Antibiotics are an important therapeutic modality for bacterial infections in dogs and cats. All use of antibiotics, however, can lead to antimicrobial resistance. Optimization of antibiotic use can help preserve these drugs to treat both animal and human patients. This talk will focus on how to select of empiric antibiotics, choose and interpret diagnostic tests for bacterial infections (including interpretation of antimicrobial susceptibility testing), select dose, route and duration of antibiotic treatment, and improve client compliance. Useful clinical resources will be shared.
