New Chemo Treatment?

Sponsored by Nestlé Purina
GI EXCHANGE: A Nutritional Approach
to Managing Dogs with Flatulence
How common is flatulence in dogs? Flatulence frequently
affects canine patients, and chronic flatulence can cause minor
discomfort in dogs and distress in owners.
In a 2011 Nestlé Purina PetCare pet-owner survey on the
incidence of gastrointestinal (GI) conditions,1 excessive gas
was noted in 10 percent of dogs, with one in four affected pets
experiencing flatulence daily. Dogs with excess gas also tended
to be large (the mean weight was 53 pounds).
What is the role of nutrition and nutritional supplements
in ameliorating excess gas? Undigested food that remains
in the colon too long can ferment, leading to gas formation.
Flatulence also can be a sign of a more serious GI condition such
as malabsorption syndrome, food allergy or other GI problems.
In dogs with chronic gas, a dietary change may be
warranted and foods with lower fiber content considered.
Also, administering Enterococcus faecium SF68, the
probiotic in Purina Veterinary Diets® FortiFlora® Canine
Nutritional Supplement, can help nutritionally manage dogs
with flatulence by promoting greater beneficial intestinal
1. Purina Veterinary Diets Gastrointestinal Issues Study, conducted by Synovate, February
2011. The online survey included 510 dog owners and 515 cat owners in the United States.
microflora. FortiFlora is the only veterinary probiotic
supplement shown to help with this condition.
What evidence supports the efficacy of FortiFlora for
dogs with flatulence? Nestlé Purina recently completed a
study2 in which FortiFlora helped reduce flatulence in adult
dogs.3 Study dogs were normalized to a commercial adult
canine diet. Gas samples were collected and measurements
taken every four seconds for a period of four hours. The dogs’
food was then top-dressed with FortiFlora for 14 days.
Hydrogen sulfide levels and the number of emissions were
measured at day zero and day 14. Analysis revealed that
supplementation with SF68 significantly
reduced the number of emissions (p = 0.025)
and the maximum amount of hydrogen
sulfide released (p = 0.025). As a result,
FortiFlora is now recommended as a
probiotic nutritional supplement to aid
in the reduction of canine flatulence.
— Mark Waldron, PhD
Senior Research Nutritionist, Nestlé Purina PetCare
2. Findings presented at the 16th European Society of Veterinary Comparative
Nutrition (ESVCN) Congress, Bydgoszcz, Poland. September 2012.
3. n=10.
New Chemo Treatment?
Electrochemotherapy (ECT) combines
systemic or local delivery of anticancer
drugs with application of permeabilizing
electric pulses. This study evaluated privately owned cats with incompletely
excised or recurring soft tissue sarcomas
treated with cisplatin-based adjuvant ECT.
One group (n = 14) was treated with surgery alone. A second group (n = 64) was
treated with ECT. One week after excision,
cats receiving ECT were anesthetized, and
the surgical suture site and 3 cm of apparently normal tissue were locally injected
with cisplatin. Minutes later, electrical
impulses were delivered through modified
caliper electrodes. Treatment was repeated
1 week later. The primary endpoint was
evaluation of cisplatin-related toxicoses;
secondary was time of tumor recurrence.
Adverse effects were typically mild. Three
patients had GI signs responsive to
antiemetic therapy. Three cats had local
inflammation involving deep SC connective tissues, leading to compulsive scratching and, in 1 cat, dehiscence and resuturing;
the other 2 were successfully managed
with meloxicam for 1 week. Seven patients
had small electrode-induced burns with
scars that disappeared in 2–3 weeks. In the
surgery-only group, 1 cat was still in
remission >1 year; the remaining 13 had
tumor recurrence (range, 131–294 days).
Of the ECT group, 8 cats died of unrelated
pathologies. Nineteen ECT cats had tumor
recurrence (range, 535–797 days).
■ Commentary
Treatment options in veterinary oncology
have long been limited to surgery,
chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and
immunotherapy with one approved vaccine for canine melanoma. The newer
technique of ECT has shown great success
but has been geographically limited. This
article reinforced ECT as a therapeutic
option for cancer treatment, as normal tissue is spared and application of permeabilizing electric pulses allows local
administration of chemotherapy at the
tumor site. In addition, ECT requires only
a single anesthetic episode, results in no
ionizing radiation, and supplies only minimal patient stress. I expect more successful
papers will emerge in the future.—J.A.
Impellizeri, DVM, DACVIM (Oncology)
■ ■ Source
Electrochemotherapy with cisplatin enhances
local control after surgical ablation of fibrosarcoma in cats: An approach to improve the therapeutic index of highly toxic chemotherapy
drugs. Spugnini EP, Renaud SM, Buglioni S, et al.
J TRANSLATIONAL MED 9:152, 2011.
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November 2012 • clinician’s brief
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