Managing pain without opioids: Is it possible?

One hour of online CPD for Veterinary Nurses!

Sign up before 4pm on the day to receive the Zoom invitation to join the webinar.

Kindly sponsored by:

Speaker:

Jo Murrell BVSc.(hons), PhD, DiplECVAA, MRCVS 

Jo Murrell joined Bristol Veterinary Specialists in 2018 after a career in academia, most recently at Bristol University from 2007-2018. While at Bristol she focussed her time on pain research and clinical anaesthesia and has carried out many studies investigating pain mechanisms and clinical analgesic protocols in cats, dogs and horses.

She has been a Diplomate of the European College in Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia since 2002 and enjoys the challenges of clinical anaesthesia. Jo is co-chair of the WSAVA Global Pain Council and is passionate about providing best practice in analgesia to cats and dogs.

Lecture Synopsis:

Opioids have long been the cornerstone of analgesia provision for small animals in the western world. There is good evidence to support their efficacy and in the USA, Europe and the UK there are a few different opioid drugs licensed for use in cats and dogs. Along with licensing comes data to support use and efficacy. Despite their usefulness in small animal analgesia protocols it must be acknowledged that opioids are not readily available worldwide, with restrictions on the veterinary use of opioids being particular rigid in Asia and increasing restrictions in the USA associated with the opioid crisis. There are also a number of different side effects associated with opioid use that are leading to a move to explore more opioid sparing or opioid free analgesia techniques in the veterinary profession.

Learning Points:

1. Know the side effects of opioids.
2. Learn about alternative drugs to provide analgesia instead of opioids.
3. Know the evidence base for opioid free / sparing analgesia.

BVNA South West Advocate:  Carly Kilby RVN BVNA NCert (Anaesth) NCert (Surgical) ISFM CertFN Carly has been in practice since 2001 and qualified in 2006. During her time in practice, Carly has worked within the large animal and small animal referral scenes and everything in between. She has settled into an anaesthesia role at a referral hospital in Bristol as a dedicated anaesthesia nurse. Carly has a certificate in feline friendly nursing, anaesthesia and surgical nursing.