Читать книгу Clinical Reasoning in Veterinary Practice - Группа авторов - Страница 87

Although symptomatic therapy (or no therapy!) is appropriate for the majority of animals with acute diarrhoea, chronic diarrhoea does not usually respond to non‐specific symptomatic treatment and will often present the veterinarian with a diagnostic challenge where the more routine laboratory aids are not useful.

The diagnostic work‐up, differential diagnoses and therapy for small and large bowel diarrhoea may differ, although there are some causes common to both. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that before embarking on invasive diagnostic procedures or extensive therapy, an assessment is made as to whether the diarrhoea is:

 Acute or chronic

 Relatively mild or more severe, with the presence of secondary systemic effects

 Small bowel or large bowel origin, or mixed

 Due to primary or secondary gastrointestinal (GI) disease.

Failure to elicit sufficient information from the client about the characteristics of the diarrhoea, so as to allow appropriate classification as small bowel, large bowel or mixed, may result in inappropriate diagnostic procedures or therapeutic trials with increased expense to the client and frustration of the veterinarian and client.