A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a very dedicated and long-time member of the Arizona Basset Hound Rescue, Betty Briggs. She said that she wanted to get in to have some photos taken of a Basset that she had been fostering for many years, Shannon. She was afraid that Shannon was getting old…
9/21/11 – I just started a Google Group for CAH in Dogs. Please join and share your story! http://groups.google.com/group/chronic-active-hepatitis-in-dogs In an earlier post, I introduced you to my dog, Misty Blue, the Blue Doberman and touched on a skin issue that is common to dilute color Dobes. Today, I would like to touch on…
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My Dobe was diagnosed at 7yrs old. He would not eat ANY L/D or regular dog food. It has been tough year since his diagnosis and unfortunately he disease has progressed. Last week his ultrasound found signs of scarring in his liver. You would never know he was sick, he is just as active and alert as always but we noticed he was starting to bloat below the ribs. We thought it was his stomach but it was actually his liver enlarging. The vets were surprised for his condition he was so bouncy and his weight and appetite are great. I told them about the diet I am feeding him and about this website. I think that is what has helped him stay with us this long. But due to the progression, the docs switched his meds just to help him feel comfortable. Any thoughts or suggestions, I am open to it.
About a month ago my beautiful red dobe -Hope_ was diagnosed with CAH. Thanks for putting all this info out there so I don’t feel so alone.
There is a book called Hope for Healing Liver Disease in Dogs that is available to download. It also has been extremely helpful.Check it out at http://www.cyndismasal.com
My dog is on a whole host of meds and supplements—we go back for new test in two weeks—I am praying for improvement!!
Patti – What terrible news about Annie. I really hope that she will be ok. I am not a vet, I’m just a fellow concerned dog-mom. So, I can’t offer any medical advice but what you are describing does not sound like Chronic Active Hepatitis to me. In my experience and from what others have posted here, most dogs have no appetite at all when this disease flairs up. It is only wen they are on the Prednisone as a treatment that they start getting really hungry. Please keep us posted. Feel free to send me an email at susan@adogslifephoto.com if you want to chat some more.
Hi, I have a three year old Jack Russell Terrier named Annie. She is usually a very active little dog. About a month and a half ago she started acting lethargic on occasion and mostly at night, but then would be fine the next day. After eating, her appetite was ravenous, her tummy would bloat up and then go away, kind of like a puppies does at an early age. Two weeks ago her bloating got worse and she started to act more lethargic and depressed. I took her to my vet right away and he ran blood tests and determined it was acute pancreatitus. One week after being on medication, steroid, antibiotic and id food, she kept getting worse. I took her to an internal specialist, and a liver biopsy was performed today. They do not think she ever had chronic pancreatitus, but suspect Chronice Active Hepatitis. She still has her ravenous appetite, is still lethargic, but is going potty and holding steady. Until we get the test results back they are treating her as if she has Chronic Acute Hepatitis. The vet that took the liver biopsy mentioned her wall of her gall bladder was thickened and that she definately has ascititis sp?, fluid in the body cavity….I’m trying to remain positive, am hoping she is a fighter and will make it through this. It seems that once the fluid in the abdomen starts the disease is pretty severe…..It’s a waiting game and she is hospitalized and on IV support for now. I don’t know how advanced the damage is on her liver so I don’t know what to expect. I’m not sure that I’m asking a question but the last 48 hours have been pure hell and I read one post that has a poor prognosis and then another that has a happy ending and pray that my little Annie will have the same. She has never lost her appetite, never had vomiting or diarhea, so I just don’t know what to think.
Thank you so much for sharing your journey and treatment with Misty. We have 3 year old Dobe that is showing signs of CAH. We just took labs twice in the last week that indicated high liver levels and started some treatment. We started feeding L/D but switching NOW to your homemade diet. You have given us a ray of hope that we will have our much loved companion for a few more years yet. We are already struggling with our male Dobe with DCM. Heartbreaking does not even scratch the surface of my sorrow right now. You have given us some encouragement/advice and it is greatly appreciated.
My 14 1/2 year old rat terrier,SUGAR,has too much copper in her liver.She got sick 3 weeks ago.My vet gave her Marin and an antibotic for 1 week.She is back to her normal happy self.I also give her homemade food.1cup cooked oat meal and 2 boiled egg.Some times I feed her homemade food 1 cup of white rice,1/3 cup plain non fat yogurt,1 boiled egg.She still takes 1/2 pill of the Marin every day on a full tummy.I think she will stay on this the rest of her life.I need to add some sweet potato and green beans to both recipes so she can get her veggies now.My little SUGAR is 14 years old,she will be 15 on Oct 17th,she is tri color black,tan and a little white.She weighs 15 lbs.I also and 3 other 4 legged kids.I hope your MISTY BLUE is still doing well. MARTHA I enjoyed reading all your blogs about your baby,made me smile!!
