New research from the Royal Veterinary College has found that although dog owners can often accurately identify common canine health problems, they frequently underestimate how urgently to seek veterinary care.
This research provides vital information to help veterinary professionals guide, inform and support owners earlier, and help owners to understand their key role in protecting their dog’s health to better support canine welfare.
Much like humans, dogs can experience a wide range of different medical conditions, from diabetes to osteoarthritis. However, unlike humans, dogs are unable to directly communicate how they feel, so owners take on the responsibility for identifying illness and promptly seeking veterinary care when needed. Owners’ knowledge and perceptions are long recognised as key influences on how and when they decide to enlist veterinary expertise, but have been understudied until now.
This study, therefore, set out to explore decision-making by UK dog owners for when to seek veterinary care for common conditions in dogs and to identify what influences these decisions. The RVC team conducted a large UK online study, using realistic clinical “vignette” scenarios for 30 common conditions affecting dogs, derived from UK-wide VetCompass patient records. The vignettes were short clinical text ’stories’ of an illness that included information on the dog’s demography (e.g. age), relevant clinical history (e.g. limping) and helpful contextual information (e.g. events preceding the signs of illness).
Each of the 1,772 dog owners assessed three vignettes and gave their view on what the likely condition was and how urgently they felt that veterinary care was needed. The participants also reported which information sources they used to help with their decision-making for the vignettes and which ones they habitually use in the real world for their own dog’s health. Owner vignette responses were then compared with consensus from a panel of experienced veterinary surgeons to decide on the accuracy and reliability of these responses.
The findings revealed that UK dog owners were highly accurate at identifying conditions with clear visible signs. For example, epilepsy, kennel cough, flea infestation, anal gland infections or osteoarthritis. However, owners were less accurate at identifying conditions that had variable or less visible signs, such as mast cell tumours, glaucoma, diabetes and gastrointestinal foreign body. These results show the value that veterinary care offers to owners to protect their dogs from delayed treatment.
Owners also rated conditions as less urgent than veterinary surgeons advised in over a quarter (28.4%) of responses. Conditions commonly underestimated included ear infection (otitis externa), damage to the eye (corneal ulcers) and heatstroke. Underestimation of urgency is a particular welfare concern because it risks delayed or even non-treatment, prolonging suffering or even resulting in death for life-threatening conditions.
Owners reported using diverse information sources, both to aid their vignette responses and also more habitually for their own dog’s health. The most commonly used sources for their own dog were their knowledge/experience (73.7%), contacting their local veterinary practice (61.1%) and internet searches (49.2%). Factors influencing their choice of information source included the reputation (66.8%), factual correctness (65.6%) and availability (39.5%) of the source.
The research found that the use of online dog health groups to either identify the conditions in the vignettes, or habitually for their own dog, decreased the accuracy of assessments. Similarly, using the online dog health groups for their own dog also increased the risk of underestimating urgency by 30.0%. In contrast, using online dog health groups to aid vignette responses had positive effects, reducing the risk of underestimating urgency by 50%. Using general internet searching to aid vignette responses also increased the accuracy of identifying conditions but had no impact on urgency assessments. These complex and sometimes conflicting effects of information sources suggest the importance of owner-related factors, such as health information-literacy or trust in advice provided by peers in dog health groups.
The findings also showed that owners who habitually contacted their veterinary practice for advice on their own dog’s health were more likely to assess vignette condition urgency in line with veterinary recommendations. These results show that a strong working relationship between owner and veterinary practice can be a cornerstone to protecting the health and welfare of their dog.
In this new information age, there is also likely to be increased reliance on telephone triage, telemedicine platforms and veterinary-endorsed information prescriptions to support better shared decision-making between owners and veterinary teams. Emerging AI technologies may also have valuable roles in aiding owner assessments and subsequent decision-making in the future, though further research is required to understand the risks and reliability of the ‘advice’ given by these sources.
Dr Rowena Packer, Senior Lecturer in Companion Animal Behaviour and Welfare Science at RVC and senior author of the paper, said: “This study highlights a welfare gap between what dog owners observe and how they perceive the need for veterinary care. Understandably, health problems without obvious external clinical signs are most at risk of having the need for urgent treatment underestimated. However, with better triage support, including telemedicine and carefully designed AI decision-support tools, there is an opportunity to help improve this awareness. Used responsibly, these tools could help support owner decision-making, reduce delays, support veterinary teams and ultimately improve welfare outcomes for dogs.”
Michelle Farrow RVN, PhD student at RVC and first author of the paper, said: “Veterinary professionals see firsthand how delays in seeking care can impact animal welfare, but we also recognise the uncertainty many owners face. Decisions about seeing the vet are rarely straightforward. This research provides valuable insight into those moments of uncertainty, helping veterinary teams to guide, reassure and support owners earlier, communicate more clearly, and ultimately improve outcomes for dogs.”
Professor Dan O’Neill, Professor of Companion Animal Epidemiology at RVC and co-author of the paper, said: “Owners often underestimate their power to influence the lifetime health of their dog, which includes choosing a dog with a natural body shape in the first place, to then learning about common health conditions in dogs and how urgently veterinary care is needed for each. With great power comes great responsibility. By working through the vignettes in this new paper, caring dog owners can increase their skills at recognising health conditions and their urgency.”
