Background Skin disease severity and treatment plan complexity are both related to owner experience of caregiver burden; however, to date they have not been examined simultaneously in owners of dogs with atopic or other chronic allergic dermatitis. Hypotheses/Objectives We expected to replicate and extend previous work by showing that caregiver burden is linked to treatment complexity and disease severity in this population. Moreover, we hypothesized that a relationship between burden and treatment complexity would be present in both subjective (owner report of experience) and objective (number of weekly treatments) measures, and that these relationships would exist independent of skin disease severity. Participants Eighty‐six owners of dogs with atopic or other chronic allergic dermatitis recruited through social media dog allergy groups. Methods and materials Cross‐sectional online assessments were completed for caregiver burden, treatment plan complexity and skin disease severity. Results Caregiver burden was correlated with skin disease severity (r = 0.40) and both subjective (r = 0.37) and objective (r =0.30) measures of treatment complexity (P < 0.01 for all). Relationships between caregiver burden and treatment complexity remained significant after accounting for skin disease severity. Conclusions and clinical importance Greater treatment plan complexity is associated with higher caregiver burden in owners of dogs with atopic or other chronic allergic dermatitis. The independence of this relationship highlights the importance of simplicity in effective treatment planning.

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Background Increasing complexity of treatment plans is associated with higher levels of caregiver burden in owners of dogs with skin disease. It is possible that elevated caregiver burden resulting from treatment complexity could, in turn, affect the veterinarian–client relationship. Hypotheses/Objectives We expected that treatment complexity, caregiver burden, and the client’s perception of the veterinarian–client relationship would be related to each other. We also expected an indirect effect of caregiver burden on the cross‐sectional association between treatment complexity and the veterinarian–client relationship, and that this effect would be robust to adjustment for the dog’s skin disease course and severity. Participants Participants were 349 owners of dogs with skin disease recruited through online consumer panels. Materials and methods Cross‐sectional online assessments were completed for caregiver burden, treatment plan complexity, veterinarian–client relationship, and skin disease course and severity. Demographic information also was collected. Results The indirect effect of caregiver burden on the relationship between treatment complexity and veterinarian–client relationship was statistically significant, accounting for 42.76% of the variance in the model. After controlling for disease severity and course, that effect remained statistically significant, accounting for 37.76% of the variance. Conclusions and clinical importance Findings support the notion that greater treatment complexity is related to the owner’s perception of the veterinarian–client relationship via caregiver burden. Efforts to reduce caregiver burden by using the simplest effective treatment may benefit the veterinarian–client relationship.

Objectives Caregiver burden has been found in owners of seriously ill pets; however, research to date has been heavily represented by dog owners. Prior caregiver burden work has neither intentionally focused on cat owners nor been appropriately powered to examine differences in owners of cats relative to owners of dogs. We expected that owners of an ill cat would exhibit greater caregiver burden than owners of a healthy cat but lower burden than owners of an ill dog. Methods A cross-sectional online assessment of caregiver burden was completed by 1085 pet owners through a pet demographic audience platform, including 333 owners reporting on a cat with current illness, 492 owners of a healthy cat and 260 owners of dogs with a current illness. Results Owners of an ill cat, examined across all illnesses represented, had greater burden ( P <0.001) than the owners of a healthy cat and somewhat lower burden ( P = 0.013) than owners of an ill dog. Conclusions and relevance Caregiver burden is present in owners of an ill cat and may differ from that of dog owners. Future work is needed to determine the reasons underlying this difference between species. Given that restricted sample sizes precluded examination across specific conditions, it will also be important to determine whether particular diseases yield greater burden in cat owners relative to dog owners.

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