A 2026 Journal of Small Animal Practice article presents antimicrobial use guidelines for dogs and cats from the European Network for Optimization of Veterinary Antimicrobial Therapy.
Three quick summaries of the same article, tailored for different readers.
When a pet is sick, “Can we just try antibiotics?” can feel like a reasonable question. Antimicrobial-use guidelines help explain why the answer is sometimes no, not yet, or not that drug. In dogs and cats, infections vary widely, and not every red, painful, coughing, or diarrheic patient has a bacterial problem that benefits from antibiotics. The owner-facing lesson is that cultures, cytology, rechecks, and treatment duration are not obstacles. They are how veterinarians try to use antibiotics when they help and avoid them when they do not.
Good source if antibiotic decision-making has felt confusing.For vet techs, antimicrobial stewardship is often a communication challenge before it is a pharmacology challenge. Owners may expect antibiotics for inflammation, chronic skin disease, diarrhea, or coughing even when diagnostics suggest a different plan. Guidelines help teams explain why culture, cytology, dose, duration, and recheck timing matter. They also support consistent messaging when a veterinarian recommends waiting, sampling, or stopping a medication rather than automatically extending it.
Read it for the guideline structure behind stewardship scripts.For pre-vet students, antimicrobial guidelines are a good reminder that infectious-disease reasoning is both patient-specific and population-aware. The clinical question is not only whether an antimicrobial can kill an organism in theory. It is whether bacterial infection is likely, whether diagnostics support the choice, whether the spectrum is appropriate, and whether the duration is justified. This is where microbiology, pharmacology, ethics, and public health meet in ordinary small-animal practice.
Read it for a current stewardship framework.