Saskatchewan Veterinary Medical Association

SVMA Online Classoom

This site is dedicated to providing SVMA online continuing education and the SVMA licensing course.

As is the case with all continuing education events and materials, all online courses MUST BE COMPLETED to be eligible for CE credit.

All registrations for courses in the online classroom will be valid for one year, meaning all courses registered for must be taken and completed within a year.

Automatic un-enrollments occur after 365 days.

The exception is the SVMA Licensing Course which must be completed in 30 days.

Available courses

Animal abuse and neglect affects all of us. As veterinary professionals, we see animals in distress every day and we do our best to relieve them of their suffering. But how do we determine when that distress should prompt us to report a case of suspect animal abuse or neglect? What if you are called to attend an animal welfare investigation with an animal protection agency - do you feel prepared to attend? Finally, how can the records you prepare help to strengthen an investigation that goes to court, or even avoid the need for you to testify in court? These questions and more will be addressed through the Veterinary Forensics course.

This course will include the following topics:

How to identify animals in distress
How to report a suspect case of abuse or neglect
How to properly document a history and physical exam
Understanding chain of custody for evidence
The process for acting as an expert witness
The human side of abuse and neglect

Suicide Awareness & Prevention in the Canadian Veterinary Profession

The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA), in partnership with Merck Animal Health, held its inaugural Mental Health Awareness Week from September 9 to 15, 2019. The week included a live Suicide Awareness and Prevention Webinar created and presented by Dr Kathy Keil. The webinar was recorded and SVMA has been given permission to include it in the SVMA Online Classroom.

Course contents:

Learn and practice the four evidence based coping strategies that have been specifically researched in veterinarians and technologists to help reduce burnout and stress;
Learn and practice simple steps on how to help a co-worker who is in distress;
Leave the webinar with practical guidelines on how to start conversations about mental health in work environments;
Have access to a list of provincial and community mental health resources.

SVMA is offering one CE hour for this presentation at no charge. The course must be completed (ie, questions at the end answered) to receive CE credits

Poultry Basics for Veterinary Professionals

This course will help veterinary professionals in the following areas:

Poultry Health

Commercial Poultry Industry

Poultry Diseases

Poultry Post Mortems & Sampling

Poultry Drugs, Prescribing & Dispensing for Poultry

Because of the addition of all medically important antimicrobials to the prescription drug list small poultry producers and backyard breeders will be turning to veterinary practices for assistance. These are not under this jurisdiction of the Poultry Extension Veterinarian and will require veterinary practices to diagnose and prescribe treatment.

Your practice may even be receiving prescriptions from the Poultry Extension veterinarian for the poultry barns under their oversight. This will give you insight on how to dispense those medications.

This course offers 5 hours of continuing education.

Ethical Prescribing and Antimicrobial Stewardship

On December 1, 2018, Health Canada's recent changes to the Food and Drug Act go into effect. Several medically important antimicrobials have been moved to the veterinary version of the Prescription Drug List (PDL). This means many antibiotics previously sold as over-the-counter (OTC) products will now require a prescription.

This course addresses the legal and ethical obligations that veterinary practitioners are bound to follow when using, prescribing, dispensing and selling drugs and biologics. The video portion will be followed by questions to be answered for one hour of AMS CE credit.

Veterinary Practice & Social Media

This is the CE session that was delivered at the WDDC 35th Anniversary Open House in September 2018. This online version has been approved by the SVMA for 3 CE hours.

Topics include:

SaskVets & how the SVMA does their social media
provincial associations vs veterinary practices
how to write effective posts
using photos
dealing with negativity
control settings
analytics
bylaws around marketing
do's and don'ts
regulatory "changes" and how to relay those messages to clients
and much more!

Special thanks goes to WDDC for hosting the event and recording the video. This CE course is free to all veterinarians and veterinary technologists across Canada.

A Conversation About Animal Welfare

The effects of animal abuse and neglect touch all of us. The reality is, abuses of pets and livestock persist.
This 4 hour course of SVMA approved scientific CE will address the following in a conversation with veterinary professionals about dealing with abuse and neglect:

Changes to the SK Animal Protection Act: Issues and consequences of mandatory reporting; Goals and expectations of investigative process
What the Human Model of Mandatory Abuse Reporting Can Teach Us
Considerations for Euthanasia of Large and Small Animals: Timeliness; Transport of compromised animals
Managing Nutritional Welfare Cases in Beef Cattle

The SVMA wishes to thank the presenters of the course for their support in making this adapted into a online CE course.

Dennis Will, DVM, retired CFIA
Yolande Seddon, PhD, WCVM Large Animal Clinical Sciences
Kaley Pugh, MSc, Director, Animal Protections Services of Saskatchewan
John Campbell, DVM, WCVM herd health and sustainable beef systems research

New members will be pre-enrolled on the date of their approval. Existing members can self-enroll for $75.00 + GST.

Please note that this course must be completed within 30 days of enrollment.