Sepsis in Dogs and Cats—Consensus Definition and Clinical Criteria

Sepsis is the clinical syndrome that results from the host response to severe or widespread infection and is a frequent cause of death in veterinary critical care settings. Rapid diagnosis aids early treatment initiation, and hence, how sepsis is defined and identified clinically has implications for patient outcomes. Recent changes in the definitions of sepsis in human adult and pediatric patients have reduced the alignment of veterinary sepsis definitions with those in human medicine. We defined sepsis in cats and dogs by consensus and systematically reviewed the veterinary evidence to make recommendations for clinical identification of sepsis in small animals. We define sepsis as the life-threatening syndrome associated with a dysregulated host response to infection, resulting in organ dysfunction. We recommend that, in dogs and cats with infection, identification of organ dysfunction is required for the diagnosis of sepsis. We recommend that a formal illness severity assessment be performed using validated, structured scores and that measurements of the requisite physiological and laboratory parameters be undertaken to enable identification of organ dysfunction or score calculation.