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Breed and Diet-Based Disease in Dogs
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When faced with a dog that has a severe problem it can be easy at times to overlook the significance that breed plays in susceptibility to a disease. Giacomo Biagi offers a brief overview of some common breed-related problems where diet can play a major role.
Giacomo Biagi
DVM, Ph.D.
Professor Biagi graduated with honors from Bologna in 1994 and was awarded his PhD for a thesis on “Qualitative improvement of food for humans”. A researcher since 2001 and associate professor since 2010 at the University of Bologna, he heads the Facility for Animal Production and Food Safety. The author or co-author of more than 110 scientific publications, Professor Biagi is currently President of the Italian Society of Nutrition and Animal Nutrition and a member of the FEDIAF Scientific Advisory Board.
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Key Points
- Certain dog breeds are predisposed to developing specific types of urolith, particularly in relation to urate, cystine and xanthine calculi.
- Zinc deficiency should be considered when reviewing possible causes of dermatitis in dogs belonging to the Northern breed group, especially if periocular lesions are present.
- Copper-storage disease is not exclusive to Bedlington Terriers and can affect many other breeds.
- Some dogs, especially of the Northern breed group, can develop gastrointestinal signs due to an inherited inability to digest starch secondary to pancreatic amylase deficiency
Introduction
Many canine diseases can result from an incomplete or imbalanced diet. Whilst the nutritional needs of dogs are well known nowadays ( 1 ) various deficiency syndromes that can result from a failure to meet these needs are also recognized. We also know that some essential nutrients can be toxic if taken in excessive quantities, for example hypervitaminosis A and D, and also some mineral trace elements such as selenium, cobalt and iodine.
However, there are also other diseases in dogs that can result from an inappropriate diet. Consider, for example, how diet can affect the appearance of urinary tract disease – and urolithiasis in particular – and problems with the digestive system, including those involving the liver and pancreas. Food allergies and intolerances can also be included in this category, with signs that mainly involve the cutaneous and gastrointestinal systems. Excessive calorie intake leads to obesity, which can be regarded as a pathological condition which predisposes dogs to a multitude of problems. Furthermore, human medicine has shown that there is a relationship between people‘s eating habits and the risk of developing certain tumors, although this association has yet to be studied extensively in animals.
Although there are many diet-based diseases that affect dogs, this article will discuss only those that appear solely, or much more frequently, in certain breeds and which are evidently predisposed to disease due to reasons of heredity.
Urolithiasis
The term “urolithiasis“ refers to the presence of stones in the urinary tract, and whilst the condition can affect any dog there is plenty of evidence that certain breeds are more predisposed to developing specific types of uroliths.
Ammonium urate calculi
A typical example of a canine pathology that reflects a breed predisposition is ammonium urate stones in Dalmatians. In most dogs uric acid is formed by purine catabolism and converted through the action of the enzyme uricase to allantoin, which is then eliminated in the urine ( Figure 1 ). In Dalmatians, although uricase is present, hepatic transformation of uric acid to allantoin is rather inefficient, due to a genetic autosomal recessive defect, and Dalmatians eliminate much greater amounts of uric acid than other breeds in the urine. The situation is complicated by the fact that re-absorption of uric acid at the level of the renal tubules in this breed is also less efficient. A combination of these factors results in the prevalence of urate stones (predominantly ammonium urate) being particularly high in Dalmatians, with the condition being much greater in males than in females ( Figure 2 ) ( 2 ).
Ammonium urate calculi are not exclusively seen in Dalmatians, however, and there are other breeds which show a greater prevalence of this problem than the average canine population, including English Bulldogs, Miniature Schnauzers, Shih-Tzus and Yorkshire Terriers.
Other risk factors for the development of ammonium urate stones – in addition to a genetic predisposition – include the presence of a portosystemic shunt or, more commonly, any serious liver disease which compromises the conversion of uric acid to allantoin and ammonia to urea.
With respect to dietary therapy, dogs with a predisposition to developing this type of urolith should avoid diets rich in purines; these tend to be found in large quantities if a foodstuff contains high levels of ingredients such as meat and organs. Protein sources such as eggs and cheese are therefore preferred, or a commercial low-purine diet is widely available1 . Diets that tend to acidify the urine should also be avoided, and if necessary the diet should be slightly alkalized by the addition of potassium citrate (80-150 mg/kg q24H) ( 3 ). As with any type of urinary calculus, it is important to stimulate water intake in order to obtain more dilute urine and reduce salt precipitation ( 4 ). Finally, uric acid formation may be reduced by using oral allopurinol (15 mg/kg q12H) which inhibits the activity of xanthine oxidase and therefore the conversion of hypoxanthine and xanthine to uric acid. Remember, however, that an animal treated with allopurinol will tend to form xanthine crystals in the bladder if fed a diet which contains high levels of purines. [...]
1 Royal Canin Urinary U/C low purine
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