National Report —Though many veterinarians fret about student loans prohibiting them from buying a practice, the real killer is revolving credit, such as credit cards and car loans.

National Report — Veterinary medicine is more specialized today than it was just a few years ago. Not only are general practitioners offering significantly more diagnostic, dentistry, imaging and surgery services in-house, they say they are referring more patients to specialists, too.

About 780 veterinarians are deployed or working in 90 countries to support combat and stationed troops. They service hundreds of working dogs and an array of mountain mules in addition to their food-safety responsibilities, research and development. They've been doing so for nine decades.

National Report — He didn't stage a heroic rescue effort or man an impromptu staging area when Hurricane Charlie battered Port Charlotte, Fla., in 2004. He had more pressing duties: picking up the pieces of his shattered home and displaced family.

New York — After five horse-related accidents this year — including one in January that put a driver in a coma and one in late April that knocked a 71-year-old man unconscious — Councilman Tony Avella of Queens plans to hold a hearing this fall on a resolution to restrict horse-drawn carriages to Central Park and its surrounding streets.

National Report — Good employees are hard to come by, and it won't get easier any time soon.

Washington — Small business health plans were shelved May 11 to the chagrin of the American Veterinary Medical Association. But opponents say the proposal will do little to aid the millions of uninsured Americans and could actually raise the cost of healthcare premiums in the long term.

Study groups can negotiate significant benefits from better-known vendors.

Louisville, Ky. — The Thoroughbred racing Mecca was amid heightened biosecurity following recent outbreaks of equine herpesvirus and a mysterious illness that claimed the life of Kentucky Derby contender With a City.

College Station, Texas — New associates can offer better care if they offer clients comprehensive treatment options and follow-up on the adherence of accepted recommendations.

Ever since the industry-reknowned Brakke Consulting study linking the corollary between economic acumen and income, the veterinary medical profession has been devising ways to create better small business owners. The National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues was created, and veterinary colleges across the country are beefing up their business offerings.

Cleveland—Though many veterinarians fret about student loans prohibiting them from buying a practice, the real killer is revolving credit, such as credit cards and car loans.

He's been an art professor at the University of Notre Dame, and an accomplished sculptor in his own rite, garnering as much as $10,000 for some of his work in the late 1980s. But his work crafting learning aids and procedural models for students is shaping up as his most rewarding work yet.

Practitioners might soon rely on a new procedure to alleviate severe chronic pain resulting from cancer, osteoarthritis or surgery. Resiniferatoxin (RTX), first isolated in the 1970s, has been administered during a series of clinical studies to kill specific nerve cells while leaving others untouched.