Real Life Cases

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10 year old Chihuahua. Diagnosed with IBD from U/S scan. Prescribed a strict low-fat and hypoallergenic diet.

Continuously having small flare ups throughout life, suddenly became sick and vomiting with weight loss. Not controlled with diet or through the vet. Given IV fluids, blood good, had steroids and antibiotics. No diarrhoea, stomach pain, bloating and vomiting. Stopped eating and drinking altogether for a while.   

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The results produced by the PetBiome test is a full genomic sequencing of the microbial community of the individual dog. Each horizontal bar represents a division in the phylogenic tree and each vertical line represents a different type of bacteria. 

Bambi has good diversity ie high number ofspecies and richness ofspecies, however, there is a high percentage ofsugar and fibre digesting bacteria called treponema 12% of the total biome and fibrobacter, 6% of the total biome. Treponema are translocating bacteria and may cause symptomsin other parts of the body, they tend to affect or act asinflammatory agents. The average level of treponema and fibrobacter, in healthy dogs, is below 1% for both. Treponema and fibrobacter can cause a type of gastric acidosis.

Pebble is a Jack Russell and Chihuahua cross aged 14. Similar symptoms to Bambi and as both shared the same home an environmental factor such as a bacterial infection was suspected to be the cause. Common agents are Clostridium difficile. There was an urgent need to alleviate the symptoms as quality of life was poor, with regular bouts of discomfort and pain.  Genomic sequencing would identify all likely pathogens.    

The results of both dogs are quite similar though the diversity scores are different. Human's living in a house together will share a portion of their microbiome. Around 25% is shared, medication also has an effect on the microbiome reducing the number of species as seen here.  

Pebble has extremely low diversitywithin themicrobial community of themicrobiome, there are too few bacteria manufacturing vitamins especially vitamin B complex and those bacteria that makemineralsmore bioavailable. The numbers of good gut bacteria are very low, thismay have been caused by long termmedication or a priorsudden onset gastric illness. Bacteroidetesmake up 82% of themicrobiome, linked to gastric inflammation. Following the recommendationsin Parts one and twowill help to reduce numbers of bacteroidetes but a faecal transplant froma healthy donor may give the best results