Nutritional Management of Critically Ill Dogs and Cats with Gastrointestinal Disease

Many critically ill dogs and cats have gastrointestinal disease, including chronic enteropathy, protein losing enteropathy, pancreatitis, and acute hemorrhagic diarrhea syndrome. Nutrition is an important component of managing these cases, but feeding strategies must be tailored to the patient and their condition. Challenges and feeding strategies specific to critically ill gastrointestinal patients will be discussed, including protein loss, malabsorption, key nutrients for critically ill gastrointestinal patients, when to initiate assisted feeding, when to choose parenteral nutrition over enteral nutrition, achieving caloric goals despite nutrient needs such as fat restriction, and potential inclusion of nutrients such as medium-chain triglycerides. Monitoring tolerance to diets, clinical and laboratory signs to look for when feeding critically ill patients with gastrointestinal disease, and how to adjust the nutritional plan when complications arise will also be addressed.