Percepção dos tutores de cães e gatos atendidos no Hospital Veterinário da Universidade Federal da Paraíba quanto à importância da vacinação

Abstract

The growing number of pets each year in Brazilian families is notorious, so to maintain the health of these animals and fight zoonoses, it is necessary that guardians have greater knowledge about preventive measures such as vaccination and its importance for the prevention of various diseases, since this is one of the main ways to promote animal health and prevent zoonoses. Thus, the present study aimed to analyze the perception of dogs and cats guardians seen at the Veterinary Hospital of the Federal University of Paraíba in Areia - PB about the importance of vaccination, as well as to know if they had veterinary advice on the subject, to evaluate their knowledge about the existing vaccines for dogs and cats, which vaccines the animals were vaccinated, whether or not they were vaccinated with vaccines other than rabies, if they were not, what would be the reason and also how other forms of preventive care such as deworming and ectoparasites control were performed. For this, a questionnaire was given to 106 dog and cat guardians seen at the veterinary hospital, with 25 multiple choice questions. It was observed that most dogs were vaccinated with rabies and polyvalent vaccines, while most cats had only rabies vaccine; the number of guardians who did not know about the polyvalent vaccine for this species was considerable. Moreover, most guardians said they had not received veterinary advice on the importance of vaccination, and one of the main reasons listed for not performing the polyvalent vaccine was the lack of knowledge about it. Thus, it is essential to raise awareness of the guardians about the vaccination of their animals, through educational activities in which there is guidance from the veterinarian.