Treatment protocols, also referred to as diagnosis definitions, are used in Fusion to ensure cattle are treated as per your veterinarian's instructions. This video explains how to create them. This is often done by your veterinarian or under his guidance.
Time: 7:51
Treating animals effectively in Fusion becomes a breeze once your treatment protocols are set up correctly. It's a good idea to involve your veterinarian in this process. Think of treatment protocols as a way to infuse your vet's knowledge into Fusion, enabling it to guide your crew towards the right treatment for specific issues.
Now, let's dive into a straightforward example using Honker Syndrome. First, open the Diagnosis Definitions window, which you can access from the Setup menu if the Fusion Admin menu bar is active or from the Fusion Setup Assistant window if it's open. We refer to these as "diagnosis definitions" because they revolve around diagnoses, but you can consider them the same thing as treatment protocols. Click on "New" to start crafting a new protocol.
In the Diagnosis field, type "Honker Syndrome." This will appear in the list of diagnoses your crew can choose from when initially diagnosing an animal's issue.
Next, take a look at the Relapse Days field. When an animal is freshly diagnosed, it's counted as the first pull for that disease. If the same diagnosis pops up again in the future, it's considered a second pull, and so on. This is handy when you want the treatment plan to adapt based on the assumption that previous treatments didn't work. However, if enough time has passed, it might just be a normal recurrence, and the initial treatment protocol should suffice. This field helps determine how many days can elapse between occurrences before Fusion treats it as a first pull once more. In this example, we won't be changing treatment based on the pull number, so we'll stick with the default setting of 21 days.
You can use the Indicators field to make notes about symptoms, recommended tests, and other indicators that will aid your health crew in making an accurate diagnosis. These notes can be referenced during the treatment process.
Since this is a brand new diagnosis definition, let's switch over to the Variation Setup tab. This is where you tell Fusion which criteria matter when determining how to treat the animal. Hang tight, and this will become clearer in a moment. For Honker Syndrome, we'll treat the animal differently if it weighs less than 1100 pounds or more than 1100 pounds. Since weight is the only criterion we're concerned with, we'll add an entry for 1100 pounds and leave the rest as is.
Click the "Update Protocol Variations" button, and Fusion will switch to the middle tab, showing a list of potential treatment variations based on our setup. You'll notice there are just two: one for animals under 1100 pounds and another for those over 1100 pounds. Now, let's return to the Variation Setup tab to see what happens when we add more criteria.
Imagine we want to handle animals differently if they're under 950 pounds as well. We'll add that weight breakpoint and arrange it accordingly. Let's also say we want to adjust the treatment on the second pull, so we change the number of pulls to 2. With these changes in place, click "Update Protocol Variations" again, and you'll see six different variations: 0 to 950 lbs, 950-1100 lbs, and 1100 lbs and up, each for both the first and second occurrences.
Let's pause a moment and talk about how Fusion puts these variations into action during treatment. When your health crew diagnoses an animal, Fusion looks at the criteria you've defined here and compares that with what it knows about the animal. Let's say you have a 1000-pound steer facing a second bout of Honker Syndrome. It lines up with the fifth variation, and as a result, Fusion will propose it as the treatment approach for the animal.
Before we proceed with setting up each variation, let's bring things back to a more sensible configuration for our example. Head back to the Variation Setup tab and reduce the number of pulls to 1 since we aren't anticipating multiple pulls. Remove the additional weight breakpoint we added earlier. This returns us to the two variations.
Let's start with the first one. Select it, and the lower part of the screen reflects the chosen variation. We can add instructions, which your health crew will see while treating the animal, and establish a treatment regimen. Let's include Penicillin in the list. We want to administer Penicillin immediately and then daily for a total of five days, so we enter "1" for the Start Day, "5" for the Treat Count, and "0" for the Days Between. If we wished to administer Penicillin every other day, we'd enter "1" in the Days Between field, extending the treatment over 10 days.
Now, let's throw in some Dexamethasone for the initial three days and Salix for the first two days into the list of medications. Keep in mind that if you prefer to administer one of these drugs later in the treatment, you can adjust the Start Day accordingly. The overall treatment duration for the animal hinges on the start day, treat count, and the days between doses for all the drugs combined. No need to fret, Fusion handles the calculations for you!
Now, let's select the second variation and set up its treatment regimen. Instead of Penicillin, we opt for Excenel for the first 3 days. We'll keep Dexamethasone as before, as well as Salix, but only for 1 day this time.
Typically, you'd be finished at this point, clicking "Save" and then repeating the process for other diagnoses you want to define. However, there's a handy trick to streamline this, which we'd like to show you. If you use many criteria points in the Variation Setup tab, you can end up with numerous variations to manage. In practice, many of these variations may have the same or similar treatment regimens. You can copy and paste a treatment regimen between protocols to simplify this. Here's how.
Return to the Variation Setup tab and set up a somewhat artificial scenario for demonstration purposes. We'll add 3 pulls and also include cattle types in the setup. When you go back to the Protocol Variations tab, you'll see quite a few variations. For the sake of example, let's assume the first three variations all have the same treatment regimen, and you've already entered it for the first one. Select the first one and click the "Copy Protocol" button. Then, choose the second one and click "Paste Protocol." You'll notice that the treatment regimen is now copied into the second variation. Repeat this for the third one.
Copying protocols in this manner is also useful when several variations are similar to each other. Paste one and then make necessary adjustments. This can be quicker than starting from scratch each time.
Here's another nifty trick you can employ. If the treatment plan ends up with days where no drugs need to be administered, Fusion will automatically assume that those days involve simple observation of the animal. You can deliberately schedule observation days, for instance, after the standard treatment course is completed, by adding an empty drug to the list. Notice how Fusion interprets this as an "observe" day? This way, you ensure that the animal receives attention even though it's no longer receiving medication.
Lastly, take note of the text below the variations list. It helps ensure you've defined something for every variation or identifies any you may have missed. A quick glance at the blue columns in the list will also help you find any variations you've missed.
By the way, this was just an example to explain treatment protocols. Please consult your vet for guidance on treating Honker Syndrome at your yard!
As always, you can find more detailed information in the documentation by clicking the "Help" button, and our support team is available to assist you whenever needed.
