal palpation, using surgical findings as the gold standard so we can compare what we feel with what is actually happening inside the abdomen.

We unpack why their study matters for everyday decision making, especially for the horses that keep hurting despite sedation and may need referral or exploratory surgery. You’ll hear what it means to have high sensitivity but extremely low specificity, and why that combination can still be clinically useful while also being easy to overinterpret. We also talk about why accuracy may look better than older reports, including improvements in veterinary education, palpation models, cadaver wet labs, and better correlation between anatomy and hands-on findings.

Then we zoom out to the diagnostic hierarchy. Heart rate, lactate, PCV, and age track with non-survival, while a “correct” rectal exam finding does not, which reframes rectal palpation as one important but subjective test that works best when paired with objective physiology. Finally, we address the part everyone thinks about but doesn’t always say out loud: rectal exams carry real safety risk, and the right choice depends on help, restraint, environment, and the horse in front of you.

If you work with horses and want a clearer, more evidence-based way to use rectal palpation in equine colic triage, listen through and share this with a colleague. Subscribe for more, and leave a rating and review to help other veterinarians find the show.

JAVMA article: https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.25.12.0837

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Oral fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) capsules sound like the kind of elegant fix we all want for canine parvovirus: simple to give, easy to store, and built for high-volume shelter medicine. But when you put a microbiome therapy into a randomized controlled trial in a real outpatient protocol, the story gets more complicated and far more useful.

We sit down with manuscript authors Drs. Meghan Hoel and Amanda Gimenez to unpack their shelter-based study at Austin Pets Alive and why they designed it for the realities of accessible veterinary care. We dig into the key choices that make-or-break field research: why oral capsules were more feasible than rectal FMT, how they approached dosing without a known “right” answer, and how blinding and consistency can actually hold up over a two-year trial in a dynamic shelter environment. We also talk about what “recovery” should mean when survival is already high, and why time to normal stool and a negative SNAP parvo test matters for isolation space, staffing, and cost.

Then we get into the results and the nuance clinicians care about most. The oral FMT capsule regimens did not shorten recovery, did not reduce ICU transfers, and did not show a clear survival benefit. Even without definitive proof of harm, the overall trend pushes us to ask a harder question: should we assume FMT is benign when the intestinal barrier is severely damaged and immune defenses may be suppressed? We close with what better follow-up studies could look like, including timing later in recovery, comparing delivery routes, confirming microbial viability, and adding longitudinal microbiome sequencing.

If you care about evidence-based parvovirus treatment, the veterinary microbiome, and what actually works in shelter medicine, subscribe, share this conversation with a colleague, and leave us a rating and review. What would you test next?

JAVMA article: https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.26.01.0051

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