You are invited to watch the Royal Canin Feline Virtual Congress, an event that took place live on Wednesday 30th November 2022, from 09:00 - 17:00 GMT. All sessions are now available to watch on demand!
Register now:
Watch premium quality CPD delivered by renowned expert speakers, including Georgia Woods-Lee, Clare Hemmings, Sarah Collins and Kelly Eyre.
Providing a full day of free CPD, all delegates will receive a CPD certificate of attendance.
PROGRAMME
All sessions are now available to watch on demand!
ROYAL CANIN FELINE VIRTUAL CONGRESS - WEDNESDAY 30TH NOVEMBER
09:00 - 09:15
Joining and Welcome
09:15 - 10:00
Nutritional Truths Part 1
Clare Hemmings
Clare Hemmings
Cats are obligate carnivores but this doesn't mean they can have 100% meat diets! Cats need specific nutrients to keep them healthy and current trends much malign commercial pet food. In this session, we'll bust some myths and tell you what cats really need!
10:00 - 11:00
Putting Cat Friendly Principles into practice
Sarah Collins
Sarah Collins
The International Society of Feline Medicine (ISFM) has recently published it’s ‘Cat Friendly Principles for Veterinary Professionals’ – seven principles which relate to ways of working with cats and each other to champion cat welfare. ISFM also runs the Cat Friendly Clinic accreditation programme which requires clinics to adopt cat friendly practices across their facilities, equipment, as well as their interactions with cats. In this session, we will look at both the Principles and the Cat Friendly Clinic criteria to see how we can introduce some of these areas into our clinics to make visit less stressful for cats and their caregivers, including some easily achievable top tips that you can apply straight away.
11:30 - 12:30
Feline-fine, how to prevent weight gain in cats
Georgia Woods-Lee
Georgia Woods-Lee
Obesity is a highly prevalent disease in cats. Although good strategies are available to manage weight, prevalence of obesity in cats is still increasing. There is no cure for obesity, so this lecture will look at how through prevention of weight gain, both in kittens and adult cats, we can start to really impact our cat population.
13:30 - 14:00
Mixed Feeding
Clare Hemmings
Clare Hemmings
According to a 2021 study, 64% of cat owners mix-feed wet and dry food but they tend to mix brands. In this session, we'll show you when and why to recommend wet food and how mixing brands can dilute nutrients and impact expected feeding benefits.
14:00 - 15:00
Senior Cat Clinics: Extending healthy life in the ageing cat
Kelly Eyre
Kelly Eyre
Creating ageing cat clinics can feel daunting, with a lot to think about at the start, but with planning and management they can be really successful. This lecture will provide information on how to set up ageing cat clinics in practice, and how nurses can play a role in managing age related disease in cats. It will briefly touch on age related diseases most commonly seen in our ageing cats, from the mature life stage of 7 years onwards, including some of the findings from recent research carried out at the Feline Healthy Ageing Clinic. Included within the lecture will be what to include within your ageing cat clinics, how often to carry these out, what diagnostics are important, and when and how utilising the whole team is key to success. Feline friendly handling is key to ensuring you get the most out of your clinics. It also improves the welfare of cats in the clinic, therefore this lecture will include some tips and tricks to minimise stress for the ageing cats. Carrying out ageing cat clinics also provides the opportunity to educate our owners about ageing disease, and the importance of environmental modification. This lecture will help support you to use owner questionnaires effectively, and support owners with all the information they need to know about ageing cats. At the end of this lecture, you should feel confident in creating and managing your own ageing cat clinics to improve the quality of life in our older cats.
15:15 - 16:00
Nutritional Truths Part 2
Clare Hemmings
Clare Hemmings
In part one, we learned what cats need. In this session, we'll show you the unique way that cats select food and factors that affect palatability. We'll also take a look at pet food labels and show you which parts are important and decipher some of the marketing terminologies which misleads and confuses pet owners!
16:00 - 17:00
Panel Discussion
Clare Hemmings, Kelly Eyre, Georgia Woods-Lee
Clare Hemmings, Kelly Eyre, Georgia Woods-Lee
SPEAKERS
Georgia Woods-Lee BSc (Hons) RVN CertCFVHNut VTS (Nutrition)
Georgia Woods-Lee qualified as a Veterinary Nurse in 2004 from Myerscough College, Preston. After working in mixed practice, a multidisciplinary referral centre and a busy out of hours ECC hospital, in 2010 Georgia was appointed as Head Nurse and clinical coach of a small animal practice in Cheshire.
In June 2015, Georgia took the position of ROYAL CANIN®️ Weight Management Clinic Nurse at the University of Liverpool, Small Animal Teaching Hospital, where she is now dealing exclusively with pet obesity care and nutrition. In addition to running of the clinic, Georgia assists with the research the clinic undertakes and has provided education to vets and nurses throughout many countries around the world.
Georgia gained her Certificate in Canine and Feline Veterinary Health Nutrition in 2017, the American Veterinary Technician Specialist (VTS) in nutrition certificate in 2019, being 1 of only 25 people to hold this accreditation and her BSc (Hons) Veterinary Nursing (Top up) degree in 2022.
Clare Hemmings VC Cert CFVHNut Royal Canin Scientific Communications Manager
Clare qualified as a Veterinary Nurse in 1995 and worked at a multi-discipline referral centre. Although no longer on the register, she keeps up to date with veterinary advances and passed the Certificate in Canine and Feline Veterinary Nutrition with distinction in 2016. In 2003, Clare won Pet Health Counsellor of the Year for her work with arthritic patients and joined Royal Canin in 2004 where she works as Scientific Communications Manager. She has had many articles published in both veterinary and pet owner publications and is on the Ask the Expert panel of Your Cat magazine. She has two teenage boys and a curly crossbreed called Chess.
Kelly Eyre RVN ISFM DipFN & AdvCertFB Veterinary Nurse; Cat Prospective Ageing and Welfare Study Institute of Life Courses and Medical Sciences
Kelly qualified as a Registered Veterinary Nurse in 2015, and began to delve deeper in to the feline world. Kelly has completed the ISFM Diploma in Feline Nursing, the ISFM Advanced Certificate in Feline Behaviour, and is currently studying towards a Masters in Anthrozoology. Kelly now manages the Royal Canin Feline Healthy Ageing Clinic at the University of Liverpool, which is a research project aiming to extend the quality of life in ageing cats through research and education.
Sarah Collins DipAVN Medical) RVN, VTS(ECC), Cert CFVHNut, ISFM DipFN
Sarah qualified as a Veterinary Nurse in 1995. Following 11 years in 1st opinion/referral practice, Sarah moved to the University of Bristol Vet School to work in the intensive care unit. During her 7 years in this role, Sarah obtained both the Diploma in Advanced Veterinary Nursing (Medical) and the Veterinary Technician Specialist in Emergency and Critical Care. After a further 7 years as a Veterinary Marketing Executive at Royal Canin (during which she gained the Certificate in Canine and Feline Veterinary Health Nutrition), Sarah joined International Cat Care in 2017 to look after the nurse distance education courses. In 2020, Sarah moved to the role of ISFM Programme Manager looking after the Cat Friendly Clinic and webinar programmes, creating and updating content for the online veterinary nurse courses, and providing advice across the charity on veterinary nursing matters. Sarah is also the managing editor for ISFM’s nurse journal ‘Feline Focus’ and has had several articles published in nursing journals as well as having lectured at many veterinary congresses and events including BSAVA, BVNA and LVS.