The Effect of Time of Antimicrobial Administration on the Outcome of Septic Dogs

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to determine if the time to any antimicrobial administration, as well as time to appropriate antimicrobial administration, impacted hospitalization time of dogs diagnosed with sepsis. Records from 175 dogs diagnosed with sepsis were included in this single-center retrospective study. Results found a significant, positive correlation between hospitalization time and time to appropriate antimicrobial administration ( P = .004). A significant relationship was also found between survival rate and acute patient physiological and laboratory evaluation fast (APPLE fast ) score ( P = .03), survival rate and source control ( P = .05), and source control and time to appropriate antimicrobial administration ( P < .01). No significant relationship was found between hospitalization time and time to any antimicrobial administration ( P = .11), time to any antimicrobial administration and source control ( P = .77), time to any ( P = .11) or appropriate ( P = .37) antimicrobial administration and survival rate, or APPLE fast score ( P = .07). These findings suggest the importance of appropriate antimicrobial choice upon recognition of sepsis in veterinary patients to decrease length of hospitalization. Additional research is required to further investigate the effect of time to antimicrobial administration on the survival rates of dogs with sepsis.