Bibliographic review on the nutritional management of feline Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Abstract

Feline inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic enteropathy of multifactorial origin that significantly affects the digestive health of cats. It is characterized by vomiting, diarrhea, weight loss and intestinal histological alterations, and can coexist with other pathologies such as pancreatitis or cholangitis (feline triaditis). Its diagnosis remains complex, due to the need to exclude other pathologies and the lack of standardized diagnostic criteria. This paper presents a literature review focused on the role of nutrition in the treatment of feline IBD, analyzing different types of diets and complementary strategies. Diet represents the main therapeutic axis, being usual to start treatment with an elimination diet with hydrolyzed proteins or limited in antigens. These formulas have been shown to be effective in many cases, however, clinical response varies between individuals, which requires a personalized approach. Key components such as digestibility, fat content, fiber and carbohydrate are also explored, highlighting that lipid restriction is not always beneficial in cats, unlike other species. The use of prebiotics, probiotics, synbiotics and postbiotics as tools to modulate the intestinal microbiota, whose imbalance (dysbiosis) plays a crucial role in IBD, is also reviewed. The use of drugs such as glucocorticoids, metronidazole, cyclosporine and chlorambucil is also discussed, and emerging therapies such as mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), which have shown promising results in preliminary studies, are presented. In conclusion, the management of feline IBD requires a comprehensive, progressive and individualized approach. Nutrition remains the mainstay of treatment, but the development of new therapies and the characterization of the feline microbiome open future perspectives to improve its clinical approach.