Owners and Veterinary Surgeons in the United Kingdom Disagree about What Should Happen during a Small Animal Vaccination Consultation

Abstract

Dog and cat vaccination consultations are a common part of small animal practice in the United Kingdom. Few data are available describing what happens during those consultations or what participants think about their content. The aim of this novel study was to investigate the attitudes of dog and cat owners and veterinary surgeons towards the content of small animal vaccination consultations. Telephone interviews with veterinary surgeons and pet owners captured rich qualitative data. Thematic analysis was performed to identify key themes. This study reports the theme describing attitudes towards the content of the consultation. Diverse preferences exist for what should be prioritised during vaccination consultations, and mismatched expectations may lead to negative experiences. Vaccination consultations for puppies and kittens were described to have a relatively standardised structure with an educational and preventative healthcare focus. In contrast, adult pet vaccination consultations were described to focus on current physical health problems with only limited discussion of preventative healthcare topics. This first qualitative exploration of UK vaccination consultation expectations suggests that the content and consistency of adult pet vaccination consultations may not meet the needs or expectations of all participants. Redefining preventative healthcare to include all preventable conditions may benefit owners, pets and veterinary surgeons, and may help to provide a clearer structure for adult pet vaccination consultations. This study represents a significant advance our understanding of this consultation type.

“You can be blind because of loving them so much”: The impact on owners in the United Kingdom of living with a dog with osteoarthritis

“…The majority of interviewees were female. This is compatible with other UK-based companion animal research involving owners [42] and is reflects a finding of greater levels of dog ownership amongst female study participants [52]. Additionally, women are more likely than men to take on caring roles in the household [53] and future research should investigate whether women also typically take on the role of pet carer in UK households.…”

“…Traditionally, support for owners would be considered to be provided by the veterinary practice with the veterinary surgeon acting as diagnositician, key information source and gateway to accessing prescription medication. However, Christiansen and colleagues [25] identified that owners may not receive the support that they seek from their veterinary practice in relation to end of life decision making, and Belshaw and colleagues [42] identified mismatched expectations between veterinary surgeons and owners during preventive healthcare consultations. This is further illustrated by the anonymous owner of an osteoarthritic dog who wrote compellingly about her sense of isolation when she felt her local practice was not giving her the support she needed [43].…”

Long‐term incidence and risk of noncardiovascular and all‐cause mortality in apparently healthy cats and cats with preclinical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

“…How best to apply epidemiology to promote disease detection and improve feline health remains a long‐standing topic of interest, especially because current metrics to assess disease have limitations. Age categories are considerably subjective, as designated, for example, by middle‐aged, adult, mature, senior, or geriatric labels that are commonly applied.…”

Measuring the success of canine and feline preventative healthcare consultations: A systematic review

“…While interviewees were predominantly asked about the consultations rather than the preventative medicines, many of the interviewee responses focused on the discussion of preventative medicines themselves (Belshaw et al, 2018a). Where the consultation was discussed, experiences and expectations of the consultation appeared to vary widely, both between owners and veterinary surgeons, and between individuals within these subgroups (Belshaw et al, 2018b). There has been some controversy in recent years around pet vaccination, with some describing 'vaccinophobia' amongst pet owners (Day, 2017).…”

“…However, previous research has suggested that preventative healthcare consultations differ considerably from health problem consultations in terms of communication style (Shaw et al, 2008) and content , and so appropriate measures of success may also be different for these consultations. In addition, recent research has found that owner and veterinary surgeon expectations of these consultations differs widely between individuals, and so different measures of success may be important to different people (Belshaw et al, 2018b).…”