The role of hydrolysed diets in diagnosing and treating canine enteropathy
Eliza Yeo
Friday, June 2, 2017
Canine enteropathy is often a difficult condition to treat. The cause is usually idiopathic and the treatment process can be stressful for both patients and their owners. Procedures such as endoscopy are unable to assist in diagnosing the root of the problem, but merely confirm inflammation and damage to the digestive tract is present. The condition can be confused with adverse food reactions due to similar clinical signs, however when challenged with their original diets, patients with canine enteropathy do not relapse. Studies have shown that hydrolysed diets are successful in treating the gastrointestinal signs associated with adverse food reactions. These diets prevent immune recognition of an intact protein by removing the allergenic epitopes in a chemical reaction called enzymatic hydrolysis. There are minimal studies available proving the efficacy of hydrolysed protein diets in treating enteropathy when an adverse food reaction is not the cause, however they all concur that patients remain in remission post treatment. This review aims to explore the studies available which test the efficacy of hydrolysed diets in treating enteropathies and discuss their use in the veterinary practice.
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