Improvement in Clinical Symptoms and Fecal Microbiome After Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in a Dog with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

Purpose

Recently, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has been tested in veterinary medicine as a treatment option for multiple gastrointestinal (GI) diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, there are no reports of changes in the microbial diversity of fecal microbiome after treatment with FMT in canine IBD cases. Moreover, little is known about the long-term efficacy and safety of FMT treatment for dogs. Herein, we present a case of canine intractable IBD treated with repeated, long-term FMT.

Patients and methods

The patient was a 10-year-old, neutered, male, 4-kg Toy Poodle with a prolonged history of vomiting and diarrhea. Fecal examination for pathogens was negative. Despite treatment with multiple antibacterial and antidiarrheal agents, the patient showed no improvement. Endoscopic mucus sampling diagnosed a case of lymphocytic-plasmacytic duodenitis, ie, idiopathic IBD. Eventually, we performed periodic, long-term fecal microbiota transplantation of fresh donor feces collected from a 4-year-old, 32.8-kg, neutered male Golden Retriever by rectal enema. Additionally, we performed 16S rRNA sequence analysis, before and after FMT, to evaluate the microbiome diversity.

Results

Fecal microbiome diversity after FMT resembled that of the healthy donor dog’s fecal microbiome, before FMT, which led us to conclude that the fecal microbiome in our patient normalized with FMT. Moreover, the clinical symptoms improved remarkably with regard to the changes in the fecal microbiome. Additionally, we noted no observable side effects during FMT treatment.

Conclusion

This report indicates the efficacy and safety of long-term, periodic FMT for a case of canine IBD based on attenuation of clinical symptoms and changes in fecal microbiome diversity. Therefore, FMT could be chosen as a treatment option for IBD in canines in the future.

Keywords:

• fecal microbiota transplantation
• inflammatory bowel disease
• canine
• dysbiosis
• microbiome
• diversity

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank Editage for English language editing.

Consent for Publication

Written informed consent was obtained from the owner of the patient dog for publication of this case report.

Ethics Approval and Informed Consent

This study was approved by the Ethical Committee of Nippon Veterinary and Life Science. University (Permission number: 29-5). We confirmed in the revised manuscript that this treatment meets the standards set out in NC3Rs primate guidelines and follows veterinary care best practice guidelines.

Abbreviations

CIBDAI, canine inflammatory bowel disease activity index; FMT, fecal microbiota transplantation; IBD, inflammatory bowel disease; GI, gastrointestinal.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.