Fact: Veterinary clinical trials are designed to find new and better ways to treat your pet for a disease they develop naturally. Getting involved in a veterinary clinical trial is like having your pet routinely treated by a veterinarian for their health problems; however, the treatment options you are offered may be more extensive, and, in some cases, you may be given access to new treatments before they are available to the public. 
 
Owners of animals involved in veterinary clinical trials are well-informed about the study, including its risks and benefits, and most report having a very positive experience. Many owners even report feeling that their pets received extra attention and had more veterinarians watching over their healthcare than the average patient.

Fact: At Ohio State’s Blue Buffalo Veterinary Clinical Trials Office, many of our currently active clinical trials are for things like arthritis, spinal problems, heart disease, kidney disease and even diarrhea. So don’t discount the idea of enrolling in a clinical trial just because your pet has a less serious illness. Many owners are also surprised to learn that healthy animals can get involved in clinical trials. Some studies recruit healthy animals to serve as a comparison group with those who need treatment. Examples might include a study that looks at how normal dogs walk compared to those with arthritis, or one where a healthy animal might donate a blood sample to have it compared to that from a patient with cancer. 
 
Getting involved with veterinary clinical trials, and making an important contribution to the health of pets everywhere, does not have to wait until your own pet is sick 

Fact: There are many safety measures in place for pets who take part in veterinary clinical trials. These range from careful study design by the veterinarians involved in the study, to review and oversight by institutional review boards (comprised of veterinarians, researchers and community members), to careful monitoring of safety data and adverse events. Pets that participate in clinical studies also typically receive monitoring, usually at no cost to the owner, beyond the standard of treatment for their disease. All this amounts to the fact that being a veterinary clinical trial patient is safe.

Fact: Placebos are sometimes used in veterinary clinical trials, but they are not used as the only treatment for serious diseases where there is already a known effective therapy. Also, if there is a possibility that your pet could receive a placebo, you will be informed of that as part of the consenting process before you enroll your animal in the study. 
 
Many disease studies will compare a promising new treatment to an older treatment already known to work, or will evaluate the effects of two medications given together versus each given separately. So placebos aren’t always used, and if they are you will know that before you agree to participate. You can also always go back to treating with a standard therapy if the study is not working for your pet.

Fact: Pets and people experience many similar health problems, such as heart disease, cancer and stroke, just to name a few. Information we learn from veterinary clinical trials is always used to help provide better treatments for our pets. But sometimes that information can be used to help develop new ways to diagnose or treat diseases in people as well. If you have the opportunity to enroll your pet in a clinical trial, remember that while they may be man’s best friend, they also may be man’s best chance to discover a new treatment that can improve human health too.