Liver Failure

[AlwaysMe21]

Posting again! I had earlier posts about my dog having pancreatitis. Well, she is much better, but the vet noticed jaundice in eyes today. He did blood tests and the liver enzymes were so high the machine wouldn't register them. She doesn't seem to have a bacterial infection he said.

So here's my new question, is liver failure basically a death senetence? She is acting so much better, almost normal, but not quite. He hasn't specified a cause or anything. So I was just wondering what I *could* expect since it seems as though her liver is failing.

[Jaybay]

Thank YOU for the sympathy.  :-)  Travis was the first dog I'd ever owned, and it about killed me when he died.  He had a terrible beginning in life, and a terrible ending, but everything in between was wonderful.  I swear, his death was keenly felt by everyone who knew him - he was just one of those kinds of dogs people bond with easily.   My nieces and nephews were just crushed because they grew up with him.  Ah well, I know my story is no different from millions of other pet owners, but there it is.  

Still praying that your pup will pull through this.  You just never know which way it will turn, and your dog is much younger than mine was.  Youth does help.  :-)

[AlwaysMe21]

Thanks!! I'll have my vet check into it, and see if I can get a u/s done! I appreciate all of your information and so sorry about your dog that passed away from this!

[Jaybay]

My dog went most of 3 weeks without eating.  The first week he stayed with our regular vet on an IV.  Once he could keep water down, he came home.  He had one day of a little bit of plain chicken and rice, and went right back to throwing up that and water.  As it turned out, that was his last meal, or even water by mouth.  That's why we went to the high dollar facility so they could add liquid nutrients in the form of TPN through a big line in his neck.  Sounds horrible, but it was actually easier on him since all the blood draws could be done from the same port.  No more leg sticks every day.

Keeping down food and water is a good sign of improvement, but that pancreas may still be very swollen and causing the bile to back up into the liver.  That's the reason I brought up the ultrasound so you can get a better idea of what things actually look like.  In this case, size really does matter!

[AlwaysMe21]

We kept her w/o food for almost 48hrs. Our vet wanted us to slowly reintroduce fluids and see if she kept them down, then some bland dog food. And she has. So I'm assuming she may be recovering? How do you know how long to "starve" them? My vet seemed to think we did it long enough and got it under control.

[Jaybay]

You need to run that one by Dr. Cheng.  I CAN tell you that when my dog had pancreatitis, his liver numbers did the same thing.  I am guessing here, but probably your dog's pancreas got so swollen that it put pressure on the common bile duct.  That causes not only pancreas enzymes to back up, but bile from the liver as well.  Simply put, if the swelling goes down, everything else comes down.

This is the tough part of treating pancreatitis.  You literally have to starve the dog to calm down the pancreas, and wait it out.  They need to do an ultrasound to see how large the pancreas is and what all is getting compressed.  I don't want to scare you, but your pup isn't out of the woods by a long shot yet.  You'll need more information from the ultrasound to help determine the course of treatment - or not.  

In 3 weeks, we spent $10,000 trying to save our dog from pancreatitis, and failed.  But he was also at a facility that basically practices "people medicine" on animals.  Daily ultrasounds, daily labs, a central line for TPN and 24/7 intensive nursing mounts up in hurry in these places.  I tell you this only to give you an idea of what you may be up against.  All you can do is take it day by day.  Keep us posted on what happens, and I'll send up some prayers for your pup.  :-)