Saturday, May 16, 2026
Harrah's Atlantic City Waterfront Conference Center
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May 16-17, 2026
Kick off your VEC experience by hearing from the NJVMA President who will recap the successes of the last year and point out the Association’s direction for the coming 12 months. You’ll also hear from the AVMA District Representative and get a chance to thank outgoing Board members and congratulate newly-elected Directors.
This lecture offers veterinary professionals a practical, step-by-step method for conducting oral examinations in awake canine and feline patients. Oral health is vital to overall wellness, yet many issues go unnoticed until they become advanced. By learning how to safely, efficiently, and effectively assess the oral cavity in conscious animals, practitioners can detect early signs of oral disease.
Learning Objectives:
Livestock species are now commonly kept as pets, and the need for owners to access care for them is increasing. These sessions will introduce small animal practitioners to the medical, surgical, and regulatory considerations as well as common medications and equipment necessary to see these patients in the clinic. This specific session will focus on goats, sheep, and camelids.
Learning Objectives:
Tailored for veterinary professionals eager to explore diverse pain management strategies beyond opioids. Join us in an informal and interactive setting to discuss various drug classes and non-pharmacologic interventions that can enhance your approach to pain management in veterinary care. We will also be discussing the ERAS (enhanced recovery after surgery) movement within human medicine and how we can integrate some of the concepts into our own veterinary practices.
Learning Objectives:
Patients presenting in shock is one of the most common emergencies. These patients are unable to produce adequate cellular energy. Hemodynamic compromise and loss of proper perfusion leads to significant physiological consequences and requires immediate intervention for restoration. This session will help you recognize signs of circulatory shock through physical assessment parameters and accessible monitoring technology, as well as understand treatment and nursing interventions.
Learning Objectives:
Love gossip? Tolerate coworkers showing up late? Welcome high turnover? No one does.This lecture gets to the root of some of the most important topics no one wants to talk about; the negative team. It will review how to foster the best team and create a welcoming and productive team environment.
Learning Objectives:
Personal leadership is a life skill. Personal leadership is not about your degrees or your title; it’s about your core values, how you behave and how you treat others. In the veterinary profession we serve clients that are increasingly devoted to their pets and often come to us armed with information and high expectations. Our goal is to provide the best care possible for their animals; we cannot do that without our clients. Our technical skills are not the only required skills to best care for our patients and clients. We must also develop and apply personal leadership skills, sometimes called ‘soft skills’; those that aren’t necessarily taught in our formal education but become a cornerstone of life success. These essential leadership skills are a foundation for personal and professional wellbeing.
Learning Objectives:
Accurate radiographic interpretation is essential for effective diagnosis, treatment planning, and communication in veterinary dentistry. This lecture provides a systematic, practical approach to evaluating dental radiographs. Participants will be introduced to proper orientation of radiographs and the Modified Triad System to establish a structured method for image review, followed by an in-depth discussion of normal radiographic anatomy and standardized terminology. Common abnormalities and frequently encountered findings will be highlighted through clinical examples to help clinicians recognize patterns, avoid diagnostic pitfalls, and improve accuracy in interpretation.
Learning Objectives:
Livestock species are now commonly kept as pets, and the need for owners to access care for them is increasing. These sessions will introduce small animal practitioners to the medical, surgical, and regulatory considerations as well as common medications and equipment necessary to see these patients in the clinic. This specific session will be a continuation of Part 1, focusing again on goats, sheep, and camelids.
Learning Objectives:
We will look at the available alpha-2 agonists and why they are so valuable in veterinary medicine. Topics to be discussed will include: understanding the mechanism of action, when to use an alpha-2, proper patient selection and drug calculation, and new ways to use this fascinating class of drugs.
Learning Objectives:
Respiratory distress and/or failure is one of the most common emergencies seen in veterinary medicine. When a patient presents in respiratory distress, the technician’s ability to quickly and accurately assess the problem and provide appropriate emergency intervention is vital to a positive outcome. Through videos of patients in respiratory distress and discussion about each case, you’ll learn to use your hands, eyes, ears, and monitoring equipment to assess patients.
Learning Objectives:
Most people work hard to avoid conflict. As a result, gossip and negativity simmer. This lecture focuses on how to deliver feedback, how to embrace conflict and how to make conflict productive.
Learning Objectives:
Intelligence (IQ) is defined as a capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and other similar forms of mental activity. It’s often the standard measure of how ‘smart’ a person is and associated with increasing levels of success. Intelligence and technical skills are important; however, research has consistently demonstrated that highly successful individuals have an increased ability to understand and manage their emotions and the emotions of others. This is referred to as emotional intelligence (EQ). Emotional intelligence is the ability to effectively manage ourselves and our relationships. Emotional intelligence, the ability to recognize and manage emotions, is a crucial life skill that can be learned. Developing emotional intelligence will have a positive impact on your life and the lives of others. This session will explore the domains of emotional intelligence and engage participants in real-life examples of emotional intelligence in action.
