[Influence of physiological disturbances on treatment success of dietary therapy in dogs with chronic enteropathies].

The aim of this retrospective study in 40 dogs with chronic inflammatory enteropathies was to investigate a possible influence of immunologic and metabolic deficiencies on the success of dietary treatments. At the time of initial presentation, routine clinical and laboratory methods were used to evaluate various metabolic (i.e., weight loss, measurement of serum total protein, albumin, and cobalamin concentrations) and immunological parameters (i.e., serum globulin concentration, immunoglobulin-fractionation by serum electrophoresis, and serum C-reactive protein concentration as measured by a species-specific ELISA). The dogs were classified as food-responsive (FR-group, n = 11), antibiotic-responsive (AR-group, n = 12), steroid-responsive (SR-group, n = 11), or dogs with various combinations of therapies due to protein-losing enteropathy (PLE-group, n = 6). Differences among the four treatment groups were evaluated by statistical analysis. Compared to dogs in the AR, SR, and PLE groups, dogs in the FR-group showed a significantly milder weight loss (p < 0.01 for each). Dogs in the FR-group also had significantly higher serum concentrations of total protein and albumin compared to the PLE-group (p < 0.001 for each). The FR-group had significantly higher median concentrations of total globulin and gamma-globulin fractions compared to the AR- and PLE-groups (p <0.005 and p < 0.01, respectively). Lower gamma-globulin concentrations correlated with increased weight loss (Spearman r = -0.53; p < 0.005), serum cobalamin (Spearman r = 0.38; p < 0.05), and albumin (Spearman r = 0.45; p < 0.01). Increased serum concentrations of C-reactive protein correlated inversely with serum concentrations of cobalamin (Spearman r = -0.58; p < 0.05) and gamma-globulins (Spearman r = -0.6; p < 0.005). This study provides evidence for a possible association between the severity of immunological disturbances and the development of deficiencies in dogs with chronic enteropathies. This study provides further evidence that less severe physiological disturbances, such as milder forms of weight loss and higher serum concentrations of albumin, globulin, and gamma-globulin are possibly associated with a more favorably response to dietary treatment alone.