Hi Christy – I think you are correct about the increased appetite being due to the Prednisone. Misty was exactly the same way. She has been doing great. We keep a close eye on her copper levels with regular blood tests. She did have to go back of the Prednisone a few months ago for a short cycle because her levels were a little high but she is fine now. She is almost 9 years old and still acts like a puppy most of the time. I’m glad to hear you are on a homemade diet. My vet did not mention any concerns about calcium intake. I had talked to a pet nutritionist and she just mentioned that it might be a good idea to put the egg shells into a coffee grinder and add them to the food for additional calcium. She also recommended giving her marrow bones to chew on. I don’t remember the name of the supplements I was using and I hesitate to recommend anything specific to you. I would strongly advise you to talk to a nutritionist because what worked for my dog may not be right for yours, especially since he has a different condition. I am so sorry that you are going through this. I know how touch it can be. Feel free to drop me an email if you want to chat some more – susan@adogslifephoto.com.
It seems it has been a year since you have last posted, I hope Misty Blue is doing well…
My Goldendoodle is six and my story with him is almost identical to yours, only difference being that the cause of his CAH is unknown, but lepto and copper storage toxicity have been ruled out. He is on all of the same meds as Misty Blue was with the exception of the med.for copper toxicity.
He is currently a few weeks out from the beginning of this very frightening occurrence and he is doing pretty well as he has responded to prednisone which they finally started him on just over a week ago. He went from no appetite to being absolutely starving with no amount of food seeming to satiate his appetite (I attribute to this to his high dose of pred).
I am currently home cooking and he seems to really be doing well with that. I would like to continue on this path, but I am concerned about giving him the proper nutrition. The diet I feed him is similar to the one you posted, with slight deviations now and then. My biggest concern right now is figuring out how to balance the phosphorous/calcium ratio in his food. Dogs get a lot of phosphorous from animal proteins and in nature, they are able to balance this by eating the bone of the protein source to get their calcium. I’ve heard the phosphorous/calcium ratio is very important in dogs and cannot be ignored as a diet low in calcium can lead to hazardous health problems such as Ricketts. Additionally, if you add a calcium source such as cottage cheese, the calcium in the cottage cheese is only enough to balance the phosphorous in the cottage cheese, not enough to help balance the phosphorous in the entire meal. So, my long awaited question…. Did your vet mention anything about this to you and did you use any sort of supplement? I am wondering what was in the Powdered Vitamin supplement that you used as I am trying to figure out the best way to get my dog the calcium that he needs.
Thanks for reading this and I hope to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Christy
I have read your article about your blue doberman who has had chronic active hepatitus. My 7-year-old dobe has been diagnosed with the same thing. You said that you fed your dog chicken breast, sweet potato, rice, green beans, hard boiled eggs, flax seed oil, powdered vitamin supplement. Can you tell me in what proportion you fed this diet? And what vitaman supplements? I would like to try it. Thank you so very much.
Shannon – I am sorry about your Great Dane. I believe the liquid medicine was Lactulose. I looked it up and it says that it is mainly for constipation in cats but it is used for some liver conditions. I have a call in to my vet to confirm. I would definitely clear any advice that I give you with your vet because every case is different! I think you are doing the right thing by cooking homemade for now. I have Misty on 1/2 NRG Dehydrated food and 1/2 Great Life grain-free chicken because they are both low in copper and she is doing amazingly well! She is still on Denosyl & Zinc Acetate and I giver her a Vitamin E capsule twice a day. I’ll let you know what my vet says about the liquid medicine to confirm. Best of luck!
I am very happy I stumbled across this site, as my Great Dane was diagnosed with CAH and high copper accumulation. I have not been able to get him to eat anything consistently since Christmas, and I’ve been making all of his food since then; trying everything. Any chance you can get the name of the medication that was used to chelate the copper (I presume it was the liquid you had to squirt down your Dobie’s throat)? We tried Cuprimine and it made our dog sick, so now we are trying Syprine, which is supposed to have fewer adverse side effects but is SO EXPENSIVE. Thank you for this site!!
[...] searching the web for answers on this very frightening disease in your dog, you may also want to click here to read a previous post that describes what Chronic Active Hepatitis is and how my dog has dealt [...]
[...] were searching for answers about CAH, you will probably want to check that out. In the meantime, click here for more info on Chronic Active Hepatitis and how Misty has managed to live with it for so [...]
Hi, Just read your post today. How is Misty Blue since January? My Newfoundland D’Arcy was diagonsed on Memorial day weekend. Her disease is pretty advanced. I am not sure how much time she has. We are struggling with diet, as she is eating well now, but wants what she is not supposed to have. I am trying to keep her protein to 1 gm/lb of body weight. She does not want to eat the presciption diets. Thanks for mentioning the copper in commercial dog food. I was unaware of that. One thing going on with D’Arcy is that she is leakig ascites fluid from her surgical incision site. Not such a good sign. We take everyday as a blessing.
