Tacrolimus for the Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in a Dog

Masashi Yuki, Yosiaki Oota, Noriaki Nagata

Yuki Animal Hospital, Nagoya, Japan.

DOI: 10.4236/ojvm.2012.23025                

Abstract

A 2-year-old intact female Toy poodle was referred with a 2-week history of diarrhea. Blood examination findings indicated thrombocytosis, severe hypoproteinemia, and hypoalbuminemia; endoscopy revealed duodenal mucosal irregularity and increased graininess. Based on these results and additional histopathological findings, we made a diagnosis of protein-losing enteropathy caused by lymphocytic-plasmacytic enteritis with lymphangiectasia. The dog was initially treated with prednisolone. Improvement was only observed with high-dose prednisolone; its dose could not be reduced without relapse. When cyclosporin, methotrexate, and chlorambucil were combined with prednisolone, no further beneficial effect was observed. When tacrolimus was combined with prednisolone, improvement was seen and the dose of prednisolone could be reduced. Tacrolimus is both a calcineurin inhibitor and a multi-drug-resistant inhibitor, so it may be an effective treatment choice for a dog refractory to standard inflammatory bowel disease treatment. This is the first report of tacrolimus for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease in dogs.

Keywords

Dog; Inflammatory Bowel Disease; Tacrolimus

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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