Learning Objectives:
This lecture reviews the principles, techniques, and clinical value of local and regional nerve blocks in small animal dentistry, with emphasis on improving analgesia and patient safety. Dental procedures in dogs and cats often involve significant nociceptive input, and multimodal pain management—including targeted nerve blocks—reduces anesthetic requirements, improves hemodynamic stability, and enhances post-operative comfort.
A brief pharmacologic review of amide local anesthetics covers lidocaine, bupivacaine, and ropivacaine, focusing on their mechanism of action via reversible voltage-gated sodium channel inhibition. Key differences in onset, duration, and cardiotoxicity profiles are highlighted, underscoring appropriate drug selection based on procedural length and patient factors. Safe dosing, metabolism by hepatic pathways, and the importance of avoiding intravascular injection are discussed.
The lecture details the most commonly used dental nerve blocks: infraorbital, maxillary, middle mental, and inferior alveolar. Step-by-step anatomical landmarks, needle placement strategies, and volume guidelines are presented to improve accuracy and reduce complications such as hematoma or nerve injury.
Finally, strategies for managing block failure are addressed. These include reassessing landmarks, adjusting needle angle or depth, using aspiration to confirm placement, evaluating Visiondrug concentration and expiration, and allowing sufficient onset time—particularly for bupivacaine. Contingency plans involve repeating the block safely, supplementing with local infiltration, or modifying systemic analgesic support. Emphasis is placed on consistent technique, documentation, and post-block monitoring to ensure reliable, high-quality analgesia for dental patients.
Learning Objectives:
Livestock species are now commonly kept as pets, and the need for owners to access care for them is increasing. These sessions will introduce small animal practitioners to the medical, surgical, and regulatory considerations as well as common medications and equipment necessary to see these patients in the clinic. This specific session will focus on miniature pigs.
Learning Objectives:
Intra-operative hypotension is one of the most common intra-operative complications seen in small animals under anesthesia. A variety of injectable and inhalant anesthetic drugs can cause varying degrees of hypotension triggered by numerous factors including heart rate, preload, afterload, contractility, and systemic vascular resistance. Hypotension can lead to decreased perfusion in vital organs (eg, liver, kidneys, heart), which leads to reduced oxygen delivery. Veterinary technicians working with patients under anesthesia need to understand how to measure blood pressure, the factors that lead to hypotension, and how to properly address hypotension in these patients.
Learning Objectives:
Few emergencies test a veterinary nurse’s skill and composure like a blocked cat. This session breaks down the nursing role in recognizing, stabilizing, and managing feline urethral obstruction from triage through recovery. We’ll cover assessment and monitoring, sedation and analgesia choices, catheterization setup and unblocking techniques, and ongoing nursing care to prevent complications. Emphasis is placed on teamwork, safety, and the key elements that make nursing utilization in unblocking cats a responsible endeavor. Attendees will leave with practical steps and confidence to assert their role in performing urethral unblocking procedures safely and effectively.
Learning Objectives:
Oftentimes veterinary professionals are given promotions to a supervisor or manager. There is no training that is offered. Instead, they are thrown into the role. What does it mean to be a supervisor? This lecture will focus on the key points that separate a manager from a floor role.
Learning Objectives:
Intelligence (IQ) is defined as a capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and other similar forms of mental activity. It’s often the standard measure of how ‘smart’ a person is and associated with increasing levels of success. Intelligence and technical skills are important; however, research has consistently demonstrated that highly successful individuals have an increased ability to understand and manage their emotions and the emotions of others. This is referred to as emotional intelligence (EQ). Emotional intelligence is the ability to effectively manage ourselves and our relationships. Emotional intelligence, the ability to recognize and manage emotions, is a crucial life skill that can be learned. Developing emotional intelligence will have a positive impact on your life and the lives of others. This session will explore the domains of emotional intelligence and engage participants in real life examples of emotional intelligence in action.
Learning Objectives:
This lecture provides a comprehensive overview of the most frequently encountered oral diseases in companion animals, with a focus on both clinical recognition and practical management. Participants will explore the pathophysiology, diagnostic features, and treatment options for common oral conditions affecting dogs and cats, including periodontal disease, endodontic disease, traumatic dental injuries, oral neoplasia, tooth resorption, and stomatitis.
Learning Objectives:
Livestock species are now commonly kept as pets, and the need for owners to access care for them is increasing. These sessions will introduce small animal practitioners to the medical, surgical, and regulatory considerations as well as common medications and equipment necessary to see these patients in the clinic. This specific session will be part 2, continuing our focus on miniature pigs.
Learning Objectives:
We will examine how important proper pain management is for critical patients. Often these patients are compromised making drug selection more nuanced. We will discuss analgesic options for specific cases such as trauma patients, emergency cesarean patients, and urethral obstruction patients. This lecture will allow technicians to weigh all analgesic options (analgesic drugs as well as alternative therapies) when creating a plan for a critical patient.
