AKC Canine Health Foundation - 20

Chronic Enteropathy Management - Food for Thought
Alison Manchester, DVM, DACVIM (Small Animal Internal
Medicine)
Colorado State University
BIOGRAPHY
Alison Manchester grew up in Rochester, NY and studied art
history at Tufts University before veterinary school at Cornell.
During her time in Ithaca, a project on E. coli-associated
granulomatous colitis solidified her interest in gastroenterology.
After an internship at the University of Wisconsin, she completed
her Internal Medicine training at Colorado State University. Dr.
Manchester became board-certified by the ACVIM in 2018. She
is passionate about forming positive relationships with clients to
create a team approach to improved pet health. She is currently a One Health Fellow at CSU,
working on a PhD focused on immune responses in dogs and cats with chronic intestinal
inflammation. Her work intermeshes clinical trials and benchtop research, utilizing non-invasive
samples and novel platforms to expand understanding of gut physiology. When not in the lab or
the clinic, Dr. Manchester enjoys hiking, cooking, reading fiction, listening to music, and
spending time in Downeast Maine.
PRESENTATION ABSTRACT
Canine chronic enteropathy (CE) is subcategorized based on response to treatment. Broad
treatment approaches include dietary modification and administration of medications including
antibiotics and anti-inflammatory or immunosuppressive drugs. Between 50 to 70% of dogs
achieve clinical remission from their CE with diet change. Various diets have been associated
with clinical improvement; emphasis is often placed on providing protein from a novel source,
modulating macronutrient composition, and altering ingredient lists. No single diet helps all CE
dogs, nor do any tests accurately predict which diet will be best for an individual dog. Therefore,
strict feeding trials are necessary to answer the question of diet responsiveness. Dogs with dietresponsive
CE have longer and more stable remission compared to other treatment strategies,
and adverse effects are minimal. Despite the widespread use of diet as therapy for CE, the
mechanisms underlying clinical improvement remain unclear. Previous theories focused on
reducing gut immune stimulation from dietary components. More recent work has highlighted
the gut microbiome as the more likely target or instigator of overzealous immune reactions in
CE dogs; the diet's ability to shift the gut microbiome may therefore better explain its beneficial
effects. During this lecture, we'll take a patient-based approach to management of CE in the
context of existing knowledge of the impact of diet on intestinal homeostasis.
2023 National Parent Club Canine Health Conference
Presented by the AKC Canine Health Foundation and Nestlé Purina PetCare

AKC Canine Health Foundation

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