CVTEA update · August 2026

August 2026 CVTEA Appendix G updates

New skills, skills that are now required, didactic conversions, and a hydration-status split with existing signoffs preserved.

What programs need to do

Assign new skills, review conversions, and keep existing records intact

New skills

Add these skills to the appropriate courses:

  • Auscultate species-specific gut sounds (horse/pony/donkey/mule)
  • Auscultate species-specific gut sounds (cow)
  • Auscultate species-specific gut sounds (small ruminant)

Now required

  • Perform critical care: blood typing
  • Perform diagnostics procedures for parasites: perform fecal egg count using McMaster method

Required didactic skills

The following former required hands-on group skills are now required didactic skills:

  • Knowledge of culture bacteria and sensitivity tests*
  • Knowledge of how to identify common animal pathogens using commercially available media and reagents*
  • Knowledge of common biochemical tests*

Hydration status is now species-specific

The former hydration-status skill is now represented for dog, cat, horse/pony/donkey/mule, cow, and small ruminant.

No action is needed for existing completion records. Signoffs that were in place for the original hydration-status skill have already been applied to each new species-specific skill.

Clarifications and removals

  • Restraint-pole completion may use a model.
  • “Restrain pocket pets and exotics” is now “Restrain small mammals and exotics.”
  • Microchip scanning and implantation may use a live patient or cadaver.
  • “Gastric intubation” is now “orogastric intubation” for dogs or cats.
  • “Knotts” is now “Modified Knotts.”
  • “Perform coprologic tests” has been removed.

View all CVTEA updates · Read the January 2026 update

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