2018 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program: Seattle, Washington, June 14 - 15, 2018

A total of 52 dogs were entered into this pilot study, with 22 dogs (11 per diet) completing the protocol to date. All of the dogs fed the high fiber diet had a fecal score less than 5 on the last day of the study which was statistically different than dogs fed the control diet ( A total of 17 fecal samples from dogs with acute diarrhea treated with either FMT (2.5 to 5 g of donor stool/kg diluted in 60 cc saline via enema; n = 10) or metronidazole (MTZ at 15mg/kg PO BID for 7 days; n = 7) were collected before (T0), after 1 week (T2), and after 4 weeks (T3) of each intervention. Fecal DNA was evaluated for quantitative PCR (qPCR) analysis for selected bacterial groups (total bacteria, Faecalibacterium spp., Turicibacter spp., Streptococcus spp., E. coli, Blautia spp., Fusobacterium spp., and C. hiranonis) and results were used to calculate the Dysbiosis Index (DI). Feces were evaluated using a fecal scoring system (Nestle PURINA fecal scoring system). DI and the fecal score were compared between both groups using a Wilcoxon ranksum test. The presence of dysbiosis (DI > 0) was compared between both groups using a fisher's exact test. A p < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.