Complicated Gastroenterology Cases: Medical and Nutritional Integration

Course leader

Katie Tolbert, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (SAIM)
Clinical Associate Professor, Texas A&M University

Dr. Tolbert completed her small animal internal medicine residency and Ph.D. in Comparative Biomedical Sciences at North Carolina State University. She is a clinical associate professor in the Gastrointestinal Laboratory at Texas A&M University and is a member of the Dog Aging Project consortium. She also holds a position as a Clinical Veterinary Instructor at North Carolina State University and is pursuing an alternate-track residency in small animal nutrition at the University of Tennessee. Her clinical interests and research program are focused on the treatment of acute and chronic gastrointestinal diseases in dogs and cats. She has published over 70 peer-review manuscripts and received the Zoetis award for Excellence in Veterinary Research in 2018.

Karin Allenspach, Dr.med.vet. FVH, DECVIM-CA, PhD, FHEA, RCVS, AGAF Professor of Comparative Medicine, University of Georgia

Dr. Allenspach received her veterinary degree from the University of Zurich. She did an internship in small animal emergency medicine and critical care at Tufts University and a residency in small animal internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and is a diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. She was awarded a PhD in veterinary immunology from the University of Bern, Switzerland for her work on canine chronic enteropathies. Karin has published >125 peer-reviewed publications and has a current H factor of 41. She is currently employed as Professor in Internal Medicine and Translational Health at Iowa State University, Ames, USA and is a PI of the SMART Translational medicine Lab at ISU, which focuses on the development and culture of adult stem stem-cell-derived organoids from various species. Her latest efforts have resulted in the founding of a start-up company (3D Health Solutions, Inc.) with the goal of commercializing assays for drug screening based on organoid methods.

João Cavasin, DVM, DACVP (Anatomic)
Clinical Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University 

Dr. Cavasin completed his veterinary degree at Universidade Federal do Paraná – Setor Palotina (UFPR) in Brazil before joining Cornell University for an anatomic pathology residency. During his residency, he could delve into gastrointestinal and hepatic pathology under the mentorship of Cornell faculty. He became a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists – Anatomic in 2021. He is interested in all areas of gastrointestinal pathology with a focus on correlation between intestinal and hepatic disease. João is a Clinical Assistant Professor with a dual appointment between Small Animal Clinical Sciences and Veterinary Pathobiology.

Betty Chow, BVM&S, MRCVS, DACVIM (SAIM)

Internist, VCA Animal Specialty and Emergency Center

Dr. Chow grew up in Hong Kong, and received her veterinary degree from the University of Edinburgh in 2010. She worked in Hong Kong before pursuing a small animal rotating internship at the University of Glasgow (2012-2013). She then flew across the pond for an internal medicine/oncology specialty internship at Mississippi State University (2013-2014), and an internal medicine specialty internship at BluePearl Veterinary Partners in Grand Rapids, Michigan (2014-2015), before starting her internal medicine residency at the Veterinary Specialty Hospital of San Diego (2015-2018). She is currently an internist at VCA Animal Specialty and Emergency Center in Los Angeles. 

Paula Giaretta, DVM, PhD, DACVP (Anatomic)
Clinical Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University

Dr. Giaretta is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Gastrointestinal Laboratory at Texas A&M University, where she provides specialty diagnostic service in small animal gastrointestinal pathology and pathology of the liver. She received her veterinary degree from the Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil followed by a Master’s degree. She completed a combined residency/PhD program in anatomic pathology at Texas A&M University and became a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists. Her research focuses on gastrointestinal pathology of companion animals, bile acid metabolism, and gastrointestinal microbiota in dogs with chronic enteropathy. 

Megan Grobman, DVM, MS, PhD, DACVIM (SAIM)
Assistant Professor, Auburn University

Dr. Grobman is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine with special interests in respiratory medicine, dysphagia, and respiratory biometrics. She completed specialty training, a master’s degree, and PhD at the University of Missouri and was a part of the faculty from 2016-2019.  Her PhD focused on aerodigestive diseases in small animal medicine. She is currently an assistant professor at Auburn University.  She enjoys collecting old books and practicing as much Brazilian jiu-jitsu as possible.

Sara Jablonski, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (SAIM)
Assistant Professor, Michigan State University

Dr. Jablonski (previously Wennogle) received her DVM from Colorado State University (CSU) in 2011. She completed a small animal internal medicine (SAIM) residency at CSU in 2016, followed by a PhD studying canine protein-losing enteropathies in 2018. Sara is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine-SAIM and was a faculty member at CSU College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences prior to joining the faculty as Assistant Professor at Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2020. Dr. Jablonski's primary clinical and research interests include chronic gastrointestinal disorders, specifically canine protein-losing enteropathies, and hepatobiliary disorders. 

