Oral Cobalamin Supplementation in Dogs with Chronic Enteropathy

Linda Toresson, DVM
Helsinki University

 

KEY FINDINGS:

  • Cobalamin (vitamin B12) deficiency may occur secondary to chronic enteropathy and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency in dogs.
  • In dogs with chronic enteropathies, injectable cobalamin was more effective at increasing serum cobalamin in the first 28 days, but oral cobalamin had significantly greater effects by the end of the study (90 days).
  • Based on biomarker concentrations, there were no significant differences between oral and injectable cobalamin formulations in normalizing intracellular cobalamin status.
  • Oral cobalamin supplementation is as effective as injectable cobalamin at correcting low cobalamin concentrations in dogs, but more research is required to investigate these effects in cats.

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SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

Linda Toresson, DVM- Helsinki University

Dr. Linda Toresson graduated from the faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in 1995. She also has a Swedish specialist degree in small animal internal medicine. Dr. Toresson has mainly worked at the Evidensia Specialist Animal Hospital in Helsingborg, Sweden, where she served seven years as medical director. She focuses on chronic gastrointestinal disorders, and has collaborated with Jörg Steiner, MedVet, DrMedVet, PhD, DACVIM, DECVIM-CA, AGAF, and Jan Suchodolski, MedVet, DrMedVet, PhD, DACVIM, AGAF, at the GI lab at Texas A&M University on several clinical research projects. Dr. Toresson frequently is invited to lecture on GI diseases in Scandinavia. Currently, she is a senior consultant in GI at the Evidensia Specialist Animal Hospital in Sweden, and also is an external part-time doctorate student at Helsinki University under the supervision of Professor Thomas Spillmann. The topic of her doctorate research is oral cobalamin supplementation in dogs with chronic enteropathies.