# Dog w/ raised liver enzymes- what would you feed?



## teamfargo (Jun 11, 2011)

(sorry in advance for the length.) 

My Bichon Frise is 7 and has was always pretty healthy until this past fall. 

In October, we discovered that he went blind. He gained 10 lbs between Oct 2010 and now (June 2011) due to lack of exercise/unwillingness to walk.

The vet did xrays now and found an englarged spleen. Blood work showed elevated liver enzymes. No masses as far as they can tell.Now, the obesity can cause the liver enzymes to be elevated... and that is my suspicion. They offered to do more extensive testing for $1,000, but I want to hold off on that as I really think it's the weight. They advised a prescription diet and sold me Denamarin Chew tabs, Amoxicillin and "Metronidazole" for bacterial infection. We have another blood test in one month.

I currently feed Taste of the Wild due to the high quality of the food and the lack of grains. Being a Bichon, he did have skin issues from time to time (before being on TOTW).

So, my question is this: what would you feed if you were in my shoes? I've never been a fan of the Science Diet foods... are there non-prescription alternatives?


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## flipgirl (Oct 5, 2007)

teamfargo said:


> (sorry in advance for the length.)
> 
> My Bichon Frise is 7 and has was always pretty healthy until this past fall.
> 
> ...


I'm sorry your baby is going through this. My dog is a shih-tzu x bichon and when i had a wellness screen done on her recently, her liver enzymes were elevated. They did a bile acids test.where they take blood before and after she eats. This shows how the liver reacts or something. So I would assume that a bile acids test would be the next step. I was feeding her raw so the vet suggested I could feed her home-cooked (Canine Life muffins- my vet knows my aversion to kibble) for a month and then recheck her values. Another option would be ultrasound and then exploratory surgery + biopsy. The reason for stopping the raw was the liver could be reacting to bacterial contamination, which is why I'd assume the vet put your dog o on metronidazole. 

Another thing my vet said was that white dogs tend to have congenital condition in which theuy ALT is elevated no matter what. It's called microvascular dysplasia. There's some kind of protein test to test for it. You didn't mention if it was the ALT that was elevated. Maybe ask your vet?

As for feeding, there are Rx foods. I don't know what, if any, ingredients and/or nutrients you should add or avoid but you can ask your vet. Another vet told me to give antioxidants like vitamins A,C and E to fight off any free radicals that may be attacking my dog's liver. In my amateur opinion, I would guess that a homecooked diet would be the ideal because there's little chance of bacterial contamination and homemade food would be more easily broken sown and thus, less stress on the liver. 

Ask your vet about food- just ask what you should be avoiding or.adding or if there are specific levels of nutrients that need to be raised or restricted. In my experience with some of the other vets at the clinic where I work, they do push the rx foods and I can't blame them. With a hokemade diet, there's a chance that it's not complete and balanced as the rx foods are in terms of the condition it is purported to treat. I'm also assuming that, like many vets, your vet's nutrition training was limited. Anyways, sorry for my long post but let me know what happens with your baby.


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## teamfargo (Jun 11, 2011)

You are right - the vet was pushing r/x diet. 

In terms of quality, the food is ranked as a two star diet (out of five) when I searched the net. "Floor sweepings", corn, etc. are some of the ingredients. 

I chose to put Scruffy on a home cooked diet supplemented with milk thistle and doggie vitamins. The mixture consists of potatoes, sweet potatoes, zucchini, celery and white fish. (1 1/2 c. of each ingredient except for 2 c. white fish). Many home cooked diets for liver issues were pretty similar to this.

Since he is overweight, I'm hoping this serves the added benefit of weight loss. With him being blind, exercise is a struggle. We do short walks, but with me taking a step, waiting, bending over, helping, etc. it becomes a difficult task and is actually painful for my health issues, so our walks probably are not long enough (or fast enough) to do much good.

My vet only suggested a food with easily digestible protein or a diet food if I did not want to buy the r/x stuff she is selling. Wellness makes a kibble with whitefish and potatoes, so I may switch to that if we can get things under control. It appears to be a good choice, but I'm a newbie at pet food labels 

I like the vet, but I also suspect that she likes the brands she sells and sees their quality as being just fine, so it makes it a struggle to discuss it with her.


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## Pawzk9 (Jan 3, 2011)

Have you looked into Dr. Dodds Liver Cleansing Diet? (If you do a search you should come up with several hits) I think there is one currently that is more of a mantenance diet than the original - so it is better balanced and you can use it longer if need be. To compare dog foods Pet Food Advisor is a great site.


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## teamfargo (Jun 11, 2011)

Pawzk9 said:


> Have you looked into Dr. Dodds Liver Cleansing Diet? (If you do a search you should come up with several hits) I think there is one currently that is more of a mantenance diet than the original - so it is better balanced and you can use it longer if need be. To compare dog foods Pet Food Advisor is a great site.


That's actually what I put him on! After things are stabilized, I can add chicken as a protein source according to what I read. I will look into the maintenance plan as well for further down the road.


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