# Healing a Damaged Liver



## xoxluvablexox (Apr 10, 2007)

I just wanted to write this so that other dog owners can be able to find some helpful information. I know when I found out that my dog's liver enzymes were high and he had "severe liver damage" I was scared and felt helpless and because of all the information I found online and was able to talk to my Vet about I was able to help him and now his values are all back to normal. I think this thread should be "stickied"(not sure what else to call it) to the top and owners should post their own experiences so we can help be there for to give advice and emotional support to owners looking for answers. I know I would have appreciated something like that when I was searching all over the web for herbal remedies and liver detoxes and whatever else I could find to help my dog. Anyways I'll leave that up to the Mod. of the Forum and move on with my post. 

First and foremost, I AM NOT a veterinarian nor do I have any medical experience. I am a dog owner writing from experience and hoping that this will help some unfortunate owner in the future who needs this information to help save their dogs life. So what you read after this you should take note of and then go talk to your veterinarian about to see what the best options for your dog will be. I do NOT want people posting on here with a list of symptoms and asking if their dog has liver disease. For one reason, I wouldn't have a clue and I doubt anyone on this forum would...the only way to know that would be to get their liver values checked. Also, because even if I could tell you if it was liver problems, I wouldn't be able to tell you how because many things can cause liver problems. For my dog it was sludge in his gallbladder which led to liver problems. For another dog it could have got a hold of toxic medicine...you can't treat the problem without knowing the cause and treating that as well. So PLEASE for the wellbeing of your dog, if you think it has liver problems TAKE IT TO A VET!! Thank you. 

Now I would just like to list the medications I was giving my dog and if your dog has liver problems I would highly recommend them (after your Vet says it's okay and gives them to you or tells you to get them!):
1. Milk Thistle
2. SAMe
3. Ursodiol(for his gallbladder)

Now I think I should make it clear, as far as the Ursodiol is concerned, my dog was on it because he had a buildup of sludge in his gallbladder which is what led to the liver damage. In a lot of cases gallbladder problems result in liver problems, it can also happen the other way around. Elevated levels of GGT are a sign of this. So if your dog is showing signs of elevated levels of GGT you might want to look into getting an Ultrasound done to make sure that your dog is not getting a buildup of sludge in its gallbladder. It can become pretty serious; sometimes hardening (like gallstones in people) and can result in the need to have it removed. AGAIN, please talk to your vet about this if you're concerned. 

Now for what I really feel helped my dog the most:

Diet and Nutrition:
For a dog with liver problems you don't want a lot of protein or fat. You can find this information online as well as at the website of the Canine Liver Disease Foundation .0rg, just type it into your browser. You can also search for the liver cleansing diet which I fed my dog a version of. 

My dogs diet consisted of (and still somewhat does) sweet potatoes, white potatoes, squash, green beans or sometimes peas, and white fish (tilapia or haddock). I made a big batch and then I also made some plain pasta and did a half and half mixture or pasta and the veggie mix. I'm not giving the exact amount of everything because that is something you need to talk to your vet about. I know that this food helped my dog a lot I don't know that it will do that same for yours although online I read that it helped other owner’s dogs as well and I do highly recommend that you have a talk with your vet about it and look into it. If you decide to feed a homemade diet you need to get a vitamin supplement and feed more then you usually would (about 1/4 to 1/2 cup more) My dog lost about 3 pounds so I fed 1 and 1/2 cups (he's a, usually, 16 pound dog and went down to 13) and now that he is better I'm feeding him 2 cups and weighing him daily to see when he gets back to his normal weight. As for vitamins, my vet recommended Pet-Tabs. They also have Pet-Tabs Plus for sick dogs. I know in some cases dogs with liver problems lose their appetite and get sick often...that wasn't so much a problem with my dog but for a dog like that Pet-Tabs Plus would probably be a better option. 

Again, this is what worked for my dog...he went from an ALKP of over 4000 down to the normal range in just a little over 2 months with a lot of hard work (meds from morning to night) and a good diet. I hope this information will help someone in need of some information from a personal perspective and that other's will join in with their own experiences and what worked for their dogs. Thank you.


I'll start off with a question for other's who have had similar experiences with their dogs...

When your dog got better did you continue to give it medication(such as milk thistle and SAMe) for a good period of time after just to make sure everything stayed good(for a lack of better words) or did you take them off the medications right away?

I know my Vet said to continue for a week and then I could stop but I'm waiting till I run out of the Milk Thistle(already ran out of SAMe) which is almost done now, there may be about 4 more days’ worth. I'm kind of worried about not giving it to him though and I've read that if you give your dog heart worm medication it's good to give them Milk Thistle as well. I just don't know if it would be good to continue giving him something like that permanently. I would think the saying "everything in moderation" would apply to dogs as well. So at this point I don't know if I want to give him milk thistle every day for the rest of his life or maybe one week out of every month or maybe one month every three months. I just don't know and would really like to know what other people do with their own dogs....

