Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common gastrointestinal motility disorder of humans that is characterized by irregular bowel habits, abdominal pain, and the absence of detectable organic disease. The disorder is thought to be a conglomerate of diseases of different cause. Stress often plays a role. It is considered a functional bowel disorder, ie. a disease syndrome with a definable group of symptoms but no organic lesion or at least no lesion that can be consistently demonstrated at our present level of expertise. It seems likely that a disorder analogous to IBS occasionally afflicts dogs. At the author's Massey University practice, the syndrome is uncommon accounting for approximately 1 in 3000 submissions and less than 1 in 20 patients withlarge bowel diarrhea. However, others find the disease more common. These contrasting opinions probably represent differing definitions as to what constitutes IBS, rather than true differences in prevalence.
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