Severe liver infection - any advice or experience of?

[Louise Woods]

Hello.

This is my first post even though I have been a member since Bertie was about 6 months old.

About two months ago Bertie was simply not right so we took him to the vets for a check up. To cut a long story short we were told he had Pyogranulomatous Hepatitis which is a severe liver infection and the cause unknown. After a horrific month or so Bertie was getting better and his various protein levels, including Albumin, were back to where they should be.

Bertie was put on an hepatic diet (Royal Canin) but my husband and I were convinced he had an intolerance to it as he was not putting on weight and stools were not good. So we switched to mixing his normal dry food with boiled chicken, white fish etc and he put on weight and all was looking great. A routine blood check showed his liver protein levels were slightly funny again so the vet took blood tests on Monday and the levels were worse. He has now referred us to a specialist vet and we are waiting to be contacted.

Has anyone's dogs had this or can offer any advice?

Bertie has always not been interested in food and now he has lost his appetite we are struggling to find food he will actually eat. He now will not touch boiled chicken or turkey, is hit and miss with white fish and have tried a variety of canned food but with no luck. I managed to get him to eat some raw beef chunks and currently have tripe defrosting to try later. The only thing he will always have is sausages but I appreciate they are not great. Any suggestions will be greatly received as he needs to eat.

We are so worried about him and are hoping that someone may have some advice for us.

Kind regards

Louise

[James Doran]

Hi Louise, I was very sorry to read your post about Bertie. I don't have any direct experience of this although my boy had abnormal liver function readings that were connected to his pancreatitis. Also I was lucky that he was never a fussy eater. I completely understand your concern for him as he does need to eat and also it would be a good sign that he was improving if he could. If he likes the raw beef, you could also try raw chicken or lean mince as well. I would always soak dry food for 15 minutes in warm water before feeding as it softens it and also ensures that it not expanding in the stomach once eaten. There is a lot of information in the forum which may be helpful. Click on the forum tab along the top of the page. Once in, you will see a search box. If you enter 'liver problems/infection/issues and hit search, it will bring up a lot of other posts that you can read to see if there is any information or advice that may help. I hope also that any other members upon reading this will respond. Don't forget to try the internet search as well. My sincerest regards and best wishes.

[Laura Kolbach]

please contact Prof Ed Hall in Bristol asap. 

you really need to feed Bertie a diet that suits his liver problems, being skinny is not of importance at the moment. i know it is hard but you you need to get control over the possibly toxic stuff in his body first. 

 

 

[Louise Woods]

Thank you James for your reply.

I have just emailed Professor Ed Hall Laura - thank you.

[Laura Kolbach]

best of luck!

[shirley walsh]

Best of luck with Bertie. It is very worrying when they are not eating . My Sophie is slowly recovering from bloat/Idiopathic Thrombocytopaenia/ possible AIHA and pancreatitis . She was not eating or drinking and it was such a worrying time. Her liver function is still abnormal and she still has raised Lipase but at least she is now eating (Royal canin low fat wet food) She had lost about 7 kgs and has not really gained very much as I have to go steady and build her up slowly as I don't want her to bloat again...She really needs to be on a diet suited to her liver problems which doesn't tax the liver to work hard . I hope you get your boy at least stabilised and eating again ...Best wishes