What is the optimum duration of antibiotic therapy in canine cystitis? You can help determine the answer

What is the optimum duration of antibiotic therapy in canine cystitis? You can help determine the answer

Why don’t we know the answer?

Antibiotic therapy is often prescribed in general practice for dogs with a presumptive urinary tract infection. While the decision about whether to prescribe an antibiotic can be complex, deciding on the length of the antibiotic course should be more straightforward. However, the current standard antibiotic course prescribed for dogs with cystitis (typically ranging from 3  to 7 days) is arbitrary and largely extrapolated from experience in humans.

Given that the risk of antibiotic-related adverse events, including antibiotic resistance, increases with longer treatment courses, there are important benefits to gain if there was clear evidence that shorter courses are generally as effective as longer ones. Happily this evidence is within reach because a study has been set up in the UK to establish the optimal treatment duration.

What is the study?

 The study, called SOS (Stop on Sunday) includes female dogs aged 6 months to 10 years, presenting on a weekday (Monday to Friday) with acute onset of lower urinary tract clinical signs (increased frequency of urination [pollakiuria], straining and difficulty passing urine [dysuria/stranguria] or presence of red blood cells in urine [haematuria]) for which the vet intends to prescribe antibiotics.

The trial will compare 3, 4, 5 or 6 days’ antibiotic therapy (amoxicillin/clavulanate 12.5mg/kg by mouth 12-hourly) with 7 days’. The number of doses of antibiotic for an individual patient is determined by the day of presentation; all treatments stop on a Sunday evening (this a quasi-randomisation design).  The study has ethical approval.

How you can help

To ensure that the trial generates reliable evidence, the study needs to enrol 900+ cases presenting in primary care veterinary practice over the next year or so. The study organisers have made it super-easy for vets to take part. The short video below explains how it works.

For more details

Visit  https://www.samsoc.org/veterinary-projects/sos-uti-study or contact: Fergus Allerton (Fergus.allerton@willows.uk.net Tel: 0121 712 7070, 07964 282584) or Andy Kent (andrew.kent@willows.uk.net  Tel:  0121 712 7070).