Veterinary Practice News Goes Viral With Animal X-Ray Contest

Irvine, CA, September 8, 2014 (Newswire.com) - It’s not often that a list of contest winners goes viral. But for Veterinary Practice News (VPN), the leading magazine for veterinary practices and businesses, the welcomed attention created a buzz that gave the contest and its contestants some unexpected notoriety. Soon after VPN’s companion website VeterinaryPracticeNews.com posted the winning entries from their annual “They Ate What?” X-ray contest, the story attracted the attention of Internet audiences throughout the world.

Originally published in the September 2014 issue of VPN, the “They Ate What?” contest winners were revealed and featured the top entries along with real-life radiograph images of various animals that ingested everything from skewers and socks to rubber duckies and pocket knives.

"The impressive sock-consuming canine helped the contest pick up momentum on the Internet with coverage by news and entertainment outlets such as BuzzFeed, CNN, and Good Morning America"

The contest was sponsored by pet insurer Trupanion of Seattle, Wash., which provided cash prizes to go toward uncompensated care that veterinarian hospitals provide pets.

Winners of the “They Ate What?” contest were selected by the VPN editorial team and several advisory board members. The winning contestants included:

·      First Place ($1,500)  – Paws & Claws Animal Hospital, Plano, Texas

·      Second Place ($1,000) – Gulf Breeze Animal Hospital, Gulf Breeze, Fla.

·      Third Place ($500) – DoveLewis Animal Hospital, Portland, Ore.

The contest also listed a dozen Honorable Mentions, which included high-resolution X-rays of incredible images along with entertaining stories of the discoveries and the surgical procedures used to extract the ingested objects.

While all the winning entries provided sharable content, it was the third place winner that catapulted the story to viral status. When the owners of a 3-year-old Great Dane observed the giant dog repeatedly vomiting all day, they brought him to the DoveLewis Animal Hospital in Portland, Ore. During exploratory surgery, the veterinarian discovered 43½ socks in the canine’s stomach. Incredibly, the patient was discharged one day after surgery.

The impressive sock-consuming canine helped the contest pick up momentum on the Internet with coverage by news and entertainment outlets such as BuzzFeed, CNN, Good Morning America, and Los Angeles radio station KROQ, to name a few.

“We’re really excited and grateful to VPN and Trupanion for holding the contest and naming us one of the winners,” said Shawan Harch from DoveLewis Animal Hospital. “It’s just fantastic that we’re able to highlight some of the work we do in the hospital, and we look forward to putting the contest earnings toward helping low-income families’ veterinary emergencies.”

While all the images and stories are nothing short of remarkable, the underlying back-story to the “They Ate What?” contest is that every animal featured was treated and went home unharmed, showcasing the incredible work being done by veterinary hospitals and practitioners on a daily basis.

About Veterinary Practice News
Veterinary Practice News (VPN) is a business-to-business magazine for veterinarians and veterinary support staff published monthly. VPN showcases comprehensive and timely coverage of industry news and new products, highlights successful veterinary practices and practitioners, provides fresh and objective coverage of issues, trends and events, serves as an open forum for discussing controversial topics and covers new profit centers and best practices through its publication and corresponding website, VeterinaryPracticeNews.com. Follow Veterinary Practice news on Twitter at @vetpetnews.

About VeterinaryPracticeNews.com
VeterinaryPracticeNews.com is a website for veterinarians and veterinary support staff. VPN.com showcases comprehensive and timely coverage of industry news and new products, highlights successful veterinary practices and practitioners, provides fresh and objective coverage of issues, trends and events, serves as an open forum for discussing controversial topics and covers new profit centers and best practices.

For more information or to set up interviews contact:
Lisa MacDonald, Marketing Director
949-855-8822, ext.3345
[email protected]