For students, house officers, and early-career veterinarians
One emergency case a day. Built to make you think like a criticalist.
Each morning you get a real-world emergency or critical care case that unfolds in two stages, the way patients actually do. Commit to an answer, see why every option is right or wrong, and follow the citation straight to the paper.
Why CriticalInstinct exists
Clinical confidence grows from seeing patients, and the early years of a veterinary career rarely offer enough of them. A clinical student may rotate through the emergency service for only a few weeks. A new graduate in general practice might go a year without managing a feline urethral obstruction from start to finish or watching a diabetic patient tip into ketoacidosis.
CriticalInstinct was created to close some of that gap. It gives clinical veterinary students, house officers, and early-career veterinarians, especially those drawn to emergency/critical care or small animal internal medicine, steady exposure to the kinds of cases that shape clinical judgment. Each one is built from real-world scenarios and unfolds the way patients do, so you practice committing to a decision, seeing how the patient responds, and adjusting.
None of this replaces time on the clinic floor. It adds repetitions between shifts, so the next time a similar patient arrives, the reasoning already feels familiar.
How it works
A case arrives each day
By email, by phone notification, or both, at the hour you pick. Your path through the bank is shuffled for you, so you won't see repeats until you've seen everything.
It unfolds in stages
Stage one sets up the patient. Your answer reveals what happens next, just like the next set of results on a real case. Questions are pitched at foundational, intermediate, and advanced levels.
Every option is explained
You get the reasoning behind the right answer and a specific reason each distractor is wrong. Claims are cited to peer-reviewed literature, with links that open the paper.
The full proceedings are included
Each case links to the section of its source chapter, covering pathophysiology, diagnostics, therapy, monitoring, and prognosis, so a missed question turns into a five-minute review.
Organized by organ system and discipline
Work through the daily case, or open any topic and study on your own schedule. Your progress is tracked by system, level, and NAVLE competency domain.
Emergency Fundamentals: Triage, Monitoring and POCUS
Principles of Triage · Nursing Care & Monitoring of the Critical Patient · Point-of-Care Ultrasound in the Emergency Patient
Shock, Sepsis and Fluid Therapy
Sepsis & Septic Shock · Shock & Fluid Therapy
Trauma, Hemorrhage and Wound Management
Trauma-Related Injuries · Wound Management · Hemoabdomen
Respiratory
Pneumonia in Dogs & Cats · Feline Asthma & Canine Chronic Bronchitis · Pulmonary Thromboembolism · Pulmonary Edema · Pleural Space Disease · Geriatric-Onset Laryngeal Paralysis & Polyneuropathy · Chronic Nasal Discharge in Cats and Dogs · Chronic Coughing in Dogs
Cardiovascular
Infective Endocarditis · Congestive Heart Failure · Common Arrhythmias · Cardiogenic Arterial Thromboembolism · Pulmonary Hypertension · Pericardial Disease
Gastrointestinal, Pancreatic and Hepatobiliary
Acute Hemorrhagic Diarrhea Syndrome · Acute Abdomen · Acute Diarrhea · Acute Pancreatitis · Acute Vomiting · Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus · Gastrointestinal Obstruction · Hepatic Encephalopathy
Renal and Urinary
Acute Kidney Injury · Pyelonephritis · Feline Urethral Obstruction · Urolithiasis
Endocrine and Metabolic
Diabetic Ketoacidosis · Hyperosmolar Hyperglycemic State · Insulinoma · Hypoadrenocorticism · Adrenal Tumors · Thyrotoxicosis · Myxedema Coma
Hematology, Hemostasis and Immunology
Anaphylaxis · Immune-Mediated Polyarthritis · Immune Thrombocytopenia · IMHA and PIMA · Von Willebrand Disease · Hyperfibrinolysis
Neurology
Seizures · Vestibular Disease · Tremor Disorders · Traumatic Brain Injury · Meningoencephalomyelitis of Unknown Origin · Intervertebral Disc Disease
Toxicology and Environmental Emergencies
Chocolate Toxicity in Dogs · Grape and Raisin Toxicity · Ethylene Glycol Toxicity · Albuterol Intoxication · Toxic Household Plants · Snake Envenomation · NSAID Toxicity · Illicit Drug Toxicity · Hepatotoxins · Heatstroke and Hypothermia
Reproductive Emergencies
Pyometra · Mastitis · Dystocia
Ready when you are
Start with a free trial, or try a sample case first and see how a patient unfolds. Items are mapped to the clinical practice and communication domains NAVLE candidates are tested on.
NAVLE-aligned practice content. CriticalCareDVM isn't affiliated with or endorsed by the International Council for Veterinary Assessment.