Chronic gastroenterocolitis in nine cats.

Lesions of a chronic gastroenterocolitis were found in 9 cats of the Persian breed that were euthanized after a prolonged period of bloody diarrhea. Gross lesions consisted of gastrointestinal edema with prominent Payer's patches, multiple grayish nodules, and a few irregular erosions within the colonic mucosa. Microscopically, the changes were composed of degeneration, necrosis, and proliferation of gastric glandular epithelium, dilated intestinal crypts with lymphoplasmacytic cell infiltration of the lamina propria, and in 1 cat, severe transmural necrosis of the colon. With the Giemsa stain, spiral-shaped organisms in the gastrointestinal lumen and intracellularly in the gastric and the colonic epithelium were observed. These organisms could not be cultured. Although the role of these spiral-shaped organisms was not determined, other agents that could explain the disorder were not found.