Calling all small animal practitioners! Invitation to join UTI trial...

SAMSoc are proud to announce the launch of a prospective study designed to establish the optimal duration of antibiotic therapy for dogs with a presumptive urinary tract infection.

The Society needs help from vets in primary care to enrol eligible cases and help us recruit 900 cases over the next 1-2 years. We are looking for all vets interested in contributing to cutting-edge clinical research and invite them to contact Committee members Andrew Kent or Fergus Allerton for more details.

The study is called STOP on SUNDAY as all eligible cases (female dogs of between 6 months and 10 years of age presenting with acute onset lower urinary tract signs) will be given sufficient antibiotics such that the course finishes on the following Sunday evening. This will allow comparison of 3,4,5,6 and 7 day courses of antibiotics.

The study has ethical approval from the University of Nottingham and an ATC from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate. All data is rapidly collated via an electronic data capture system (Castor) that is GDPR compliant. Optimising the duration of antibiotic therapy is a key step in the battle against antimicrobial resistance.

Urinary Tract Infection is a common problem encountered by vets in general practice, with 14% of all dogs acquiring a bacterial cystitis in their lifetime .