Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Jun;52(6):310-8.
doi: 10.1111/j.1748-5827.2011.01072.x.

Therapeutic antibiotic use patterns in dogs: observations from a veterinary teaching hospital

A Wayne  1 , R McCarthy, J Lindenmayer
Affiliations

Therapeutic antibiotic use patterns in dogs: observations from a veterinary teaching hospital

A Wayne et al. J Small Anim Pract. 2011 Jun.

Abstract

Objectives: To describe therapeutic antibiotic use patterns in dogs at a small animal teaching hospital.

Methods: A retrospective case analysis of randomly sampled antibiotic prescriptions in dogs from May 20, 2008 to May 20, 2009, deemed to be for therapeutic use, was performed. Records were reviewed to determine if there was documentation of confirmed, suspected or no evidence of infection. The five most frequently prescribed antibiotics were identified and analysed for their distribution in these categories.

Results: In 17% of therapeutic antibiotic prescriptions there was confirmed infection, in 45% suspected infection, and in 38% there was no documented evidence of infection. Amoxicillin-clavulanate was the most frequently prescribed antibiotic, followed by cefazolin/cephalexin, enrofloxacin, ampicillin/amoxicillin and doxycycline. Doxycycline was the most frequently prescribed with no documented evidence of infection, and amoxicillin-clavulanate was the most frequently prescribed with either confirmed or suspected evidence of infection.

Discussion: Clinicians use a variety of tools when deciding whether or not to prescribe an antibiotic and which antibiotic to use. As in human medicine, there is likely overuse and inappropriate use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine. Veterinarians should engage in discussions regarding clinically applicable guidelines for appropriate antibiotic use.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart of case selection for analysis including results from each analysis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of encounters by category in which a therapeutic antibiotic was prescribed between May 20, 2008 and May 20, 2009 (N=435).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Distribution of antibiotic prescriptions at 435 encounters targeting infectious disease randomly sampled between May 20, 2008 and May 20, 2009 (N= 579).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Percent distribution of prescriptions targeting infections for confirmed, suspect or no evidence of infection by antibiotic of the top five most prescribed antibiotics between May 20, 2008 and May 20, 2009.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Percent cases for which a culture was or was not performed for the most prescribed antibiotics (excluding doxycycline) between May 20, 2008 and May 20, 2009.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Percent cases in which doxycycline was prescribed in which a titer was or was not performed between May 20, 2008 and May 20, 2009.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Gould IM. A review of the role of antibiotic policies in the control of antibiotic resistance. J Antimicrob Chemoth. 1999;43:459–465. - PubMed
    1. Levy SB. Antibiotic resistance: An ecological imbalance. In: Chadwick DJ, Goode J, editors. Antibiotic Resistance: Origins, Evolution, Selection and Spread. West Sussex, England: Wiley, Chichester (Ciba Foundation Symposium 207); 1997. pp. 1–14. - PubMed
    1. Singer RS. Antibiotic resistance – the interplay between antibiotic use in animals and human beings. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 2003;3:47. - PubMed
    1. Benedict KM, Morley PS, Metre DC. Characteristics of biosecurity and infection control programs at veterinary teaching hospitals. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2008;233(5):767–773. - PubMed
    1. Warren A, et al. Multi-drug resistant Escherichia coli with extended spectrum β-lactamase activity and flouroquinolone resistance isolated from clinical infections in dogs. Aus Vet J. 2001;79(9):621–623. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms