29 Sept 2026
Alex Gough MA, VetMB, PhD, CertSAM, CertVC, MRCVS highlights the latest studies throughout the veterinary industry and explains results.
Alex Gough
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Image: Alexey Kuznetsov / Adobe Stock
Caring for ill pets can be a significant burden for owners. Stumpf et al1 performed a cross-sectional study using an owner-reported questionnaire to examine whether the owners of dogs with chronic enteropathies experience more of a caregiver burden compared to owners of healthy dogs, taking into account emotional, social and financial factors, and the owner-dog relationship.
Owners of 447 healthy dogs and owners of 223 dogs with chronic enteropathy completed the questionnaire. Owners of dogs with chronic enteropathy reported that they had more of a psychological burden and a lower quality of life than owners of healthy dogs, with more frequent severe clinical signs increasing caregiver burden and decreasing quality of life. However, the owner-dog relationship (emotional closeness and attachment) was largely maintained. Visits to vets, financial costs and the time-consuming nature of care contributed to the caregiver burden, as did concern for suffering and worries about death of the pet.
The authors concluded that owning a dog with chronic enteropathy can have a significant impact on owners’ quality of life, and noted that caregiver well-being should be considered when providing veterinary care.
Another study (McNulty et al)2 asking for owners’ feedback involved an end of life survey (EOLS) to help increase the understanding of deaths of pet dogs. A total of 793 owners of dogs which died during the study period were invited to respond. After non-responders and others were excluded, 646 survey responses were included in the study. The mean age of death was 13 years, with 83% being euthanised, mostly in a veterinary clinic (77%) or in the owner’s home (23%); 15% died without veterinary involvement.
The causes of death according to the owners were cancer in 30%, old age in 29% and organ disease in 22%. Pain and/or suffering were given as the most common reasons for euthanasia (49%), with poor quality of life given as a reason in 35% of cases.
The authors concluded that owners’ perceptions of suffering and quality of life, as well as age of pet, have an impact on decisions to euthanise a pet dog.
Anaesthesia has the potential to cause hypotension, and this is thought to cause adverse outcomes in both human and veterinary patients.
Mignini et al3 performed a retrospective study to examine risk factors for hypotension in dogs undergoing anaesthesia.
Hypotension was defined as mean arterial pressure of less than or equal to 60mmHg for three consecutive measurements taken five minutes apart; 390 anaesthesia records were examined and hypotension was present in 19%.
Abdominal surgery markedly increased the odds ratio for hypotension (5.56 compared to other procedures). Young age (less than 12 months) also increased the odds ratio of hypotension, while increasing duration of anaesthesia had only a slight increase in risk. Use of regional anaesthesia and nerve blocks reduced the risk of hypotension.
The authors noted that identifying risk factors for hypotension in anaesthesia could help improve anaesthesia safety.
Severe pulmonic stenosis in dogs carries a poor prognosis if left untreated. The most common interventional treatment for this condition is balloon pulmonary valvuloplasty.
Higa et al4 performed a retrospective study to describe the anaesthesia, complications and outcomes of this procedure in dogs with severe pulmonic stenosis. A total of 21 dogs were included in the study and they had a median age of 18 months.
French bulldogs were over-represented, making up 33% of cases. The most common clinical signs were syncope and fatigue; 95% of anaesthetic protocols involved etomidate/midazolam induction and mostly utilised isoflurane maintenance with additional intravenous agents. Hypotension occurred in 67% of dogs, and ventricular and bradyarrhythmias were also noted; 90% of cases had a good reduction in right ventricular pressure gradient.
The authors concluded that balloon pulmonary valvuloplasty is an effective treatment for severe pulmonic stenosis, but that arrhythmias and hypotension were common, meaning that careful monitoring during the peri-anaesthetic period is vital.
In humans with acute kidney injury, hypocalcaemia is associated with increased mortality. Philp et al5 performed a retrospective study to look at the severity, causes and outcomes in azotaemic dogs and cats with concurrent ionised hypocalcaemia.
The outcome was defined as non-survival or survival to discharge; 302 cats and 646 dogs were included in the study. In total 76% of dogs and 85% of cats were classified as mildly hypocalcaemic; 23% of cats and 13% of dogs as moderately hypocalcaemic; and 1% of cats and 2% of dogs as severely hypocalcaemic.
In dogs, renal causes accounted for most cases of azotaemia, while in cats, renal and post-renal causes were common. Inflammatory and ischaemic aetiologies were most commonly responsible for acute kidney injury in both dogs and cats; 56% of the most severely hypocalcaemic patients had clinical signs associated with hypocalcaemia.
The authors noted that ionised hypocalcaemia in azotaemic dogs and cats is usually mild.
However, it is worth monitoring ionised calcium levels routinely in these patients.
Aural tympanokeratoma, also known as cholesteatoma, is a middle ear cyst that is often associated with otitis externa.
Ferenczi et al6 performed a retrospective study to assess the use of middle ear aspiration cytology to aid with diagnosis of this. A cytological diagnosis of tympanokeratoma was made when the majority of cells in the sample were corneocytes.
A total of 31 cases of diagnosed tympanokeratoma and six cases of non-tympanokeratoma otitis media were included in the study. Cytology had a sensitivity of 74% and a specificity of 100% for the diagnosis. Imaging of confirmed cases showed lysis of the tympanic bulla in 45% of cases. A mass was seen in the horizontal ear canal on otoendoscopy in 23% of cases.
The authors concluded that cytology from otoendoscopy-guided myringotomy was reliable in confirming cases of tympanokeratoma, but was less reliable in ruling the condition out when the findings were negative.
Kennel cough caused by Bordetella bronchiseptica is a highly infectious and distressing condition, but vaccination provides strong protection.
Wappel et al7 performed a randomised, blinded, controlled study to assess the efficacy of a live-attenuated B bronchiseptica vaccine (Vanguard B Oral; Zoetis) seven days after administration in dogs. A total of 40 8-week-old beagles were randomly assigned to a single dose of placebo or vaccine, and seven days later challenged with an aerosolised dose of the pathogen; 85% of the control dogs exhibited coughing on two consecutive days compared to 20% of the vaccinated dogs.
Clinical signs were less severe and of shorter duration in the vaccinated dogs.
The authors noted that this vaccine produced a rapid onset protective immunity at only seven days after administration.
Use of some of the drugs in this article is under the veterinary medicine cascade.
Alex Gough qualified from the University of Cambridge in 1996, and worked in mixed and small animal practice until 2002, when he co-founded a referral centre. He gained an RCVS Certificate in Small Animal Medicine in 2001, an RCVS Certificate in Veterinary Cardiology in 2005, a Postgraduate Certificate in Neuroimaging for Research from The University of Edinburgh in 2009 and a PhD in Applied Health Research from the University of Birmingham.