I cannot tell you how much better your post made me feel. My cherished 2 y/o dobe was just diagnosed with CAH. I took him for blood tests because I couldn’t get him to put on weight and he looked too skinny, no other signs of a problem. His liver enzymes came back thru the roof. I was beyond despair when I came across your success story and now I am determined to tackle this thru diet as much as possible. I wish you the best of luck and want you to know the comfort you have brought me and I am sure many others, including Misty.
One more thing I forgot to mention… I was very hesitant to put her on the Prednisone and antibiotics when she was first diagnosed but the vet explained to me that it was necessary to get her liver back into a stong and healthy state and flush out the copper. I don’t think she would have pulled through the initial onset of the disease without this. I would encourage you to try a series of these meds. Just make sure your vet knows you don’t want him on them for very long. bast of luck to you.
I am so very sorry to hear about your Dobie. You are doing the right thing by feeding him a home cooked diet. I am not a big believer in phamaceuticals but in this case, you may have no other option. My Dobie has been on Denamarin (previously Denosyl), Zinc Acetate, vitamin E and a homemade diet for over a year now and she is doing fantastic. She does get a bit of trembling once in a while. I never associated that with the liver condition. Very interesting. Thank you for sharing that with me. What are you cooking for him? Are you putting carbs into the food to beef up the calories? I use a lot of sweet potatoes and I add flax oil for some healthy fat. I give her a lot… like 2 1/2 cups twice a day and she gobbles it up. She is always hungry. Her weight is good though. I mix a little Innova dried food in because that is supposed to have the lowest copper content. I have gotten lazy a few times and didn’t make food and just gave her Innova for a few days and she starting showing symptoms immediately. So, I know that the diet is key to success. Maybe ask your vet to put him on Zinc Acetate. It will help him process the copper that he is getting in his diet. Oh, and only give him filtered or distilled water, especially if you have copper water pipes. I wish I could be of more help. Please keep me posted. My vet is wonderful if you want to try a phone consultation. His name is Dr. Bracken at the Arcadia Animal Clinic in Phoenix, AZ.
I have a 6 yr old Dobie (male) diagnosed 4/09 with Chronic Active Hep. Very limited info from several different vets, one of whom wanted to start him on all sorts of drugs (prednisone, colchicine, etc). I’m not a big believer in overmedicating and the whole vaccine thing so I’m looking for a more holistic approach. He was on anti-biotics for a time to see if it would help to no avail. Liver enzymes thru the roof still, jaundice present but he has no other identifiable clinical signs of liver disease w/the exception of some periodic trembling and shaking which went away for a short time after I stopped feeding him Science diet L/D and started him on a homecooked diet. Only problem is he keeps losing weight and the tremors have re-appeared. He is on vitamins, digestive enzymes, and Denamarin. I’m at a loss as to what to do. I realize it’s not curable but was hoping that there was some way to slow down the progression of the disease.
Thank you for your article. We have a 17 month old, neutered male standard poodle, Theo. He had all of the symptoms and was biopsied last friday 8/28/09. Results came back that he has CAH and we are still waiting for the copper results. The doctor immediately prescribed the Prednisone. Also, the doctor put him on Amoxiclllin following the biopsy. He seemed to snap right back after two days on the Amoxicillin and has now been on the Prednisone for three days. The challenge a couple of weeks ago was to stop his weight loss and keep him interested in food. Now we are feeding a Hill’s Science diet L/D dry food, per the doctor, with Merrick’s small servings, 2-3 oz. just to add some flavor–three 1 cup meals per day. So far he seems to be holding food down and has been mostly normal with no further weight loss. How long did it take to see normal liver enzyme levels and how long did it take to see weight gain and a return to her previous weight.
Thank you and good luck with all of your future test results.
what a beautiful girl she is! thanks so much for the link. best to you!
woof!
adrian
This is my dog, Misty Blue. She is a 7 year old female blue Doberman. The ‘blue” coat is a dilute of the more common black/tan coloring. A fawn Doberman would be the dilute color of the common red color coat. With dilute colors come skin and coat problems caused by Color Dilution Alopecia. These…
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I get a lot of questions about the gear that I use to shoot photos both in studio and on location. I also get questions about what equipment to buy if you are on a tight budget and just starting out. Anyone venturing into the world of photography for profit must understand up front that…
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Thought I would start off with a post saying thanks to my good friend and neighbor, Matthew, for helping me get this blog up and running. He and his wife Jeanne have 2 pugs named Saki & Uni. Don’t ask me which one is which. I can never keep them straight. I hope I don’t…
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by adogslifephoto
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christine - I just stumbled onto your blog and wanted to gush a little bit about it and what a breath of fresh air it is, and how great you are with interacting with your dog clients, and how fun your images are and how interesting for other photogs to read about each session as you include the technical details, but these eyes…poor sweet Shannon. so I’ll save all that for another time and instead simply say what a gift you’ve been given and, in turn, give. very nice work.