Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD), also known as Inflammatory Bowel Disease, is becoming increasingly common in pets. In my experience, this disease is seen mainly in pets that eat heavily processed commercial pet foods with low meat content. IBD is just one of the many allergic conditions that respond extremely well to a change to a raw meat diet.
What is IBD?
Irritable Bowel Disease is the chronic irritation of the bowel’s lining and an expression of food allergy at the gut level.
Causes
IBD is caused by the activation of your pet’s immune system in the gut. Defence cells build up in the lining of your pet’s digestive system as a reaction to a foreign trigger – such as an allergy-inducing food like dairy, wheat or heat-treated meat proteins. Which then leads to internal hypermotility which is excessive movement of the gastrointestinal tract. This causes food to reach the bowel before it has been digested completely and results in the loss of natural probiotics bacteria in the gut.
The connection between IBD and allergies
The loss of natural probiotic in the gut results in many allergies and autoimmune diseases in pets. This is because the cooking processes involved in preparing commercial pet foods strip out healthy bacteria, which cannot survive cooking at high temperatures. This results in a reduction in your pet’s healthy gut and an increase in the chance of an allergic reaction in the gut.
Symptoms of IBD
The clinical signs of IBD in pets are vomiting and chronic diarrhoea and, if other potential causes of these symptoms are ruled out, IBD is often the diagnosis. Chronic diarrhoea is the most common form of IBD in both cats and dogs and is a sign of a chronic, end-stage food allergy in the gut. Vomiting is a more acute and tell-tale sign and is more common in cats than dogs.
Treatment
IBD joins the list of chronic pet diseases such as allergic skin disease, diabetes, obesity and autoimmune gingivitis that are man-made diseases of the 20th century. I say this because I have treated so many pets with IBS where the only change I have made is to their diet and the condition completely resolves itself. Correction of the gut flora is also vital and treatment should always include a probiotic supplement. Longer term, a natural fresh meat diet will provide all the normal good probiotic flora essential for your pet’s good health.
By Dr Bruce Syme
Greenpet’s Vitagest supplement supports healthy digestion in pets. For naturopathic advice on your pet’s digestive issues please complete the free questionnaire or book a consultation.
