Gastrointestinal Diets with Different Fiber Compositions and Energy Densities—For Management of Chronic Inflammatory Enteropathy in Dogs: A Prospective, Multicenter Study

Dogs with chronic gastrointestinal (GI) signs are commonly presented to veterinarians. This Italian study investigated the effectiveness of three dry, highly digestible veterinary GI diets fed for 60 days to control chronic inflammatory enteropathy (CIE). Adult dogs with a Canine Chronic Enteropathy Clinical Activity Index score ≥ 5, modified to exclude albumin concentration (mCCECAI), were assigned a GI high-fiber diet (n = 21) if GI signs were primarily large bowel, a GI moderate-calorie diet (n = 22) if signs were small or mixed small/large bowel and body condition score (BCS) was > 5, or a GI diet (n = 18) if signs were small or mixed small/large bowel and BCS was ≤ 5. Least-squares mean mCCECAI scores and owner-reported GI signs improved significantly in all diet groups between baseline and Day 30 (73.5–79.8% and 72.1–81.7%, respectively, p < 0.0001) and baseline and Day 60 (85.0–86.3% and 89.8–93.0%, respectively, p ≤ 0.0001). Body weight and BCS were stable, except for an 8.0% BCS increase in the GI diet group. There were no adverse events considered likely to be diet-related. A similar Australian study of the high-fiber GI diet had consistent results. These data suggest that each diet is equally effective for its indicated use, inducing rapid and sustained improvements in CIE signs.