This vet may not need to use antibiotics in every unhealthy dog. | Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst/Picture Alliance/Keystone

The unnecessary use of antibiotics is responsible for the emergence of resistance to them – also in pets. An online tool introduced in Switzerland in 2016 offers vets recommendations for action. For example, in cases of bladder infection, they should first determine whether bacteria are the real cause. Two years later, a study showed that the unnecessary use of antibiotics in dogs had dropped considerably. In cases of diarrhoea, for example, they were used in only 36 percent of cases compared to 65 percent previously. But a quarter of all prescriptions are still in complete contravention of the guidelines. “People still have to change their views a lot more”, says Simone Schuller, a professor of internal medicine in small animals at the Vetsuisse Faculty in Bern. Regrettably, it’s often quicker and easier just to prescribe antibiotics on a hunch.

C. Lehner et al.: Effect of antimicrobial stewardship on antimicrobial prescriptions for selected diseases of dogs in Switzerland. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine (2020)