Chronic enteropathy in cats
Published 27/06/2019
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Chronic gastrointestinal disease in cats is often due to either inflammatory bowel disease or intestinal lymphosarcoma, but differentiating between the two can be problematic; Doctors Al-Ghazlat and Eriksson de Rezende offer some pointers for the clinician.
Key Points
Clinical signs, physical examination, bloodwork and imaging findings for inflammatory bowel disease and small cell intestinal lymphoma often overlap, but treatment and prognosis for the two diseases are different, and accurate diagnosis is essential.
Definitive diagnosis of both conditions requires histopathologic evaluation; full-thickness tissue samples appear to be superior to endoscopic biopsy samples. Adding advanced diagnostic methods to traditional histopathology may improve the accuracy of diagnosis.
Novel or hydrolyzed diets may ameliorate the symptoms of IBD, but corticosteroids may be necessary to sustain disease remission.
In cases of refractory IBD, the clinician should consider lack of client compliance with treatment, other comorbidities, or a misdiagnosis before altering therapy.
Owners should be aware that cats with small cell lymphoma can have a favorable prognosis.