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my little cross bred has a liver shunt what types of raw foods can i safely give him. he is doing well of a Hills liver diet but what other foods could he have as he misses his table scraps and treats etc

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my little cross bred has a liver shunt what types of raw foods can i safely give him. he is doing well of a Hills liver diet but what other foods could he have as he misses his table scraps and treats etc

Was the shunt diagnosed by a specialist/blood test?

To be honest I wouldn't give him anything other than the prescription diet, my dog had a shunt and the consequences of too much protein can be disastrous :shrug: Luckily my boy survived but he went into a coma and was very close to death. It's not something you muck around with so missing a few scraps and treats is not going to kill him but indulging him just might.

ETA Did the vet give you any meds for him? Mine was on lactulose to help mop up the toxins, as well as antibiotics to keep infections from taking hold.

Edited by tkay
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my little cross bred has a liver shunt what types of raw foods can i safely give him. he is doing well of a Hills liver diet but what other foods could he have as he misses his table scraps and treats etc

Was the shunt diagnosed by a specialist/blood test?

To be honest I wouldn't give him anything other than the prescription diet, my dog had a shunt and the consequences of too much protein can be disastrous :shrug: Luckily my boy survived but he went into a coma and was very close to death. It's not something you muck around with so missing a few scraps and treats is not going to kill him but indulging him just might.

ETA Did the vet give you any meds for him? Mine was on lactulose to help mop up the toxins, as well as antibiotics to keep infections from taking hold.

yes he had scans, blood tests and scintigraphy. he was on high dose cortazone for a while as he also has poly-arthritis but that has been cut right down now. the yellow has all but gone from his coat and he is much happier to be part of my life again. he went for a long time only getting out of his bed to eat (very little) and go out to wee! i would just like to be able to vary his diet safely. he is due back at the vet to have a tooth out in a couple of weeks so will ask then but i thought someone here may know something helpful

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Its good to hear your dog is doing well on the prescription diet, I would be very hesitant to change anything when he is going well. Apparently the hills k/d is similar enough to the l/d the vets let me feed that so you can probably use that? You can rotate with the dry feed as well but i dont think dogs care too much about variety in their diet, i know my dogs dont and my shunt fellow was just happy to be eating something that didnt make him sick! Does your vet think that your boys shunt can be repaired?

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Is it a shunt that can be operated on? Hope he is ok :)

no unfortunately is is an acquired shunt. the scans found a small liver and the bile tests said it was running at 30% the scintigraphy confirmed it. other than being thin, yellowish, depressed and lame due to the PA he was "ok". he is 8 and was super active till 12 months ago when he had cruciate surgery now it's like he is 18! since we found the problem he has gone from 5.4kg up to 7.3 although my aim is to have him down to 6.8 by his next vet app. the cortizone for his poly-arthritis (which was found at the same time) made his weight balloon but that has been cut down. thank you for you help i will try the Royal Canin as the variety will make me feel better even if he doesn't care! Dobbie

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That is a bugger dobbie the acquired shunts are very difficult to repair from what I read you can shut one down and another will appear :)

Glad to hear he has improved and hopefully he can be successfully managed with diet and meds :laugh:

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