Vital Signs — Saturday, October 24, 2026

24 Oct 2026 — 2 min read

"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." — Epictetus, Enchiridion

(A good day to try the better approach even if it looks odd to everyone else.)

Editor's Pick

New antibody technology offers hope against antibiotic-resistant infections — Cambridge researchers built T-CAT antibodies that trigger the complement system directly to clear multidrug-resistant bacteria in lab studies and in sepsis and pneumonia models; why it matters: it's a genuinely new non-antibiotic weapon against resistant infections, the kind of pipeline vets have been waiting on.

$47,380 — the median annual wage for veterinary technologists and technicians in the U.S. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025); takeaway: the credential still doesn't pay like one, which is a big part of why keeping good techs is so hard.

Canine cancer patients contribute to next-generation minimally invasive cancer therapies for dogs and humans — Purdue's new comparative oncology lab is pioneering tumor ablation — focused ultrasound or pulsed electric fields guided by CT and ultrasound — as a less invasive alternative to surgery, radiation, or chemo, with the bonus that ablating a tumor may wake up the patient's own antitumor immune response.

5 Best Veterinary AI Scribes 2026 Expert Guide — A scribe vendor's own updated guide (so read it as such) maps 2026's consolidation: ScribbleVet and CoVet were the two most-used AI scribes in North America and both are now owned by PIMS companies — the real takeaway is to ask who owns your scribe's roadmap and your documentation data before you renew.

Celebrating veterinary technician week, techs are heroes — For National Veterinary Technician Week, Steve Dale rounds up NAVTA's survey numbers: 39% of techs name low pay their top professional challenge, only 36% feel fully utilized, and 88% have experienced compassion fatigue — recognition that goes beyond one week is a retention move, not just a nice gesture.

CMA spells out exactly what big vet groups must do before Christmas — The UK competition watchdog's new guidance requires large vet groups (15+ practices) to publish standard prices and ownership, give written estimates for treatments over £500, and cap prescription fees, with the first deadlines landing December 23 — worth watching, since US pricing-transparency pressure tends to follow the same playbook.

Cat's life saved by blood transfusion - from dog — With no feline blood available and a two-year-old cat's red cell count down to 7%, an emergency vet transfused blood from her own cocker spaniel — a recognized one-off emergency option — and Rolo went home the next morning.
Rescuer Finds a Cat Barely Able to Move and Refuses to Give Up — Found hiding in a washroom, barely able to move and diagnosed with pyometra, a rescued cat got life-saving surgery funded by a crowdfunding campaign — and her rescuer ended up keeping her.

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