{"id":36909,"date":"2026-01-08T20:00:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T20:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/todaysveterinarypractice.com\/?p=36909"},"modified":"2026-01-08T20:37:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T20:37:39","slug":"the-clock-is-ticking-how-time-to-appropriate-antibiotic-administration-affects-sepsis-outcomes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/navc.sitepreview.app\/todaysveterinarypractice.com\/the-clock-is-ticking-how-time-to-appropriate-antibiotic-administration-affects-sepsis-outcomes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Clock Is Ticking: How Time to Appropriate Antibiotic Administration Affects Sepsis Outcomes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Studies have reported mortality rates of dogs and cats with sepsis to be between 20% and 68%. Because there are so few studies regarding the timing of antibiotic administration to septic dogs, current treatment recommendations are developed from human data. Human studies have reported a decline in mortality from 38.5% to 19% when appropriate antimicrobials are administered within 1 hour of triage of septic patients. In a recent retrospective study published in the latest issue of JAAHA<\/em>, researchers evaluated the records of 175 dogs diagnosed with sepsis to determine if the time to any antibiotic administration and time to appropriate antibiotic administration affected hospitalization time and mortality.<\/p>\n

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Editor\u2019s Note:\u00a0<\/b>This is an excerpt from Research Wrapped, a free monthly newsletter that collects the latest scientific research relevant to small animal veterinarians and pulls out practical takeaways. To be the first to receive this newsletter each month,\u00a0subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Jake Wolf, DVM, DACVECC<\/a>, is a clinical assistant professor and co-service chief of emergency and critical care at University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. He discusses this study and the clinical takeaways in this Q&A.<\/p>\n

Q: Unsurprisingly, the study found a significant association between time to appropriate antimicrobial administration and length of hospitalization (dogs with longer times from admission to appropriate antimicrobial administration had significantly longer hospitalization stays). The study found no association between time to any antimicrobial administration and length of hospitalization for dogs diagnosed with sepsis. Did that, or any other finding, surprise you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was surprised that we did not find an association with mortality and time to appropriate antimicrobial administration, though that could be due to the low mortality rate we had in this study due to the heterogeneous diseases we included. I was less surprised that time to any antimicrobial administration and outcome\/length of hospitalization were not associated. It makes sense to me that if you use the \u201cwrong\u201d antimicrobial, there will be no clinical benefit! This underlines the importance of selecting the correct antimicrobial as early in the course of treatment as possible.<\/p>\n

Q: This study includes any dog with the diagnosis of sepsis. Considering the mean hospitalization time was 2 days and the survival rate was 80% for dogs in this study, the implication would be that the dogs included in this study were not in critical condition. Do you think that the acute patient physiological and laboratory evaluation fast (APPLEfast<\/sub>) scores\u2014calculated based on biochemical parameters and mentation at time of admission\u2014diminished the effect of disease severity and hospitalization time?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our hope in including APPLEfast<\/sub> scores was to control for disease severity so that we could try to ensure the effect was due to antimicrobial administration. However, there were a few dogs with high APPLEfast<\/sub> scores, which fits with this population of dogs being less severely affected. I think this highlights the limitations of the current definition of sepsis in veterinary medicine, which includes dogs that may not necessarily be systemically ill.<\/p>\n

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Editor\u2019s Note:\u00a0<\/b>This article is an excerpt from the Research Wrapped monthly\u00a0newsletter.\u00a0Subscribe here for free<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Q: Did your clinical recommendations change because of this retrospective analysis?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This study highlighted the importance of choosing the appropriate antimicrobial as early as possible. To me, there are a few ways to do that:<\/p>\n