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.
Highlights
One in three small animal consultations in the United Kingdom (UK) focuses on preventative healthcare, with a significant proportion of these consultations booked by the owner for the purpose of vaccination [1,2]
This study suggests that advice for educational components to be included all adult pet vaccination consultations [8,9,30,31] has not been widely adopted in the UK
This research suggests that owners and veterinary surgeons may not share expectations about what will happen in a dog or cat vaccination consultation
Summary
One in three small animal consultations in the United Kingdom (UK) focuses on preventative healthcare, with a significant proportion of these consultations booked by the owner for the purpose of vaccination [1,2]. Since the 1950s, vaccination consultations have provided a source of consistent revenue for veterinary practices [3,4], but the content of such consultations has changed markedly. Over time, veterinary surgeons identified that an annual health check examination had benefits for both animal health and practice profits [5] when it identified health problems that owners had missed [6,7,8]. There have been calls for the content of preventative healthcare consultations to be expanded further, in relation to owner education about common preventable diseases and welfare Preventative healthcare consultations in the UK are more likely to include a full physical examination and discussion of a greater number of problems per pet than other consultation types [1,2].
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