Dog Owners' Attitude toward Veterinary Antibiotic Use and Antibiotic Resistance with a Focus on Canine Diarrhea Management

Simple Summary Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the main health concerns worldwide and addressing the problem through the One Health approach is essential to manage the burden of AMR emergence and transmission. Prudent use of antibiotics and compliance to the prescribed therapy are key actions to prevent the impact of AMR in animals and humans. As regards companion animals, the effective use of antibiotics depends on the collaboration of pet-owners with prescribing vets. To improve compliance, it is important to improve pet-owner understanding of AMR-associated risks. We conducted an online survey to investigate AMR knowledge amongst dog owners with a focus on canine acute diarrhea (AD) management. AD is a good example to consider. The disease is stressful for owners that seek veterinary help for their dog's condition. Some cases of canine AD are still treated with antibiotic courses as first-line medication despite antimicrobial administration often being unnecessary. Rather, it has been observed that dietary management and administration of nutraceuticals can positively impact on the resolution of symptoms. Respondents to our survey were reasonably aware of AMR existence and AMR-associated risks. Almost all of them agreed that treating canine AD with nutraceuticals would represent a valuable alternative to antibiotics. An ad hoc questionnaire was designed in order to investigate AMR knowledge amongst Italian dog owners, owner expectations concerning pharmacological treatment of canine AD, and client attitudes towards and compliance with alternative strategies to antimicrobial administration. A total of 250 questionnaires were returned. Most of respondents were female, aged 36-70 and workers. More than a half of participants owned one dog with mixed breed, with Labrador retriever, golden retriever, dachshund, and border collie being the most represented breeds. On average, each dog was treated with an oral antibiotic 1.044 times per year. Intestinal diseases were among the main reasons (19%) for antibiotic prescription. Oral antibiotic courses without veterinary consultation (21%) and anticipated termination of the therapy (17.1%) were less common than reported elsewhere. The majority of respondents knew the meaning of AMR with a significant inverse association between the level of education and the tendency to administer antimicrobials without consulting a clinician (p = 0.004). Most of the owners expected a rapid recovery of clinical signs after a first episode of AD and accepted natural dietary supplementation for treating the condition. Ninety-five percent of the respondents believed that public funding should be spent to study AMR. Even though an acceptable degree of AMR awareness emerged, we feel that further efforts should be made to increase public AMR knowledge and to stimulate proactive measures to fight the phenomenon. On the other hand, the development of guidelines for the treatment of uncomplicated canine AD would help clinicians to rationalize antimicrobial use.