VeterinaryFood animal: adult bovine clinical case
The examiner plays the owner of a cow over 6 months old with a condition common in practice. You take the history, examine her, work the case up with the tests the owner agrees to pay for, give the diagnosis and the plan for the cow and the herd, and cover prevention, public health, reportable diseases and withdrawal times. You are graded on what you say, in 45 minutes. It is station 1 (FAP01) of the Food Animal Practice section of the ECFVG Clinical Proficiency Examination.
Free to startScenarios
- An adult bovine (over 6 months old) with a condition commonly seen in practice, presented by its owner.
The steps
- Question the owner to get the complete history.
- Do the distance exam, with the body condition score from 1 to 5 (1 is very thin), and tell the owner the normal and abnormal findings.
- Do a complete physical exam and tell the owner the normal and abnormal findings.
- Ask for a rectal exam if it is indicated and interpret the findings the examiner gives you; you do not perform it.
- Name every problem from the history and the exam.
- Give a rational list of differential diagnoses.
- Make the diagnostic plan for those differentials: order the right tests or a necropsy, as long as the owner agrees to pay for them.
- Interpret the test results.
- Use the results to rule each differential in or out.
- Give the most likely diagnosis.
- Give the treatment and management plan for the cow, and the herd if indicated.
- Give the prognosis.
- Discuss prevention and control.
- Discuss regulatory issues (reporting a reportable disease to state or federal officials), public health (zoonotic risk) and food safety (withdrawal times, slaughter for food).
- Speak in words the owner understands and answer every question correctly.
Safety rules that stop the station
- Handle the animal humanely and safely: the examiner can take points off or end the station; a fatal flaw fails the whole Food Animal Practice section.
To pass
- The sheet scores 100 points: history 15, physical exam 25, problems and differentials 10, diagnostic plan 10, results and diagnosis 15, treatment, management, prevention and regulatory issues 20, communication 5.
- A treatment plan built on a wrong diagnosis earns no points, and only what you tell the owner counts.
- The station is 30% of the Food Animal Practice section, which needs 60 weighted points to pass.
Official source
Manual of Administration for the Clinical Proficiency Examination
The AVMA publishes the CPE Manual of Administration free: every station, its assessment sheet and the score needed to pass.
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