Few routinely available biomarkers are clinically useful in assessing dogs with inflammatory protein-losing enteropathy caused by immunosuppressive-responsive enteropathy (IRE-PLE). Only the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been studied, while no information exists on the use of the albumin to globulin ratio (AGR) and C-reactive protein to albumin ratio (CRP/ALB). We aimed to evaluate the clinical significance of the NLR, AGR and CRP/ALB in a population of dogs with IRE-PLE. The medical records of 53 IRE-PLE dogs were reviewed at the time of diagnosis (T0) and 1 month after the initiation of immunosuppressants (T1). A control group of 68 healthy dogs was used for comparison. At T0, the median values of the NLR and AGR of sick dogs were significantly higher and lower than those of healthy dogs, respectively. With the increase in the chronic enteropathy activity index, AGR and CRP/ALB significantly decreased and increased, respectively. At T1, NLR and AGR significantly increased, while CRP/ALB significantly decreased. NLR, AGR and CRP/ALB did not differ significantly between dogs classified as responders and nonresponders according to the chronic enteropathy activity index. Further studies are needed to provide more information on this subject.

Background: Antibiotic-responsive enteropathy (ARE) is diagnosed by excluding other causes of diarrhea and when there is a short-term response to administration of antibiotics.Objectives: To characterize the gut microbiota and clinical trend of dogs with suspected ARE and to evaluate the variation in microbiota before (T0), after 30 days (T30) of tylosin treatment, and 30 days after discontinuation of treatment (T60). A further objective was to evaluate whether changes in gut microbiota are related to relapses of diarrhea when the therapy is tapered.Animals: Study sample (group A) was composed of 15 dogs with chronic diarrhea, group B was composed of 15 healthy dogs. Group A was given tylosin for 30 days.Methods: A multicentric prospective study. Clinical Indexes, fecal score, and samples for microbiota analysis were collected at T0, T30, and T60 in group A and T0 and T30 in group B. The gut microbiota was analyzed via 16S ribosomal RNA gene. Qiime2 version 2020.2 was used to perform bioinformatic analyses, and Alpha-and Beta-diversity were computed.Results: Diarrhea recurred after T30 in 9 of 14 dogs, which were classified as affected by ARE. At T0, a difference was noted in the beta-diversity between groups (Bray Curtis metric P = .006). A T0-T30 difference in alpha-diversity was noted in group A (Shannon index P = .001, Faith PD P = .007).Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Although tylosin influences the microbiota of dogs with ARE, we failed to find any specific characteristic in the microbiota of dogs with ARE.

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is characterized by a huge inflammatory response accompanied by oxidative stress. Paraoxonase-1 (PON-1) is a liver enzyme that circulates in blood bound to high density lipoproteins. Its hydrolytic properties have been associated with an antioxidant activity and its role as negative acute phase reactant has been investigated in people and animals. A paraoxon based method has been validated to measure feline serum PON-1 activity, allowing to observe a negative correlation between PON-1 activity and acute phase proteins concentration. . The aim of this study was to investigate the usefulness of PON-1 as a biomarker able to discriminate FIP from other diseases with similar clinical signs.Of 159 cats enrolled, 71 were healthy, 34 were affected by FIP and 54 were affected by other clinical conditions with signs consistent with FIP. PON-1 activity was lower (P <0.

OBJECTIVE To perform a retrospective, multicenter observational study that compares the agreement of rectal temperature with the temperature measured with noncontact infrared thermometer (NCIT) in a population of dogs and cats. Animals 168 dogs and 61 cats. PROCEDURES NCIT readings were taken in triplicate from the medial pinna, then rectal temperature was taken with a standard digital rectal thermometer (RT). Ambient room temperature, signalment, presence of icterus, skin and coat color, reason for presentation, and final diagnosis were recorded. RESULTS In dogs, median (range) body temperature reflected by RT and NCIT measurements was 38.4 °C (33.4 to 40.3 °C) and 36.3 °C (30.8 to 40.0 °C), respectively. In cats, median (range) body temperature reflected by RT and NCIT measurements was 38.3 °C (36.2 to 40.0 °C) and 35.7 °C (31.8 to 38.0 °C), respectively. There was a weak positive correlation between body temperatures measured by NCIT and RT in dogs (Kendall tau = 0.154), but there was no correlation in cats (Kendall tau = –0.01). A significant, albeit weak, agreement was seen between temperature measured by NCIT and RT in dogs (Kappa value, 0.05), but not cats (Kappa value, –0.08). In both species, NCIT tended to underread body temperature, compared with RT (dogs: mean ± SD bias –2.2 ± 1.51 °C; cats: mean bias –2.7 ± 1.44 °C), with the degree of low measurements lessening as body temperature increased. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Given both poor correlation and agreement in body temperature measured by NCIT and rectal thermometer, NCIT measurements cannot be recommended at the current time as a means to determine body temperature in dogs and cats.