Vets urged to submit data on small animal neutering

Veterinary teams performing neutering on small animals have been urged to help establish UK benchmarks in postoperative complication rates.

RCVS Knowledge wants practices to help in gathering  as much data as possible for the National Audit for Small Animal Neutering by submitting their statistics to its vetAUDIT website by 15 October.

Chris Gush, executive director of RCVS Knowledge, said: “Data submitted to the NASAN last year, and so far this year, has been lower than expected – likely due to the strain put on the professions by the pandemic.

“We believe many practices have neutering data that they have not been able to submit yet. We would be grateful for any unsubmitted neutering data for 2020 and 2021 to be sent to the NASAN, when practices are able, so that it can contribute to the national picture and allow us to gain the most accurate representation of the benchmarks for neutering in the UK.”

‘A useful tool’

Each year RCVS Knowledge releases national neutering benchmark data so vet teams can compare their figures against the national average and strive to improve neutering outcomes.

The small animals category includes cats, dogs and rabbits.

In 2021 72% of neuters were complication free, 13% were lost to follow-up and 15% of animals suffered an abnormality related to the operation, mostly requiring medical treatment.

RVN Lou Northway, RCVS Knowledge’s quality improvement clinical lead, added : “I would highly encourage veterinary practices to submit their neutering data to the NASAN. Not only is the national benchmark a useful tool to compare your own practice’s results against, but it allows us to look at how we are doing and update our systems to help improve the care we provide to our patients.”

Data can be submitted via the vetAUDIT website, while current data and resources are also available online.