Survey of the UK veterinary profession: common species and conditions nominated by veterinarians in practice

Abstract

The practice of evidence-based veterinary medicine involves the utilisation of scientific evidence for clinical decision making. To enable this, research topics pertinent to clinical practice need to be identified, and veterinary clinicians are best placed to do this. The main aim of this study was to describe the veterinary population, the common species and conditions veterinary clinicians nominated they saw in practice and how much information clinicians perceived was available in the literature for these. A questionnaire was distributed to all Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons registered veterinarians agreeing to be contacted for research purposes (n=14,532). A useable response rate of 33 per cent (4842/14,532) was achieved. The most commonly seen species reported by vets were dogs, cats and rabbits followed by equines and cattle. Overall, skin conditions were most commonly mentioned for small animals, musculoskeletal conditions for equines and reproduction conditions for production animals. Veterinary clinicians perceived there was a higher level of information available in the literature for conditions in dogs, cattle and equines and lower levels for rabbits and guinea pigs. The results from this study can be used to help define the research needs of the profession to aid the incorporation of evidence in veterinary practice.

Preliminary study on attitudes, opinions and knowledge of Italian veterinarians with regard to abdominal visceral pain in dogs

“…The main area of interest (internal medicine, surgery and anaesthesia) of the respondents demonstrates that veterinarians who were routinely involved with painful conditions were more likely to be interested in participating in this survey; this willingness appears similar to that identified by a survey on common species and conditions nominated by veterinarians in practice in the UK veterinary profession (Nielsen et al. ).…”

“…; Nielsen et al. ). Based on our data sampling, it is difficult to determine whether more women received the questionnaire, or whether women were more interested in participating in the online survey than men, or even if there is a larger proportion of women than men in small animal practice.…”

A New Metric for Quantifying the Relative Impact of Risk Factors on Loss of Working Life Illustrated in a Population of Working Dogs

“…For instance, we reported on both the incidence and impact on working life of health issues found in working guide dogs and argued that musculoskeletal issues were the most important category of health related issues because of their high incidence [17]. This fits with data from pet dogs, which suggests musculoskeletal issues are commonly seen by veterinarians [19, 20]. In guide dogs the incidence of musculoskeletal issues also reflected the impact, resulting in the greatest reduction in working life compared with other health issues [17].…”

Using behavioural science to improve pain management

“…Although most animals brought to a small animal veterinary practice are in pain (Nielsen and others 2014), pain management is often imperfect (Flecknell 2008). Usually, the responsibility for pain management is left solely with the veterinary surgeon in charge of the case.…”