Vet Drug Index

Dr. Ettinger co-authored with Dr. P.F. Suter, the first veterinary small animal specialty textbook, Canine Cardiology (1971) and he has been author and editor of the Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine, a two volume treatise on veterinary medicine, available in five languages. He has served on the Board of Trustees at Cornell University and holds memberships at the California Veterinary Medical Association, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. He completed a National Institute of Health Postdoctoral Fellow in Cardiology, is a Diplomat of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Cardiology and Internal Medicine), and a Fellow (FACC) of the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association (FAHA).

Dr. Ettinger has more than 40 years of experience in the veterinary care industry and his areas of expertise include small animal veterinary internal medicine, small animal cardiology, hospital management and professional veterinary development. He currently resides in California where he continues to practice small animal medicine and works with a number of animal health companies, including serving as the Nestle Purina Fellow in Veterinary Medicine and a spokesperson for Purina Care pet insurance.

Following high school graduation, he attended the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph in Ontario and received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) in 1965. He completed his internship at the Ontario Veterinary College and received a Masters in Pharmacology from the University of Guelph in 1967. He subsequently initiated his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) studies at the Medical School, University of Ottawa and received a PhD in Pharmacology in 1970.

Following a brief sojourn at the Food And Drug Directorate in Ottawa, he was offered an Assistant Professorship at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca in 1972. He progressed through the academic ranks and became full Professor of Pharmacology in 1987. He retired in January, 2013 after a 41 year teaching and research career at Cornell. He is currently an Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Cornell. He continues to teach in the veterinary curriculum.

The main focus of his teaching and research was in pharmacology. His research was largely directed to the neurochemistry and neuropharmacology of brain dysfunction, particularly related to seizure disorders. In addition, he developed an interest in applied veterinary pharmacology and conducted pharmacokinetic studies with a number of drug classes in a variety of animal species of veterinary importance. He founded the Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Laboratory in 1993. This service provided veterinary practitioners from around the world with information on designing therapeutic regimes in their patients.

His teaching in the veterinary curriculum was largely focused on applied veterinary pharmacology. He is a 3-time winner of the Norden Award for Distinguished Teaching in Veterinary Medicine and twice was honored with the SCAVMA Award for Excellence in Teaching in Basic Sciences. In 1984 he was awarded a Fogarty International Fellowship to conduct a sabbatical leave at the Veterinary College, Free University in Berlin, Germany.

He married his high school sweetheart, Donna Laufersweiler, in 1963. They have two children and four grandchildren.