Every Day is a School Day – AVA Conference 2026

Between 18^th and 21^st May, Dr Maddie Plant and Dr Alex Norris went back to school and attended the annual Hills Symposium and Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) Conference in Brisbane. In this blog, they share a summary of what they got up to and what they learnt.

The first day during the Hills Symposium we spent the day learning about gastrointestinal diseases in both dogs and cats. More specific topics included; the negative impacts of antibiotic use in acute diarrhoea cases, differentiating intestinal inflammation vs lymphoma in our feline patients and dietary management of chronic gastrointestinal signs in dogs.

One of the most interesting topics mentioned was the prevalence of oesophagitis (inflammation of the oesophagus, which takes food from the mouth down to the stomach) during anaesthesia in our brachycephalic breeds (e.g. Bull dogs, French bulldogs, pugs, Shih tzus etc) due to oesophageal reflux. The risk of this can be minimised by using medications in the lead up to anaesthesia which reduce the acidity of a dog’s stomach acid, so if oesophageal reflux does occur, any inflammation to the oesophagus, as a result, is minimised. We are in the process of updating our brachycephalic anaesthetic protocols to ensure all breeds at risk, get these important preventative medications prior to any procedures requiring anaesthesia.

The next 3 days we spent attending lectures across a range of topics at the AVA conference. These topics included congestive heart failure in dogs, dentistry, intestinal surgery, surgical lump removals, lameness assessments, a new medication for managing feline diabetes, nutrition, canine epilepsy and crate training puppies. A few stand-out talks were on the topics of brachycephalic anaesthesia and the link between stress/anxiety and urinary health in cats, which highlighted many tips and tricks we can put into practice at Vet HQ. We also listened to Dr Kelly Halls speak about the importance of physiotherapy for dogs with cruciate disease, which is something that Vet HQ can now offer with our new Rehab HQ facilities and in house Rehab Lead, UK registered animal physiotherapist Ashleigh.

As well as attending educational lectures from various vets from all over Australia, we were able to visit lots of stalls from various veterinary nutrition and pharmaceutical companies. Here we were able to pick up samples of and hear about all the new & innovative veterinary products and research currently available to help us help your pets.

Overall, we had a great time at the conference and were able to learn, grow and evolve aligning with Vet HQ’s core values. We look forward to sharing our learnings with our colleagues back at Vet HQ.

As Dr Geoff always says, every day is a School Day!

Written by Dr Alex Norris and Dr Maddie Plant