Petconsent November 2020 blog - Research in Pet Patients
Posted on: 30 November 2020 by Dr Carol Gray, ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Law and Social Justice. in Blog
This month’s Petconsent blog looks at research in pet patients. There’s been a lot of news coverage of the volunteers who helped to test the three COVID vaccines that are being developed. People who put themselves forward as ‘guinea pigs’ for testing these new vaccines have been hailed as heroes. Each one of them took a risk. I’m sure they went through a very lengthy consent process, where a researcher talked them through all the possible risks of being injected with a vaccine that had undergone safety tests in the lab before being produced for use in volunteers.
This got me thinking – how would you make a similar decision for your pet? It’s one thing accepting the risks yourself, where you can understand what’s happening and what is involved, but quite another to make the decision on behalf of your companion animal. Of course, any new drugs, including vaccines, will have undergone tests in lab animals before being released for trials in vet practices, but it’s still a serious decision to agree to your pet’s involvement in testing a new product.
It’s also possible that you’ll be asked to give consent for a new procedure, for example, a new method that’s been developed to repair a joint injury. It may be completely new, or just new to your vet. How do you make the decision to go ahead with it?
It’s the perfect opportunity for shared decision-making. First, you need to ask if the proposed treatment has been approved by an ethics committee. Vets in practice in the UK can submit proposals for new treatment to the RCVS (the veterinary profession’s regulator) Ethics Review Panel. You can ask your vet for all the details of the new drug or surgery, how much testing it’s been through, what the results have been, what are the risks, what are the expected benefits, how much is it going to cost, etc. You should also find out if your vet is receiving any payment for using the new drug or treatment! But your vet should also ask you about how much risk you are willing to take, what would be a good outcome for you, what your concerns are about the treatment, how easy your pet is to medicate, and to provide care for, and what would be the worst outcome for you and for your pet.
Pet chews containing the therapeutic compound, CBD, which can help with pain management. Photo by Sohini on Unsplash.
If you’re considering a new surgical treatment, then the vet should share their previous experience of performing it (including success rate, main reasons for failure, how this compares with other people’s results). If the vet has never performed the surgery before, then you need to know how they have prepared for it. This may include going on courses to learn how to perform the surgery, assisting other surgeons with the procedure etc. Once you have all the information, you can then make a decision in the ‘best interests’ of your pet.
It’s never easy making decisions for our animal companions, but when that decision involves new treatments, it’s even harder. In this situation above all others, it’s vital that your vet shares as much information as possible with you, and gives you enough time to digest it, to find out more if necessary and to talk things through with other people whose opinion you trust. You should never be pressurised into agreeing to a new drug or treatment in an emergency situation.
Carol Gray
Dr Carol Gray is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Law and Social Justice. After qualifying as a veterinary surgeon from the University of Glasgow, Carol spent 15 years in clinical practice. A career change to veterinary education included 13 years in the veterinary school at the University of Liverpool. Completion of a Masters in Medical Ethics and Law from Keele University laid the foundations for an obsession with informed consent in general, but particularly in the veterinary context. Carol was awarded her PhD from the University of Birmingham in 2019 and now holds an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship here in the School of Law and Social Justice, where she is developing the ideas from her thesis and bringing together consent and shared decision-making in the veterinary clinic.
As part of her ESRC Fellowship, Dr Carol Gray has been researching and writing monthly Petconsent blogs since December 2019.
Find out more about Carol's Petconsent research, which also includes a resource list of health information for pet owners.
Email Carol at: carol.gray@liverpool.ac.uk