Small Animal II Track

Brief Description: As artificial intelligence rapidly enters the veterinary clinic, the legal landscape surrounding medical records and standard of care is shifting. This session defines the legal boundaries and malpractice risks of utilizing AI in veterinary medicine under current Practice Acts. We will explore the phenomenon of AI “hallucinations,” establish the legal standard for medical record documentation, and define the critical line between utilizing AI as an authorized administrative scribe versus an unauthorized diagnostic tool.

Learning Objectives: Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:

• Identify the legal liabilities associated with AI-generated medical records and AI “hallucinations.”
• Differentiate between authorized administrative AI use and unauthorized, un-licensed diagnostic AI use.
• Determine the assignment of liability (e.g., the “Captain of the Ship” doctrine) when AI-generated errors occur, such as incorrect medication dosages in clinical notes.
• Apply strict interpretations of state Practice Acts to categorize and restrict AI tools to administrative functions, mitigating malpractice risk.

Brief Description: Building on the legal framework from Hour 1, this session provides actionable strategies for ethically leveraging AI without compromising legal compliance, patient safety, or client confidentiality. Practitioners will learn the massive data privacy liabilities associated with typing client data into public, free AI models. We will review real-world examples to help teams implement secure, auditable workflows and medical record approaches that protect the practice while maximizing technological leverage.

Learning Objectives: Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:

• Formulate ethical guidelines and operational frameworks for safe AI adoption within a veterinary practice.
• Implement compliance safeguards and practical audit steps for verifying AI outputs, such as SOAP notes and discharge summaries, before finalizing records.
• Identify the data privacy risks and legal liabilities inherent in using free, open-source AI platforms with confidential client data.
• Recognize and prevent staff workflows that inadvertently leak protected veterinary data, ensuring strict adherence to data security standards.

A structured workup for allergic skin disease that can be performed during a 15-minute appointment

1. Diagnostic process
2. Distinguishing allergies from other diseases with similar presentations
3. Treatment strategy

Skin and ear cytology technique and interpretation, comparing what a general practitioner sees under the microscope with what a specialist would diagnose.

1. Diagnostic techniques
2. Cytology interpretation
3. Next steps

When empirical treatment is appropriate and when culture and sensitivity testing can meaningfully impact treatment decisions.

1. When and why to culture
2. Topical vs systemic treatments
3. Treatment strategy

Interpreting pathology reports and effectively communicating findings to clients.

1. Understanding parts of a pathology report
2. Translating the report into an action plan
3. Communicating results to clients

This session will describe the most common causes of sudden collapse which would appear similar to seizure activity. The five most common events which mimic seizures to be described include syncope, movement disorders, narcolepsy, sleep disorders and neuromuscular collapse. An investigational approach to ruling these out and getting to the bottom of the cause of the seizure activity will be presented.

The drugs available, the side effects and how to use them will be discussed for the management of dogs with difficult to control seizures. Adjunctive alternative approaches will also be discussed.

In this session we will discuss a step by step treatment protocol for emergency seizures in dogs and cats. We will outline what to do if the seizures don’t stop when treated in a standard manner.

We will use a case based approach to describe the clinical signs, work up and potential causes of inflammation affecting the CNS. The treatment of unknown and suspected cases will be dealt with during this session.