Vital Signs — Monday, November 2, 2026

02 Nov 2026 — 2 min read

"Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

A Monday-morning reminder that a steady start to the week doesn't have to come from anywhere outside the exam room door.

Editor's Pick

1M Chicks Slaughtered in New Bird Flu Outbreak — An Illinois egg facility culled 934,600 birds in the largest U.S. bird flu outbreak of this wave, while USDA also confirmed screwworm's first U.S. wildlife case in a Texas elk and new cattle cases in New Mexico. Why it matters: H5N1 and screwworm are both still moving, so biosecurity and wound checks stay front-of-mind even for companion-animal practices fielding worried client questions.

24% — cats' share of companion-animal clinical visits in Q3 2026, up from 21% three years earlier, per CATalyst Council/Vetsource data. Takeaway: with dog visits sliding, the feline side of the schedule is where the growth is — and where retention work pays off most.

Familiar raises $5M to take human drugs to pets — New startup Familiar Therapeutics launched October 22 with a $5M seed round and 13 programs adapting human drugs for dogs and cats, led by a heart-sparing form of doxorubicin for canine hemangiosarcoma, with a first study opening at the University of Illinois.
Keeping one eye open: Veterinarian applies unique treatment to preserve dog's eyesight — Virginia Tech ophthalmologists saved the remaining eye of a beagle with uveodermatologic syndrome by injecting steroid locally next to the eye instead of suppressing his whole immune system, which risked flaring a spinal infection — and the approach restored vision his owners called miraculous.

viggoVet Introduces the Intelligent Veterinary Platform, Bringing Clinical Super Intelligence into Veterinary Practice — Launched October 15, viggoVet bundles record summaries, dictation, dental charting, and anesthesia decision support, and can layer onto a practice's existing software instead of replacing it, with a 60-day free trial running through January 1.
Perch Publishes Open Tool, Pronunciation Table and Six Dictation Corpora for Veterinary Drug Names — AI scribe maker Perch open-sourced a tool that scores drug names against dictation audio rather than transcripts, plus pronunciations for 265 veterinary drug names and 1,260 synthetic dictation clips, so other vendors' scribes can be tested on the same material.

Kitten visits to veterinary practices hold steady as the puppy pipeline slows — Feline visits rose 2.7% in Q3 2026 while canine visits fell 3.3%, and puppy visits dropped 10% over the summer — so the piece's advice is to turn each kitten visit into a lifelong relationship, starting with booking the next visit before the client leaves.
Veterinary professionals cite burnout, pay, and corporate ownership concerns in dvm360 survey — In a voluntary survey of 146 veterinary professionals, nearly 3 in 4 reported moderate or severe burnout, citing administrative burden, workload, and staffing shortages, with written responses also flagging pay, client behavior, and revenue-driven appointment quotas.

FDA warns two Darwin's cat food lots contain Salmonella — The FDA is cautioning owners not to feed two lots of Darwin's Natural Selections Chicken Recipe for Cats (lots 12731 and 12493) after samples tested positive for Salmonella, two cats fell ill, one was hospitalized, and the maker has not yet initiated an adequate recall — worth a heads-up for any raw-feeding clients.

Rescue puppy overcomes heart defect, finds forever home with WSU veterinarian — Teedee, a poodle mix pulled from an Idaho hoarding case, had a life-threatening heart defect caught on a routine exam, got a minimally invasive fix at WSU's teaching hospital, and was adopted by the veterinarian who fostered him through his 30 days of enforced rest.

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