Diagnosis Of Inflammatory Bowel Disease In A Serval (Leptailurus Serval) And Treatment With Budesonide.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is defined as gastrointestinal signs, with incomplete response to dietary management and anthelmintics, histological injuries with intestinal mucosa inflammation, and response to immunomodulatory therapies.1,2 This report is about an adult, female, serval (Leptailurus serval), with history of intermittent episodes of vomiting, diarrhea and hematochezia per four years. Clinical signs: thickened intestines; macrocytic hypochromic anemia; hypoproteinemia; low serum levels of folate and cobalamin; low infection by ascarids; growth of Campylobacter spp in rectal swab culture. Treatment: fenbendazole 50 mg/kg PO SID for five days and repeated the protocol after 15 days; erythromycin 12mg/kg PO BID for ten days; and dietary trial with novel proteins. After treatment coproparasitological and Campylobacter spp. cultive were negative, but there was no remission of clinical signs and it were not seen significant differences in the ultrasonography and blood tests. To define between IBD and gastrointestinal lymphoma, endoscopic guided mucosal biopsy samples of stomach and duodenum were collected and mesenteric lymph node and full thickness biopsy samples of the jejunum and ileum were collected through laparoscopic guided laparotomy. Histopatology concluded the diagnosis of IBD and it was initiated treatment with budesonide 1mg PO SID, a locally active steroid with minimal systemic effects.3 There was complete remission of the clinical signs, significant reduction in the thickening of the bowel, and the blood tests were clinically normal. Chronic treatment with budesonide was maintained and after a year the clinical condition remains stable. In conclusion, budesonide was effective in treating IBD in this animal.