DIGESTIVE SYSTEM:

Your dog’s body produces a number of extremely important proteins, called enzymes. One group of these are the digestive enzymes that participate in the breakdown and digestion of food.

In humans, digestion begins in the mouth where saliva contains digestive enzymes. Dogs, however, don’t chew their food they gulp it down in chunks. Dog saliva serves in digestion only to moisten and lubricate the mouth and food as it is pushed back into the oesophagus for its journey to the stomach.

The gastro intestinal tract has to perform many functions in order to absorb food then excrete the waste products. The mucosal layer lines the inner surface of the tube and is responsible for secretion and absorption of nutrients to the body. The surface area of the mucosa contains villi. Damage to the villi can cause villous atrophy which leads to malabsorption and diarrhoea.

The major digestive and absorption processes occur in the small intestine. Several digestive enzymes are mixed into the food along with bile. These secretions are used to break down carbohydrates, proteins and fats into smaller molecules, which are then absorbed by special cells while the mixture is churned and pushed along by intestinal muscle contractions.

Dogs intestines are relatively short (about five times their body length) so complex foods have a short time to be broken down and absorbed.

By the time this mixture reaches the large intestine, the final leg of its journey, there should be little of nutritional value left. The large intestine completes the absorption of water and electrolytes and the remaining undigested food is then filtered and stored for elimination in the colon.

When a dog suffers from malabsorption, as in the case of PLE, digestive enzymes fail to absorb protein into the body and it passes through the large intestine into the faeces. A forerunner to PLE can be irritable bowel disease (IBD).

• PLE is a condition in which protein is lost excessively into the intestine and can represent a number of abnormalities, which result in the loss of plasma proteins from the gastrointestinal tract.
• The loss of the healthy mucosal layer allows the leakage of vital protein-rich fluids. This is a hallmark of Protein Losing Enteropathy (PLE).
• The liver and other cleansing systems are unable to compensate for the loss.
• Mechanisms for gastrointestinal protein loss include lymphatic obstruction, mucosal disease with erosions, or ulcerations.
• PLE is probably related to immunological defence of the intestinal tract.
• This can be a late onset disease, which means that the dog develops it in maturity.
• Please refer to the Comparison Chart of Hereditary Diseases for signs and symptoms of this disease.
• Tests necessary to detect the presence of PLE are blood, urine and, if necessary, endoscope biopsy and Faecal investigation.

The Testing Protocols page has information about tests available for PLE

The mode of inheritance for PLE is not known.

At the present time there is no test available to show if dogs are carrying the deleterious (bad) mutations which cause this disease.