Study questions current weaning criteria for ventilated dogs

A new retrospective study suggests current veterinary readiness criteria may be too restrictive when clinicians are deciding whether to liberate dogs from mechanical ventilation after 24 hours. Reviewing 47 client-owned dogs at a university teaching hospital, investigators found that 24 dogs, or 51.1%, were successfully liberated from ventilation, and 22 of those 24 dogs survived to discharge. Across 48 liberation attempts in 30 dogs, only end-tidal CO2 differed significantly between successful and unsuccessful attempts, while more than half of successfully liberated dogs with complete data did not meet existing veterinary criteria for a spontaneous breathing trial, often because they were receiving vasopressors. The paper was published online April 18, 2026, in the Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care. (research.ed.ac.uk)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the study challenges a familiar bedside assumption: that dogs on vasopressors or those falling short of current discontinuation criteria should generally wait before a spontaneous breathing trial. The authors conclude that vasopressor use alone should not automatically rule out a liberation attempt if other criteria are acceptable. That matters in a field where newer multi-center data suggest dogs ventilated beyond 24 hours have roughly a 52% survival-to-discharge rate, and where prolonged ventilation also carries downstream risks such as ventilator-associated complications and extended ICU resource use. (research.ed.ac.uk)

What to watch: Watch for prospective studies, or updated veterinary liberation protocols, that test whether vasopressor-tolerant spontaneous breathing trials can safely shorten ventilation time without increasing extubation failure. (research.ed.ac.uk)