Iron deficiency is common in our young population. Additional strategies to prevent IDA need be developed and evaluated in Australian infants.

Repair of parotid duct lacerations in 2 horses is described using intraluminal silastic tubing as a stent. The duct was lacerated traumatically at the facial vessel notch (<em>incisura vasorum facialium</em>) in the 1st horse, and iatrogenically after removal of an intraluminal sialolith after development of infection within the duct in the 2nd horse. In both cases, a silastic tube was passed retrograde into the duct <em>via</em> the salivary papilla, past the wound until the end lay rostroventral to the parotid salivary gland. The severed salivary ducts and the wounds were sutured. The external portion of the silastic tube was sutured to the skin and the tube left in place. Recovery in the 1st case was uneventful. In the 2nd case a salivary duct/cutaneous fistula formed at a wound distant from the sutured wound, which healed spontaneously. This technique differs from a similar described technique in that the stent tube exits the oral cavity and is attached to the outer skin surface

The apparently normal corneas of 14 diseased eyes of German shepherd dogs (GSDs) were shown to possess very thin epithelial layers on microscopy. Normal corneas of 38 GSDs and 113 dogs of various breeds and crossbred animals were compared for epithelial thickness, structure of corneal stroma and corneal strength. Due to lower values for these criteria found in the GSDs they are considered to play an important role in the aetiology of chronic superficial keratitis.

A 14‐month‐old Basset Hound developed hydrocoele of the left half of the scrotum associated with unilateral indirect inguinal hernia. The hernia was repaired without orchidectomy being performed.