Research Guides: UTCVM Year 1 Students: Sour Milk Case

ACQUIRE: where to search for veterinary clinical information

Suggested list of databases / information services to search to acquire evidence to answer clinical questions that arise in practice.

Tips:

Develop a list of databases to search based on your practice focus, access to databases, and experience searching for evidence.
If your go-to database has a subscription fee, include that in your employment contract negotiations.

VetCompanion-- point-of-care clinical information service with graded evidence
305 topics in Dogs and Cats only
Free to students with registration or
UTK Libraries has a subscription so all have access
VIN-- Veterinary Information Network VINcyclopedia of Diseases Expert opionion point-of-care service
Check out the VINcyclopedia of Diseases (formerly VIN Associate) for expert opinion on 800 canine diseases and 600 feline diseases, also exotic diseases and swine are included. Links to client handouts in Veterinary Partner.
Journal Abstracts: access to the veterinary journal literature that report research results. If the research was well-designed, evidence will be higher quality. Always evaluate any information you find relevant to the case.
Message boards are crowdsourced data, not particularly strong evidence but can be useful depending on topic.
Also provides access to conference proceedings which can be valuable depending on topic!
Vetlexicon from VetStream -- expert opinion point-of-care service in vetmed
Dogs, cats, horses, cows, exotics, rabbits
More species and topics plus 1000 client handouts.
CONSULTANT from Cornell
5,200 diseases of 8 species (AVIAN IS THE ONLY EXOTIC SPECIES COVERED). Dr. Pete White filters for quality prior to adding citations to CONSULTANT.

CABI: CAB Abstracts
- This link opens in a new window
If the evidence exists for your clinical question, it is most likely to be indexed by CAB. For high-stakes searches, CAB ABSTRACTS must be searched. Searcher must spend the time to filter for quality.

PubMed
Partially indexes the veterinary literature. Killer app: a quality filter called Clinical Queries, use to apply evidence-based medicine filters developed at McMaster U to quickly find best evidence.
more...less...
For a tutorial on using Clinical Queries, see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/disted/pubmedtutorial/020_570.html.
A specific tutorial for searching PubMed for veterinary clinicians is below.
VetSREV
VetSRev, the database of systematic reviews in veterinary medicine and science from U. Nottingham. See Below for "Getting Started Guide"
Knowledge Summaries from RCVS
Best Bets for Vets
A BET is a simple review of the current best evidence available to answer very common and specific clinical questions.
Google Scholar--"the catch-all"
The most efficient way to use of Google Scholar is the "Cited By" feature which will tell you if an article as been cited and by whom. Do search Google Scholar, but clients can also search it, so vet students need to learn to use the professional databases listed above as part of professional skill set.
UpToDate--point-of-care resource for human medicine--VetCompanion and VetStream are the veterinary equivalents
Human only. Can be used for small animal medicine. "access to over 10,000 topics in over 22 specialties. Click on a specialty to view the list of topics."

Web search and evaluation tips

Search Tip: Use Advanced search in Google and limit to .edu or .gov or .org domains when searching the Web for this case.

Sample searches:

[mastitis dairy] limited to .edu domains

[udder health] limited to .edu domains

Always evaluate information from the Web or from scientific journals!

The Web vs Library Databases: a Comparison

Sour Milk Case Books

More Resources for the Sour Milk Case

DHIA: Dairy Herd Information Association
National Mastitis Council
"The National Mastitis Council is a not-for-profit professional organization devoted to reducing mastitis and enhancing milk quality."
International Dairy Federation
UW Milk Quality Team
"We provide useful and practical information important for the production of high quality milk. The mission of our work is to improve the quality of milk and enhance the profitability and competitiveness of the Wisconsin Dairy Industry in a global economy. The issues addressed and information provided will be important for many people involved in the production of milk–dairy farmers, veterinarians, educators, dairy field representatives and business representatives."
CowSignals.com : barn design, udder health, bedding, etc.
“Cows are constantly giving out information about their housing, health and care.
And cows always tell the truth.” Welcome to the CowSignals® Training Company
"We train cattle farmers, feed consultants, breeding consultants, barn design consultants, vets and other cow enthusiasts throughout the world in the field of practical cattle management."
British Cattle Veterinary Association: DairyCo Mastitis Control Plan
"Welcome to the DairyCo Mastitis Control Plan website, part of a national mastitis initiative developed by veterinary surgeons and supported by DairyCo."
British Cattle Veterinary Association: Healthy Feet Programme
"The DairyCo Healthy Feet Programme (DHFP) aims to help dairy farmers reduce the number of lame cows on their farms by identifying and applying the right management techniques."
Books tagged in the catalog: Sour Milk ABLE
Books for this case are tagged [ sour milk able] in the catalog. We welcome additions to the list. Includes e-books.

Pain Management in Animals by Paul A. Flecknell; Avril Waterman-Pearson
E-book and Paper

Book Chapter on Facilitating Change in Herd Health

Note: this book is currently available as an e-book only.

Facilitating change in herd health by Higgins et al 2012 in Dairy Herd Health
Abstract: This chapter focuses on ways in which veterinary surgeons can facilitate the necessary changes on the farm, particularly those associated to herd health, by encouraging and assisting farmers to take action when required. Many of the challenges involved are discussed, and concepts sourced from human behavioural science and related disciplines are applied in order to promote understanding and provide solutions. A short overview of the principles of evidence-based veterinary medicine is given. The importance of technical knowledge as a requirement for facilitating improvements in dairy herd health is discussed.