Infectious Gastrointestinal Disorders

Gastrointestinal failure is associated with a variety of disorders in foals (See Table 1). Failure of this organ system may manifest as diarrhea, ileus, abdominal pain, obstipation and weight loss. Clinical syndromes associated with gastrointestinal failure include enteritis, colic, meconium impactions, gastric reflux and necrotizing enterocolitis. The following will review the pathogenesis, clinical manifestation, diagnosis and treatments for the aforementioned syndromes of gastrointestinal failure.

ENTERITIS
Diarrhea is among the most common clinical complaints in foals. According to the National Animal Health Monitoring System equine ’98 study, diarrhea affected > 20% of foals within the first 6 months of age. Although diarrhea is common with enteritis(inflammation of the small intestine), diarrhea is not always associated with inflammation of the bowel. Before the veterinarian can consider a treatment course for diarrhea they must understand the mechanisms of diarrhea. Is it malabsorptive or seceterory diarrhea? Malabsorptive is the inability of the intestinal tract to reabsorb water and nutrients. Secretory diarrhea results in the hypersecretion of both water and electrolytes into the intestinal tract. In a general categorization, bacterial toxins (Ex. Salmonella or Clostridium spp.) may cause a secretory diarrhea while viruses (Ex. Rotavirus and Coronavirus) can result in a malabsorptive diarrhea. In severe infections both bacteria and viruses can result in both a secretory and malaborptive diarrhea Most infectious causes of diarrhea and enteritis result in signs of mild to severe abdominal pain. […]