Aarti Kathrani BVetMed (Hons), PhD, DACVIM (SAIM and Nutrition), FHEA
Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Internal Medicine, Royal Veterinary College

Dr. Kathrani graduated from the RVC in 2006, before completing her rotating small animal medicine and surgery internship at the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals, RVC, in 2007 and her PhD in canine inflammatory bowel disease at the RVC in 2011. Aarti then completed a three-year residency program in small animal internal medicine at Cornell University in 2014 and is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. She also completed a two-year small animal clinical nutrition residency program at the University of California-Davis in 2016. She is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. Aarti was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Medicine at the University of Bristol between 2016 and 2018, before returning to the RVC in 2018.

Alison Manchester, DVM, DACVIM (SAIM)
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Colorado State University

Dr. Manchester grew up in Rochester, NY and studied art history at Tufts University before veterinary school at Cornell. After an internship at the University of Wisconsin, she completed her Internal Medicine training at Colorado State University. Dr. Manchester became board-certified by the ACVIM in 2018. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow CSU, serving time on clinics and working on a PhD focused on immune dysregulation in dogs with chronic intestinal inflammation. Her studies involve utilizing novel platforms and non-invasive samples to expand understanding of the gastrointestinal tract in health and disease. When not in the lab or the clinic, she enjoys hiking, cooking, reading fiction, listening to music, and spending time with loved ones in Downeast Maine. 

Caroline Mansfield BSc, BVMS, MVM, PhD, MANZCVS, DECVIM-CA
Professorial Research Fellow, University of Queensland

Dr. Mansfield graduated from Murdoch University, Perth as a veterinarian and worked in mixed animal and small animal practice in Australia and the UK before completing a 3-year residency in small animal medicine at University College, Dublin. She developed an interest in gastroenterology during that time and has continued that clinical and research passion since her return to Australia. From 2001 until 2010, she was employed at Murdoch University as a clinical registrar and then lecturer/senior lecturer. Dr. Mansfield moved to the University of Melbourne in late 2010 as the Head of Small Animal Medicine and later became Professor and Director of Clinical Research, finishing there in mid-2021. She currently holds a research position at the University of Queensland. Her research is focused on the mechanisms involved in canine inflammatory bowel disease, the endocrine and exocrine pancreas and establishing the impact the gut microbiome has on metabolic health and disease in dogs. 

Eva Pérez-Merino, DVM, PhD
Full Professor of the Animal Medicine Department, Veterinary Faculty, University of Extremadura

 Dr. Pérez-Merino completed her undergraduate studies and her Ph.D. in veterinary sciences at the University of Extremadura (UEx). Since 1997 she is a professor in the department of Animal Medicine at the UEx and coordinator of the master’s degree in Endoscopy and Minimally Invasive Surgery in Small Animals since 2010. She is a clinically active surgeon in the Endoscopy and Minimally Invasive Surgery service at the UEx Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Her areas of interest include minimally invasive surgery, endoscopy, and stem cell therapy.

Silke Salavati, Dr.med.vet., PhD, DECVIM-CA, FHEA, FRCVS
Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh

Dr. Salavati is a Small Animal Internal Medicine specialist, and has been conducting gastroenterology specialist work for almost 20 years. For this, she has been awarded the gastroenterology specialist title by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. She is a senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh since 2016, and Head of the Small Animal Internal Medicine Service since 2022. Dr. Salavati has an active research portfolio of > 40 scientific publications and textbook contributions. She continues to have a particular interest in canine and feline chronic inflammatory enteropathies, GI motility, the microbiota, probiotics, and faecal microbiota transplants. 

Jörg Steiner, Dr.med.vet., PhD, DECVIM-CA, AGAF, DACVIM (SAIM)
Regents Professor, Texas A&M University

Dr. Steiner is currently a Regents Professor and University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Small Animal Medicine and Surgery at Texas A&M University. In 2016, Dr. Steiner was named the Dr. Mark Morris Chair in Small Animal Gastroenterology and Nutrition. He also serves as Director of the Gastrointestinal Laboratory at Texas A&M University and is involved in a wide variety of research in small animal gastroenterology. He has authored or co-authored more than 400 peer-reviewed articles, 100 book chapters, and 500 research abstracts. He also currently serves as the President of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. 

Allison Wara, DVM, DACVIM (Nutrition)
Veterinary Clinical Nutritionist, Royal Canin Canada

Dr. Wara earned her BSc at the University of Guelph and later, a DVM at the Atlantic Veterinary College. Dr. Wara worked in small animal general practice before pursuing a residency in Clinical Nutrition at the University of Missouri. Thereafter, she taught at the MU CVM as a Clinical Instructor in Small Animal Nutrition and served as Director of the hospital’s Physical Rehabilitation and Nutrition Clinic. Dr. Wara holds a board-certification in clinical nutrition and is a Diplomat of the ACVIM with a specialty in Nutrition. She currently works as a Veterinary Clinical Nutritionist with Royal Canin Canada.