The amount to be fed is increased to the patient's previous caloric intake over three days, after which the animal is returned to its previous diet over approximately four days. Clients should be educated about the desirability of avoiding abrupt diet changes and opportunities for ingestion of garbage and non food items to minimize the reoccurrence of similar problems. Small intestine Chronic diarrhea often is difficult and frustrating to treat. Chronic small bowel diarrhea is associated with many diseases, and nutritional management depends on the cause. Low fat, highly digestible diets often are recommended for chronic small bowel diarrhea in dogs and cats .
Dietary management is the primary therapy for adverse reactions to foods in dogs and cats .
Adverse reactions to foods are divided into immune mediated, true food allergies, and non-immune mediated. Food intolerance includes pharmacological, metabolic and idiosyncratic adverse reactions to the current diet. The treatment is to change the diet to one the animal will tolerate. Diets similar to the one presented in Table 2 are also recommended for adjunctive therapy of other diseases causing chronic small bowel diarrhea for reasons discussed above for acute diarrhea. Large intestine Provision of increased amounts of dietary fiber is one therapy that has become popular in recent years for chronic large bowel diarrhea in dogs and cats .