Effect of oral or injectable supplementation with cobalamin in dogs with hypocobalaminemia caused by chronic enteropathy or exocrine pancreatic insufficiency

Abstract

Background: Recent studies have shown similar efficacy of oral supplementation of cobalamin compared to injectable supplementation in dogs, but few prospective, randomized studies have been published. Objectives: To evaluate efficacy of oral or injectable supplementation with cobalamin in normalizing serum cobalamin and methylmalonic acid (MMA) concentrations in dogs with hypocobalaminemia caused by either chronic enteropathy (CE) or exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI). Animals: Forty-six client owned dogs with hypocobalaminemia. Methods: Prospective randomized clinical trial. Dogs were divided into 2 groups (CE or EPI), and randomized to receive oral or injectable supplementation of cobalamin. Each dog had 3 visits and serum cobalamin and MMA concentrations were measured at each visit. Results: In dogs with CE, serum cobalamin concentrations increased with oral (P =.02; median 149 [range 149-231] to 733 [166-1467] ng/L, median difference 552 [95% CI: 181-899] ng/L) or injectable (P