Study reveals early signs of canine gastrointestinal disease
Researchers found multiple signs of a high risk of disease.
A new study has discovered several biomarkers that may indicate gastrointestinal (GI) disease in dogs.
Although some dogs may never show clinical signs of GI disease, stressors to the gut can cause signs of GI disease to develop.
Among the stressors which are known to prompt symptoms of a GI disease are an unbalanced diet and an antibiotic prescription. Soft-coated wheaten terriers, for example, are known to develop protein-losing entropy (PLE), which causes their intestines to stop functioning normally and leads to death within six months of diagnosis.
German shepherds, Yorkshire terriers and Staffordshire bull terriers are also prone to developing GI disease.
Researchers from the Texas A&M Gastrointestinal Laboratory gathered data to record the signs which might indicate dogs at high risk of GI disease. This included information from 12 healthy soft-coated wheaten terriers, 10 dogs which weren’t soft-coated wheaten terriers and eight dogs which had PLE.
This information would help them to research how dietary intervention might prevent GI diseases from developing. This could particularly tackle the morbidity and mortality of PLE in at-risk dogs.
Their findings found that there were certain biomarkers which indicated GI disease before any symptoms were presented.
Researchers also discovered that there were multiple signs of a high risk of disease, rather than just one. This included inflammation, leaky guts and changes to gut microbial composition. If enough of these signs are present, the team says GI disease is likely to develop.
The researchers have now received funding to investigate how nutrition can be used to combat GI disease. This will particularly focus on how dietary changes can prevent or slow down the development of GI disease in soft-coated wheaton terriers.
Katie Tolbert, a nutritionist and associate professor at Texas A&M, said: "As a nutritionist, I'm hopeful that diet can be a benign intervention to reverse the condition in these dogs,
"At the GI Lab, we're also working toward the development of new diagnostics that we hope will make pre-clinical detection more widely available."
The full study can be found in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicines.
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The BSAVA has opened submissions for the BSAVA Clinical Research Abstracts 2026.
