Prevalence of antibiotic use for dogs and cats in United States veterinary teaching hospitals, August 2020.

BACKGROUND: Awareness of prescribing practices helps identify opportunities to improve antibiotic use (AU). OBJECTIVES: To estimate AU prevalence in dogs and cats in U.S. veterinary teaching hospitals (VTHs) and identify antibiotic drugs commonly prescribed, indications for use, and evidence of bacterial infection. ANIMALS: Medical record data were collected from dogs and cats examined at 14 VTHs. METHODS: Data were collected from VTH medical records of dogs and cats examined by primary care, urgent care, emergency and critical care, internal medicine, and surgery services on a single day during August 13-September 3, 2020. Data included signalment; clinical service; inpatient or outpatient status; clinical conditions; diagnostic tests; evidence of bacterial infection; intended reason for AU; name and route of antibiotics prescribed. RESULTS: Of 883 dogs and cats, 322 (36.5%) were prescribed at least 1 antibiotic. Among 285 antibiotics administered systemically intended for treatment of infection, 10.9% were prescribed without evidence of infection. The most common class of antibiotics presribed for systemic administration was potentiated penicillin for dogs (115/346, 33.3%) and cats (27/80, 33.8%). For dogs and cats, first-generation cephalosporins (93/346, 26.9% and 11/80, 13.8%, respectively) and fluoroquinolones (51/346, 14.7% and 19/80, 23.8%, respectively) was second or third most-prescribed. Common AU indications included skin, respiratory, and urinary conditions, and perioperative use. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Collaborative data collection provides a sustainable methodology to generate national AU prevalence estimates and bring attention to areas requiring additional research and detailed data collection. These efforts can also identify practice improvement opportunities in settings where future veterinarians are trained.

Diagnostic utility of abdominal ultrasonography for evaluation of dogs with nontraumatic hemoabdomen: 94 cases (2014-2017).

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the utility of abdominal ultrasonography (AUS) to detect grossly evident masses in dogs with nontraumatic hemoabdomen. ANIMALS: 94 client-owned dogs. PROCEDURES: Electronic medical records from 2014 to 2017 were searched to identify dogs with nontraumatic hemoabdomen that had an AUS performed by a radiologist and subsequently underwent gross evaluation by surgery or necropsy. Ultrasonography, surgery, and histology reports were reviewed, and descriptive statistics were performed. Sensitivity of ultrasonography to detect grossly identifiable masses was calculated. RESULTS: Differences were identified between AUS and surgical or necropsy findings for 51 of 94 (54%) dogs. Splenic masses were most commonly identified as the cause of hemoabdomen. Sensitivity of AUS was 87.4%, 37.3%, and 31.3% for masses in the spleen, liver, and mesentery, respectively. Five dogs had more lesions identified with AUS than were found on gross evaluation; 0 of 6 dogs with peritoneal diffuse nodular metastasis had lesions detected by AUS. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: In this sample of dogs, the utility of AUS to detect grossly identifiable lesions in dogs with nontraumatic hemoabdomen was limited, with the highest and lowest sensitivity found for splenic masses and diffuse nodular metastasis, respectively.