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The veterinary profession is an ambassador for the welfare of animals, but the visit to a veterinary practice is in itself stressful for many animals. A multitude of recommendations how to reduce stress during a visit to the veterinarian is available, but they are often not implemented in practice. Therefore, the aim of this study was to survey veterinarians and veterinary students regarding their attitudes toward recommendations to improve cat and dog welfare in veterinary practice. We conducted 2 similar online surveys asking veterinarians and veterinary students to rate 20 statements about pet-friendly handling and practice environment and other measures to improve animal welfare on a scale ranging from 1 to 6 regarding their importance for animal welfare and their feasibility in practice. Single items were averaged to overall importance and feasibility scores. These scores and single items were compared between veterinarians and veterinary students using Mann-Whitney U tests. In general, the rating of importance was high and the overall score did not differ between veterinarians (N = 342) and veterinary students (N = 258) after correction for multiple testing (mean ± SD: 5 ± 0.63 vs. 4.93 ± 0.51, P = 0.046). The recommendations rated as most important were “dog ward: possibility to urinate/defecate at least 3 times a day,” “separate cats from dogs during hospitalization,” and “cat ward: provide hiding possibility.” Regarding feasibility, veterinarians had higher overall scores than students (4.82 ± 0.65 vs. 4.62 ± 0.48, P |
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