Contextualised care describes a holistic welfare-centric approach to veterinary clinical care, recognising that an infinite diversity of situations occur in clinical practice but that each one is unique. Decision-making in contextualised care considers the absolute and relative impacts of all situationally relevant factors and accommodates the particular circumstances of all stakeholders including the animal patient(s), the veterinary care provider(s) and the animal owner/caregiver(s). Provided that animal and human welfare needs are adequately met, different treatment and care journeys of an individual or group of animals are acceptable.

This session will consider the presentation of an everyday clinical problem, situated in several different owner, veterinary and professional contexts.

We will discuss how context is key to making effective clinical decisions, dependent on the challenges that different factors might bring.