Long-term outcome in dogs with chronic enteropathies: 203 cases

Abstract

AMONG the causes for chronic enteropathies (CE) in dogs, food-responsive diarrhoea (FRD), antibiotic-responsive diarrhoea (ARD) and steroid-responsive disease (SRD) are common (Allenspach and others 2007, Simpson and Jergens 2011). These disorders are diagnosed retrospectively by their response to treatment. Prevalence data regarding how many dogs can be categorised into each group are scarce as are clinical data describing the characteristics of a typical patient in each of these groups (Craven and others 2004, Muenster and others 2006, Allenspach and others 2007). Furthermore, only a few studies to date have investigated more long-term outcome in the different treatment categories (Allenspach and others 2006, 2007). The goal of this retrospective study was, therefore, to compare severity of clinical signs, age at diagnosis, serum albumin concentrations, serum cobalamin and folate concentrations as well as outcome at various time points after diagnosis between a group of dogs treated with dietary management alone (FRD), diet and antimicrobials (ARD) or diet and immunosuppressive agents (SRD) in a larger cohort of dogs. The electronic medical records at the Royal Veterinary College, London, were searched for dogs diagnosed with CE between 2005 and 2012. The diagnosis was confirmed based on exclusion of any other causes for chronic diarrhoea, and endoscopy …