I need a solid update before May on anesthesia/analgesia for chelonians and raptors, ideally case-based with a bit of hands-on time using Doppler and capnography. I can budget 8–12 CE hours and would prefer something I can apply directly in a small wildlife hospital. Has anyone taken a course that centers patient safety in non-domestic species and weaves in a conservation/One Health message I can share with staff and volunteers?
We added a ‘two bites, two minutes, then walk’ routine and tweaked discharge to 25% at pickup, 25% two hours later, the rest overnight — carsick or brachycephalic kids wait until home on maropitant. Early feeding’s cut the post-op serenades, but I still skip it for GERD/megaesophagus cases. Do you send anything beyond maropitant (ondansetron/omeprazole) for the road‑trippers?
I got a lot out of RVC’s online CPD on avian and reptile anaesthesia (case-based, about 8–10 hrs) and it leans hard on monitoring/patient safety: https://www.rvc.ac.uk/cpd/online. It’s not hands-on, so if you want a wet lab before May, check if The Raptor Center at UMN posts a weekend anesthesia lab. Practical tip I use from those modules: “pre-oxygenate every raptor,” side‑stream capnograph with the sampling line at the choanal slit, and for chelonians place the Doppler over the carotid just caudal to the tympanum.
Backing @jmcdermott22 — small tweak that helped us: in chelonians, tape the Doppler over the brachial artery at the axillary notch and put the side-stream capno sampling line right at the patient end of the nonrebreathing T-piece; ETCO2 only settled once we ventilated 4–6 bpm. In raptors, the ulnar artery mid-antebrachium is reliable for Doppler, but a Bair Hugger can create “ghost” noise unless you insulate the probe with extra gel and gauze.