Prophylactic antibiotic use is common in dogs and cats presenting for procedures at veterinary referral dental practices.

Objective: Antimicrobial stewardship is critical for the prevention of antimicrobial resistance. A lack of prescribing guidelines makes overprescribing in veterinary dentistry likely and represents an opportunity for improvement of stewardship practices. This study described prescribing practices of residency-trained and board-certified veterinary dentists for dogs and cats undergoing dental procedures.

Methods: Antibiotic-use data were collected from the first 10 patients presenting for a dental procedure at each of 22 participating clinics beginning on October 2, 2023.

Results: 35% of patients undergoing procedures received 1 or more systemically administered antibiotic, most commonly amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, ampicillin-sulbactam, and clindamycin. Half (43 of 85 [50.6%]) of prescriptions for dogs were for perioperative or postoperative prophylaxis. For dogs, antibiotic duration for prophylactic versus treatment purposes was not significantly different. Common conditions included periodontal disease, tooth fractures, and oral masses. Comorbid conditions were present in 22.3% (49 of 220) of patients. Presence of comorbid conditions was not a risk factor for antibiotic prescribing. Tooth extractions were a risk factor for antibiotic prescribing among patients with periodontal disease, and those with ≥ 11 were more likely to receive antibiotics than those with < 5 extractions.

Conclusions: This study characterized antibiotic use among canine and feline dental procedures performed by residency-trained and board-certified veterinary dentists and identified tooth extractions as a risk factor for antibiotic prescribing.

Clinical relevance: The results obtained from this study provide insight into prescribing practices in a referral setting and impetus to develop outcomes-based studies to determine the need for prophylactic antibiotics during specific procedures, especially tooth extractions.