I'm sorry I forgot to mention another medication, or rather an antibiotic, that my dog was put on: Ampicillin. The reason for this was, I'm sure, to make sure that incase it was a liver infection rather then just liver damage then that would be taken care of. You need to be careful with this though because it can cause problems with the liver since it depletes the good bacteria in the GI system and cause the values to go up again(speaking from personal experience). So make sure you ask your vet about that and mention Bene-Bac to them because which might be something your dog might need to promote healthy bacteria. It worked well for my dog, they took him off the Amp. and put him on that and the values went down again. So again, just bring that up to your vet if your dog is put on Amp. so you can make sure it won't be on the Amp. too long and it won't cause any problems.


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## lulusmom (Nov 12, 2008)

How long you continue to administer liver support supplements depends on the extent of liver disease and your vet would be the best person to answer your question. Liver enzymes can be severely elevated by any number of causative factors and more often than not, the problem is something other than primary liver disease. Therefore, unless appropriate testing has been done and a diagnosis of severe liver disease has been confirmed, it is not a good idea to restrict protein as doing so can actually be detrimental to the dog. What was your dog's actual diagnosis? Was a bile acid test and biopsy done to make the diagnosis? Dogaware is one of my favorite sites for any number of canine diseases and I have included the url for liver disease below. I think you will find some very useful information there. In particular, there is a link to Diagnosing Liver Disease, A Roundtable Discussion which is very informative but the link they provide isn't a direct link to this paper sponsored by IDEXX Labs. This is a Q & A discussion with many board certified specialists who deal with and lecture on canine liver disease. I've also provided the appropriate url for that below:

http://dogaware.com/health/liver.html
http://www.idexx.it/pdf/it_it/smallanimal/vetlab/catalyst/diagnosing-liver-disease.pdf


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## 3doglady (Jul 31, 2011)

It can be really hard and frustrating to get appropriate support outside your vet's office when it comes to certain health issues. And, I agree that it's very important to consult with your vet before using herbal remedies. 

I just want to add, I've learned to be as vigil lent in researching herbal remedies and diet-based changes as the medications my vet prescribes. There are side affects you need to consider, as well as any medications the herbs or diet might interfere with. There are quite a few herbal remedies and diets I've run across that may benefit one issue, but cause or aggravate another. 

If your vet suggests you stop milk thistle, I would stop. Milk Thistle can suppress liver function as well as support it. And while it does have its benefits, it also can cause complications, such as loose stools, poor appetite, gas.bloating and allergies, (some serious).

Sending good thoughts for you and your dog.


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## xoxluvablexox (Apr 10, 2007)

Well at this point all his values are back to normal and the Vet told me I can stop giving him everything after one week which it has already been over a week. My only interest in wanting to continue to give him the Milk Thistle is that it's pretty much like a liver detox and helps keep toxins from building up in the liver over time which after this is something I deffinetly do NOT want happening. So I was mainly just interesting in seeing if other owners give their dogs Milk Thistle and how often they do just to get some imput from other people about it. 

The actual diagnosis was that he had sludge in his gallbladder from a bile duct obstuction or more specifically cholestasis, this tells you a little bit about it: http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/digestive/c_dg_bile_duct_obstruction. Whenever there is something wrong with the gallbladder it usually always leads to problems with the liver. When he went in to the EVet his liver values weren't too high but after he was given medication to help move the sludge out of his gallbladder and once it finely did move out of his gallbladder the liver values sky rocketed up to extremely high levels. The food they gave him originally was Science Diet l/d canned and he would not eat it and when tested again his values had gone up even more. After I found the diet listed above online and he started eating normal they started to go down and lowered significantly within two weeks from the highest(the ALKP) going down from over 4000 to about 600. That's why I extremely recommend the food ecspecially if you have a picky eater which my dog is. Once I started feeding him the homecooked diet his values went down right away. The main reason for this is because dogs with live problems NEED caleries for their liver to get better. If your dog doesn't eat enough it won't get better and could(like my dog) actually get worse. I know that dogs need protein in their diet which is why he is getting the white fish, I contacted a nutritionlist and she told me the same thing. It just have to be small amounts of protien because too much can be a strain on the liver. 

He did not have a biopsy done. I spoke to the Vet about it and she said it wasn't necassary. They did take a lot of Xrays and did an Ultrusound of the liver and gallbladder. When he left the EVet(he stayed there for four nights) his gallbladder was completely cleared of sludge and he was just put on the medication to help out his liver. Since there is now nothing wrong with the Gallbladder and the liver enzymes are now down everything is officially taken care of and back to the way it should be. Now my only concern is wanting to make sure it stays that way and looking into preventative measures to make sure everything stays in great health and optimal working order which I plan on doing by making sure he is one a healthy diet(eventually figuring out a permanent homecooked diet) and using healthy herbs as a way to keep toxins and stuff from building up and damaging his liver ever again. After all this I'm slighty paraniod and planning on studying as much as I can about the health of pretty much every organ my dog possesses..it's a little crazy but I love my dog and plan on nothing like this EVER happening again. 

Thank you for the links I'll be sure to give them a look


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