Code Red: Navigating Emergency and Critical Care in small animals
Emergency & Critical Care (ECC) is an exciting topic that challenges the clinician to be prepared and organised for the unexpected arrival of emergency cases. This course has been updated for 2025 with the addition of extra lessons, extending it over a 17-week period and will take delegates 19 hours to complete. This course will provide comprehensive coverage of key ECC topics, enabling participants to confidently manage critical patients and improve outcomes.
By the end of this course, delegates will be able to effectively manage emergency cases using their enhanced knowledge and practical skills.
The course is run by Kerry Doolin and Neus Elias, both Specialists in Emergency and Critical Care, and now includes lectures by Scott Kilpatrick, Director and Internal Medicine Specialist. Scott graduated from Edinburgh Vet School in 2007, completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and was awarded Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (FRCVS) in 2023 for his meritorious contribution to clinical practice.
Neus Elias graduated from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in 2009 and completed her residency in 2020. She is a European Diplomate of Emergency and Critical Care (ECVECC). Neus completed her residency in January 2020 and passed her board exams becoming a European Diplomate of Emergency and Critical Care in September 2020. Neus currently works for VetsNow Emergency Hospital in Glasgow.
Kerry Doolin has been an emergency vet for 15 years, completing her residency at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) and passing her specialty exams to become a Diplomat of the American College of Emergency and Critical Care in 2019. For the last 3 years she has been working in Sydney as Head of ECC at North Shore Veterinary Specialist and Emergency Centre.
This course runs over a 17-week period and offers the equivalent of 19 hours of CPD. It is delivered through engaging video webinars and supplemented by a real-time discussion forum, allowing participants to ask questions or share cases they may be managing in their practices. While the discussion forum will be monitored for the course duration, access to the course content will be available for 12 months from the course’s start date.
Course Content
- Investigate causes of anaemia, focusing on gastrointestinal bleeding and IMHA
- Differentiate between blood loss and hemolysis in ICU patients
- Implement targeted treatment strategies for anaemia in critical care
- Perform a diagnostic work up of both bleeding and anaemic patients
- Blood typing and cross-matching in dogs and cats
- Red blood cell and plasma product transfusions: how, when and why to use them?
- Identify transfusion reactions and manage them safely
- How to perform abdominal POCUS to detect free fluid and its interpretation
- How to perform abdominal POCUS to detect free gas
- How to perform abdominal POCUS to assess gallbladder wall abnormalities and the diseases associated with this
- How to perform abdominal POCUS to assess gastrointestinal motility
- How to perform abdominal POCUS to assess volume status
- How to perform thoracic POCUS and normal anatomical findings
- How to diagnose parenchymal disease (B-lines, consolidations)
- How to diagnose pneumothorax
- How to diagnose pleural and pericardial effusion, and how to differentiate them
- How to perform cardiac POCUS for emergent and critically ill patients
- Apply a structured approach to managing toxin exposure
- Conduct diagnostic evaluations for intoxicated patients
- Treat the top 10 most common toxicities effectively
- Classify and recognise different types of shock and their causes
- Understand the pathophysiology of shock
- Improve skills in diagnosing and managing shock through case-based examples
- Classify and recognise different types of shock and their causes
- Understand the pathophysiology of shock
- Improve skills in diagnosing and managing shock through case-based examples
- Apply basic life support techniques in emergency situations
- Implement advanced life support strategies for critical patients
- Follow the RECOVER guidelines for effective resuscitation
- Triage and prepare for respiratory emergencies with appropriate oxygen therapy
- Localize issues within the respiratory tract
- Treat common respiratory emergencies like BOAS crisis, laryngeal paralysis, and pleural space disease
- Select appropriate fluid types based on patient needs.
- Identify and treat potassium, sodium, chloride, and ionized calcium imbalances.
- Triage and manage common cardiac emergencies effectively
- Recognize and treat common arrhythmias using ECGs
- Provide emergency care for dilated cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and congestive heart failure
- Manage trauma patients effectively in emergency settings
- Provide appropriate analgesia for trauma patients
- Implement damage control resuscitation, including hypotensive and haemostatic techniques
- Identify both medical and surgical urogenital emergencies
- Approach common urogenital emergencies like urinary obstruction, uroabdomen, pyometra, and acute kidney injury
- Stabilize and treat common urogenital emergencies effectively
- Assess, treat, and manage patients with traumatic brain injury
- Diagnose and manage seizures, status epilepticus, and hepatic encephalopathy
- Identify and treat less common neurological emergencies, including tetanus and spinal disease
- Understand the critical role of nutrition in emergency patient management
- Recognize the importance of early nutritional support and the use of feeding tubes in patients unable to eat voluntarily
- Identify various feeding tubes and their placement techniques, including faecal catheters, in emergency settings
- Perform basic acid-base analysis and manage severe abnormalities
- Learn the basics of alternative methods from the traditional approach
- Identify the common acid-base abnormalities we can see in patients and how to treat them
- Understand and identify snake bite envenomations and the common syndromes these envenomations can cause
- Recognise the potential multiple organ dysfunction seen in heat stroke and the impact early treatment can have on outcome
- Introduce tick paralysis with Ixodes Holocyclus and the clinical syndrome seen with this toxin
Meet the speakers
Kerry Doolin
ECC Specialist
Neus Elias
ECC Specialist