Evaluation of a canine and feline behavioural welfare assessment tool for use in companion animal veterinary practice

Cats' and dogs' welfare: text mining and topics modeling analysis of the scientific literature

Animal welfare is a field with increasing significance and has been raising huge concerns of the public and the political stage. Cats and dogs possess an important role in human life, but their welfare is not always secured from a legal aspect. This review aimed to describe the evolution and geographical distribution of "cats and dogs" and "puppies and kittens" welfare literature over the last 40 years, distinguish the main research topics studied and highlight gaps in knowledge. A search using Scopus® was performed with different search strings and predetermined filters as time range, language, and subject area. A total of 2,725 scientific literature records were retrieved but only the ones that referred to cats and dogs' welfare aspects were retained. The final 1,775 records were processed through descriptive statistics, and text mining and topic analysis procedures were performed on their titles and abstracts. The results showed that the number of studies has been increasing, especially in Europe and North America. "Shelter" was the most frequent word, followed by "behavior," "owner" and "adopt." The nine topics that emerged from the analysis were breeding, stress and housing conditions, welfare and pain assessment, public health, shelter management and euthanasia, behavioral problems, health issues and management, human-animal interaction, and owners' and veterinarians' perceptions. While stress and housing conditions, public health, and owners' and veterinarians' perceptions were the most studied topics, human-animal interaction was the least studied. This review confirmed the increasing research and interest in cats' and dogs' welfare and showed gaps in knowledge where further studies are needed.

The Science and Social Validity of Companion Animal Welfare: Functionally Defined Parameters in a Multidisciplinary Field

Social validity refers to the social significance and acceptability of intervention goals, procedures, and outcomes. Animal practitioners, who are often guided by the principles of ABA, lack the benefit of verbal participants (at least with respect to target animals) with which to assess a client's needs and preferences. The study of a learner's welfare is useful for determining areas where intervention is needed or how the learner feels about an intervention that is underway. Three tenets of animal welfare measurement include physiological function, naturalistic behavior, and affect, where affect refers to private events, including emotions, which are a function of the same variables and contingencies responsible for controlling public behavior. The development of new technologies allows us to look "under the skin" and account for subjective experiences that can now be observed objectively. We introduce the reader to tools available from the animal welfare sciences for the objective measurement of social validity from the learner's perspective.

Assessment of health and welfare in a small sample of dogs owned by people who are homeless

BACKGROUND

Pet ownership is common among homeless people, with dogs the most frequently reported pets. However, homeless people receive considerable criticism for keeping pets due to public perception of poor care provision.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A convenience, cross-sectional sample of 19 homeless people, owning a total of 21 dogs were recruited, and their dogs' health and wellbeing assessed using the PDSA Petwise MOT (P-MOT).

RESULTS

The dogs compared favourably with conventionally owned pets in most areas, including exercise and companionship. Problems included being overweight/obese (although at lower prevalence than the general population). Some owners had difficulty in accessing veterinary care. Behavioural concerns were reported for 61.9% of the dogs, most commonly separation-related distress.

DISCUSSION

Being unable to safely leave their pets may impair owners' access to services. Provision of accessible veterinary care, behavioural support and pet-friendly services could improve the health of homeless owners and their pets.

"What Would You Do?": How Cat Owners Make End-of-Life Decisions and Implications for Veterinary-Client Interactions

Cats are the most common companion animals in New Zealand. Advances in veterinary care means that cats are living longer and there are many older cats. End-of-life decisions about cats are complicated by owner-cat relationships and other psychosocial factors. Our study explored the ways in which end-of-life decisions were being made by owners of older and chronically ill cats in New Zealand and the role of their veterinarian in the process. Qualitative data were gathered via retrospective semi-structured interviews with 14 cat owners using open-ended questions. Transcripts of these interviews were explored for themes using template analysis and nine themes were identified. Four were animal-centered themes: cat behavior change, pain was a bad sign, signs of ageing are not good, and the benefits of having other people see what owners often could not. Five were human-centered themes: veterinarians understanding owners' relationships with their cat, normalizing death, the need for a good veterinarian to manage end of life, veterinary validation that owners were doing the right thing, and a strong desire to predict the time course and outcome for their cat. End-of-life decision making is complex, and the veterinarian's role is often poorly defined. Our owners appreciated the expertise and validation that their veterinarian provided but continuity of care was important. Future research aimed at exploring the veterinarian's perspective during end-of-life decision making for cats would be a valuable addition to the topic.

Cross-sectional survey of cat handling practices in veterinary clinics throughout Canada and the United States

OBJECTIVE

To assess handling techniques commonly used during routine examinations and procedures used for calm, fearful, and aggressive cats by veterinarians and nonveterinarian staff at Canadian and US veterinary practices and to evaluate demographic factors associated with those handling techniques.

SAMPLE

310 veterinarians and 944 nonveterinarians who handle cats at Canadian and US veterinary practices.

PROCEDURES

An online questionnaire was developed to evaluate respondent demographics and use of common cat handling practices and techniques. A snowball sampling method was used to send a link to the questionnaire to members of Canadian and US veterinary-affiliated groups. Descriptive statistics were generated; logistic regression was used to identify demographic factors associated with the use of minimal and full-body restraint with scruffing during routine examination and procedures for fearful and aggressive cats.

RESULTS

Full-body restraint was used to handle cats of all demeanors, although its frequency of use was greatest for fearful and aggressive cats. Veterinarians and nonveterinarians who graduated from veterinary training programs before 2006 were less likely to use full-body restraint for cats of all demeanors, compared with nonveterinarians who did not graduate or graduated between 2006 and 2015. Other factors associated with decreased use of full-body restraint included working at an American Association of Feline Practitioners-certified practice and working at a Canadian practice.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE

Results suggested that full-body restraint is commonly used to handle cats. Further research is necessary to determine whether current handling recommendations are effective in decreasing stress for cats during veterinary visits.

Investigating risk factors that predict a dog's fear during veterinary consultations

Attending the veterinary clinic is an integral part of the physical welfare of every companion dog. However, some dogs experience their veterinary visits negatively, which poses a risk of injury to the veterinary staff, their guardian (owner) and themselves. It may also influence the regularity of non-urgent veterinary appointments. To date there have been conflicting reports relating to the proportion of dogs that show fear during their veterinary visits. In this study, we explored the risk factors associated with fear during veterinary examination and in novel situations (including first time at the veterinary clinic) from 26,555 responses in the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire database. According to their guardians, 41% of companion dogs displayed mild to moderate fearful behaviour when examined by a veterinarian, and 14% exhibited severe or extreme fear. A similar trend was observed with dogs responding fearfully when in unfamiliar situations, including the dog’s first time at the veterinary clinic. Chi-squared tests showed every bivariate relationship between fear and the environmental and demographic factors measured was significant (p < 0.05). The most important predictors of fear in a veterinary examination were, in order: the dog’s breed group (27.1%), their history of roles or activities (16.7%), where they were sourced (15.2%), their weight (12%), the age of other dogs in the household (9.5%) and dog owner experience (6.3%). However, combined these risk factors only explain a total of 7% of variance of fear observed during veterinary examination. This suggests that fear exhibited during veterinary visits is common in dogs, but that the environment or human-animal interactions are likely to contribute more to prevalence and severity of this problem than the demographic factors measured here. We conclude by highlighting opportunities for future research aimed at facilitating less stressful veterinary visits for dogs and their guardians.