5 Clinical Pearls You Can Use Before Lunch Tomorrow
Jun 17, 2026Welcome to the corner of the blog where the takeaways are short, practical, and occasionally tape-worthy.
Here's our theory about CE: the best courses leave you with at least one thing you can use tomorrow. Not someday. Not "when we restructure our protocols." Tomorrow, in exam room 2, with the wiggly lab mix who hates nail trims.
That's what Clinical Pearls is for. Short, practical, "did you know?" takeaways — pulled from our courses, our speakers, and the collective wisdom of vet pros who've seen some things. No 3,000-word literature reviews here (we love those too, just elsewhere). Just the good stuff, stated plainly.
To kick off the category, here are five pearls worth keeping in your back pocket.
The usual fine print: these are general educational reminders, not patient-specific medical advice — your clinical judgment and current references always lead.
Pearl #1:
Antivenom is the only direct antidote for snakebite, and thus an important core feature of treatment. When funds are limited, antivenom is most crucial for patients with delayed clotting times or thrombocytopenia, severe or progressive tissue damage, signs of shock, azotemia, or other abnormalities on a chem panel. Modern research has shown that multiple vials can be administered to dogs, until clinical signs begin to resolve. You can learn more in our Treating Snakebites Course.
Pearl #2:
FIP is no longer the fatal disease it once was. Antivirals have turned it into a treatable condition, with response rates around 85%. Here's the practical part: cats who respond usually respond fast — improved demeanour, appetite, and resolution of fever within 48 to 72 hours. So if a cat isn't visibly better in a few days, revisit the diagnosis rather than treating for weeks and hoping. Effusions take longer, but the mood and the temperature shouldn't. Dr. Petra Černá covers dosing by presentation, monitoring, and what to expect week by week in Beating the Odds: Updates in Feline Infectious Peritonitis.
Pearl #3:
Ever heard of nitric oxide for wound care? Recent research has shown that the application of nitric oxide to open wounds in various species including horses, dogs, and cats, led to up to 40% faster healing times. Learn more and get a full breakdown of bandaging do’s and don’ts in our course Wound Healing and Wound Care.
Pearl #4:
IMHA/ITP: When a patient has responded well to therapy, it can be difficult to know what to taper, when, and by how much! Dr. Stuart Walton broke it down for us in his course. In short, tapering can be attempted after a patient has been in clinical remission for a minimum of 2-4 weeks. Then, drugs are tapered one at a time, by reducing the dose of that single drug by 25%. If the patient is still in remission after another 2-4 weeks, that drug can be tapered an additional 25%. The goal is to wean a patient completely off one medication before beginning to taper any secondary or tertiary meds. Corticosteroids are often the first to be tapered, due to side effects.
Pearl #5:
Many effusions contain blood. How do you know if it’s truly a ‘hemorrhagic’ effusion? Diagnostic criteria state that the PCV/HCT of the effusion must be at least 25% as high as the PCV/HCT of peripheral blood. So, if a patient’s PCV is 30% and the PCV of their effusion is 8%, that’s a hemorrhagic effusion. Our October 4th webinar, Tails from the Trenches will cover this and more ER care topics.
New pearls drop alongside our new courses and webinars — because the best "did you know?" moments come straight from our speakers.