Learning Objectives:
Get ready for a high-energy, game-show-style session where clinical reasoning meets friendly competition. In Vet Med Feud – Patient Assessment Challenge, teams face off in a Family Feud–inspired format to tackle questions drawn from a real veterinary emergency case. Each round walks participants through the evolving patient scenario, from triage to stabilization, testing their ability to identify priorities, anticipate complications, and apply critical thinking under pressure. Audience participation drives the learning, with rapid-fire questions revealing how seasoned clinicians and rising stars think through patient assessment. Expect laughter, debate, and a deeper appreciation for how effective teamwork and observation save lives.
Learning Objectives:
Veterinary professionals are in short supply. Finding and keeping a good qualified one is tough. What can you do to retain your new hire on your team and, better yet, get more to join your team? This lecture will discuss those things and more.
Learning Objectives:
The veterinary profession is filled with highly intelligent, driven, accomplished, successful individuals. We’ve navigated years of education and training, stressful, demanding jobs with long work hours. One type of work-related stress is job burnout, which is often defined as a state of exhaustion, physical and/or emotional, as a result of prolonged stress or frustration. Wellbeing is a critical issue in our profession and burnout is very real in today’s workplace. Recognizing the causes, symptoms, and risk factors associated with burnout can help identify tools to address burnout and sustain personal wellbeing.
Learning Objectives:
Pediatric patients present unique oral health challenges that require early recognition and specialized management. This lecture provides a focused review of the most common oral and maxillofacial conditions seen in puppies and kittens, ranging from traumatic injuries to developmental and hereditary disorders. Attendees will explore common and uncommon presentations such as malocclusions, timing of tooth eruption, tooth fractures, enamel hypoplasia, electrical cord injuries, craniomandibular osteopathy (CMO), periostosis ossificans, patellar fracture and dental anomaly syndrome (PADS), odontogenic neoplasias, cleft palates, and feline juvenile gingivitis—while learning practical strategies for diagnosis, treatment planning, and client communication.
Learning Objectives:
Backyard poultry flocks continue to grow in popularity across the United States, presenting unique challenges for veterinarians who may be dusting off long-forgotten knowledge from veterinary school. Complicating matters is the fact that backyard chicken owners often view their birds as pets rather than production animals, seeking individualized patient care rather than general flock management. Also, as backyard chicken owners often do not have farming experience, veterinarians are called upon to serve as both clinician and educator to ensure proper husbandry and welfare. Complicating matters even further, while owners may treat their chickens as beloved companions, the USDA classifies them as production animals. This designation requires veterinarians to be well-versed in relevant regulations, including restrictions on medications, awareness of reportable diseases, and understanding of meat and egg withdrawal times. This talk is designed for veterinarians and veterinary technicians looking to refresh their poultry medicine knowledge and gain practical insights into providing high-quality care for backyard chickens and their owners.
Learning Objectives:
We will explore options for post-operative pain control. Different modalities will be discussed including drug therapy options, physical therapies, and new treatment options to help keep your patients comfortable. We will discuss ways to implement pain scoring in your practice to help guide analgesic treatment. Case studies will be presented to illustrate specific protocols for optimal multimodal analgesia.
Learning Objectives:
Get ready for a high-energy, game-show-style session where clinical reasoning meets friendly competition. In Vet Med Feud – Patient Assessment Challenge, teams face off in a Family Feud–inspired format to tackle questions drawn from a real veterinary emergency case. Each round walks participants through the evolving patient scenario, from triage to stabilization, testing their ability to identify priorities, anticipate complications, and apply critical thinking under pressure. Audience participation drives the learning, with rapid-fire questions revealing how seasoned clinicians and rising stars think through patient assessment. Expect laughter, debate, and a deeper appreciation for how effective teamwork and observation save lives.
Learning Objectives:
“Kids these days.” We hear it said all the time. Are the younger generations really that lazy or unproductive? How do the older generations stack up? This lecture is important to anyone who works with various age demographics so that better communication between individuals can occur.
Learning Objectives:
Mindset is defined as the established set of attitudes held by someone, a person’s way of thinking, their thoughts and beliefs that shape how they think, feel and behave. Literature defines two basic mindsets that shape us. Marilee Adams refers to the judger vs. the learner mindsets; Carol Dweck refers to the fixed vs. the growth mindsets. A person with a fixed mindset essentially believes that basic qualities such as intelligence, are capped at a certain level and remain static. A person with a growth mindset believes that basic qualities can continue to develop and grow. We typically have one dominant mindset. With purposeful thought and practice we have the ability to choose our mindset, thus our reactions, choices and behaviors, in life situations. Understanding our dominant mindset, being aware of our typical attitudes or beliefs, being mindful of the power of our beliefs, and choosing to change our approach to situations can have a profound impact. Learning to recognize your mindset, how mindset impacts behaviors, and the benefits of adopting a growth mindset, can help you reach your personal and professional goals.
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Time to get social! Join us in the exhibit hall for food, drinks, and raffle prizes! The perfect way to end a long day of learning before you head out on the town for the evening!