Dog owners underestimate urgency of vet care, research finds
Over a quarter of owners rated their pet's conditions as less urgent than a vet would.
Researchers have warned that dog owners may not be able to accurately assess their pet’s need for veterinary care.
A new study, conducted by the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), found that dog owners frequently underestimated how urgently they should be seeking advice for their pet.
The RVC sought to explore the decision-making process of UK dog owners regarding common canine conditions, identifying what influenced their decisions. There was particular interest in how accurate owners’ knowledge was, which researchers say is understudied.
The research group produced a series of realistic clinical ‘vignette’ scenarios, framed as short stories exploring 30 common conditions and including the dog’s demographic data, clinical history and additional context. These stories were informed by real patient records collated from VetCompass.
Data was gathered from 1,772 dog owners, each of whom was given three vignettes to consider. The dog owners shared what they thought the condition was, and assessed how urgently they felt veterinary care was needed.
They also reported which information sources they used to make their decisions, and which they used for their own dog’s health.
The owners’ vignette responses were compared with a consensus from veterinary surgeons, who decided on how accurate and reliable the responses were.
Dog owners in the UK were found to be highly accurate at identifying conditions with clear visible signs, such as epilepsy and osteoarthritis. However less visible conditions, such a glaucoma and diabetes, were less accurately identified.
In over a quarter of responses, owners rated conditions as less urgent than a veterinary surgeon would advise.
The RVC warns that underestimating a healthcare emergency can pose a serious welfare concern, risking delayed or non-treatment, prolonged suffering, and even death. This happened most commonly with otitis externa, corneal ulcers, and heatstroke.
There was a diverse range of information sources used to support decisions made about vignettes and their dog’s own health. Nearly 74 per cent of respondents relied on their own knowledge, 61 per cent contacted their local veterinary practice, and 49 per cent used internet searches.
Among the factors influencing their choice of source were reputation (66.8 per cent), factual correctness (65.6 per cent) and availability (39.5 per cent).
Rowena Packer, senior lecturer in Companion Animal Behaviour and Welfare Science at RVC and senior author of the paper, said: “This study highlights a welfare gap between what dog owners observe and how they perceive the need for veterinary care. Understandably, health problems without obvious external clinical signs are most at risk of having the need for urgent treatment underestimated.
“However, with better triage support, including telemedicine and carefully designed AI decision-support tools, there is an opportunity to help improve this awareness. Used responsibly, these tools could help support owner decision-making, reduce delays, support veterinary teams and ultimately improve welfare outcomes for dogs.”
The full study can be found in the journal PLoS One.
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