21425 - Clinical Medicine and Medical Therapy of Pets

Learning outcomes

At the end of the module the student is provided with the tools and skills necessary to perform all the appropriate procedures, in a context of pure interdisciplinarity, to obtain a diagnosis, to set the most appropriate therapeutic protocols and formulate the most correct prognostic judgments. The procedures start from the collection and interpretation of the medical history and the signalment of the patient. Than with the identification of the clinical signs (recalls of clinical and semeiotic methodology) and to complete all the available diagnostic investigations (clinical pathology, diagnostic imaging) serological tests, cytological and histopathological examinations, etc.) and interpreting the results in order to complete the diagnostic path. The lectures will have as their subject cases enrolled in the Veterinary Teaching Hospital. The student will be asked to integrate and expand, with appropriate teaching material, their knowledge in order to pursue a continuous personal update on the subject. The student will have acquired the skills necessary to diagnose a medical disease on a pet (dog and cat), formulate the prognosis and set the most appropriate treatment.

Course contents

It is a theoretical/practical course that completes the practice carried out in the practical training (“tirocinio”) at the Animal Hospital.

The student are guided to apply the knowledge and skills acquired from the lectures of previous years (particularly the topics of Clinical Methodology, Semeiotics and Medical Pathology) in order to achieve the diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutical ability.

The student will be guided to the correct approach of clinical problems, and will stimulate to seek the symptoms of a specific disease.

In addition the student, at the end of the course, will be able to define a correct therapeutic plan about the main internal diseases of pets. The goal of the course is the education of the students through the direct examination of clinical cases, comprehending the collection of anamnesis, clinical findings and the indication of a correct diagnostic plan.

Readings/Bibliography

“Small Animal Internal  Medicine”Nelson RW, Couto G. Elsevier 5th Ed EV 2014

“Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine” 8° edizione edito da Stephen J. Ettinger & Edward C. Feldman & Etienne Cote. Elsevier St Luis 2017.

Articles and book chapters provided by the teacher 

Teaching methods

The student have to present a clinical report on a clinical case observed at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, that will be discussed during the examination. Outgoing Erasmus student will describe the clinical cases collected at the host structure.

The case report must be presented also by those students who have to take the exam only for part related to the Tirocinio (including Erasmus students). The case report must be sent by e-mail (federico.fracassi@unibo.it) at least one month before the date of the first date useful to take the exam (according to these examples: if the first appeal in which you want to take the examination falls on March 15, the case report must be received by 24.00 on February 14, if it falls on June 18 must be received by 24.00 on May 17, etc. ..). The case report has to be sent only one time, since it is valid to all the future dates of the examination.

Due to the problem related to the coronavirus, for the students who have completed the practical training only online, the presentation of the case report will not be required

Assessment methods

In addition to the discussion of the clinical case report, the exam includes a written exam with 20 multiple choice questions and an oral test to verify the ability to set up a differential diagnostic course as well as a diagnostic and therapeutic protocol.

The student who does not pass the written exam will not be able to access the oral exam.

The student will be provided with a detailed program on the topics covered by each teacher of the course and the book chapters or articles for exam preparation

Due to the coronavirus problem, until exams can be done face-to-face, exams will be done online through the Teams platform. The online exam will be oral only and there is no written part.

Teaching tools

In the course will be focused on cases referable to the main and most frequent clinica syndromes. The student will be asked to integrate and expand, with appropriate teaching material, their knowledge in order to pursue a continuous personal update on the subject. The lectures will have as their subject cases enrolled in the Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

Office hours

See the website of Federico Fracassi

See the website of Laura Marconato

See the website of Marco Pietra

See the website of Gualtiero Gandini