The survival rate of dogs and cats experiencing cardiopulmonary
arrest while in the veterinary hospital is fairly bleak—only 6
percent to 7 percent survive to be discharged and returned to
their families, according to the Veterinary Emergency and
Critical Care Society (VECCS) and American College of Veterinary
Emergency and Critical Care (ACVECC). In an effort to improve
those outcomes, more than 100 board-certified veterinary
specialists from around the world have collaborated to develop
standardized CPR guidelines for companion animals, which were
released in June. The absence of standardized guidelines or
training for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in veterinary
medicine has been cited as a major factor in the historically
poor outcomes for dogs and cats in cardiac arrest. In fact,
until the advent of evidence-based guidelines and standardized
training in human medicine, survival rates in people were
similar to animals, say VECCS and ACVECC spokespersons. Now
human survival rates are at 20 percent. In