Category Archives: Internal Medicine

There’s been a connection between canine liver disease and elevated levels of copper seen in a liver biopsy since the late 1970’s when veterinarians from the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center, in collaboration with researchers from Albert Einstein School of Medicine, identified copper storage disease in Bedlington terrriers. Twenty-eight years later, researchers identified a gene mutation in COMMD1, a gene controlling copper metabolism, as the cause of the copper storage disease in Bedlington terriers. However, the link between copper and liver disease in dogs extends beyond this gene mutation, and veterinary researchers continue to study the connection. The image below shows a graphic representation of a National Library of Medicine database search for publications that meet the search criteria “canine AND copper hepatopathy”. (Hepatopathy is the medical term for liver disease.) Several of the publication peaks seen here can help explain the linkage between liver disease and copper.

The American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) is celebrating its 50th anniversary. ACVIM encompasses the veterinary specialties of oncology, neurology, internal medicine, cardiology and nutrition. As part of the celebration, the ACVIM is highlighting their official journal, the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine (JVIM), which just celebrated its 35th birthday. The JVIM provides an international forum for communication and discussion of the latest developments in large and small animal internal medicine, cardiology, neurology and oncology, making JVIM a journal AMC veterinarians read frequently and with great interest.

Through the centuries, medical practitioners have ascribed many functions to the spleen. In the Middle Ages, physicians thought the spleen produced black bile, the cause of melancholy. In later years, doctors believed the spleen served as a filter for the liver. Today, we know the spleen is an organ of the immune system. Removal of

Today’s blogpost is inspired by four recent patients with a shared condition: laryngeal paralysis, sometimes referred to colloquially as “lar par.” Many pet owners are not familiar with laryngeal paralysis, so I will explain this disorder by discussing the role of the larynx in dogs, these patients’ clinical signs, their risk factors and possible outcomes.

World Kidney Day is March 10 and the theme for 2022 is “Bridge the knowledge gap to better kidney care.” In this blogpost, I’ll help bridge the kidney care knowledge gap in veterinary medicine by explaining common acronyms veterinarians use when we talk or write about kidney disease. As an example, here are a few