@GriffinsMom, my girl Lady had a suspected brain tumour when she had a seizure at 13 years of age. My vet put her on Prednisone, and things improved. She was on and off the drug for the next few years until she really started to get worse at just short of 16 years old. My vet said that for some, Prednisone seems to shrink the tumour. Of course, it would depend on size and location. I don't want to give false hope, but you might inquire about it.
News on Willie's health issues
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Here is a link to a recipe for a homemade liver cleansing diet and information on Milk Thistle. It is from a canine epilepsy site so there is information related to that also.
http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/liver_diet.htm
Thank you so much! And I liked seeing that it was Jean Dodds - I sent Willie and Rosie's initial blood work for hypothyroidism to her to see if she could see something the regular vet didn't and while she didn't see symptoms of hyperthyroidism, she did notice the elevated liver enzymes. Maybe I could send her the most recent tests as well. We just don't know what's causing it.
I've ordered the Science Diet, but it won't be in until Monday. Maybe I can make him some of the cleansing diet until then (it sounds pretty good to me, as well - I can cook for Willie and my family at the same time)!
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What is in the S.diet food that the Vet is recommending? I am not a fan of S.Diet.. and I have not changed Kristii's food at all… I do use the liver cleansing diet along with the milk thistle and the Hepagen-C (you can order this on line).
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You can go to the website and check out the ingredients to their pet products. www.hillspet.com
When Senji didn't like the liver diet formula, we tried the i/d formula for digestive problems, which was also low protein. The good thing is that if your dog doesn't like it, they'll buy it back from you. (Click the link for prescription diet.) -
You can go to the website and check out the ingredients to their pet products. www.hillspet.com
When Senji didn't like the liver diet formula, we tried the i/d formula for digestive problems, which was also low protein. The good thing is that if your dog doesn't like it, they'll buy it back from you. (Click the link for prescription diet.)I would never use this because it contains Ethoxyquin (a preservative). Goggle Ethoxyquin.. it is a poison… and 90% of the manufactures have removed this from Dog Food... with the exception it seems of prescription foods... you can also find this in Euk prescription foods. I looked at 3 or 4 of the SD prescription foods and they all have Ethoxyquin in them
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Im sorry that your boy is having this problem. But I do want to suggest trying something different than Science Diet. Now this is all just IMO but it is not a good food, prescription or not. Most vets push SD because that's what they're taught is a good food and its the only one dogs with medical issues should eat. Also, the change to SD might not do well for him because of the quality difference between what you feed now to the (IMO) crap that's in all SD foods
(Again just IMO) I see switching a dog from a good food like Core as saying "okay I eat 3 square and balanced meals a day, but now I'm gonna eat only mcdonalds and greasy pizza because the doctor said its what I need"
There are many foods out there that are high quality and low protien. I just looked at the ingridents for the prescription food. That's just gross. There's nothing healthy about the top five and those are the main body of the food.
Okay I'm really sorry I rambled, in the end its all up to you, I just try to help people know that there are better options than Science Diet. You can also google canine nutritionist (sp?) and consult with them, also talk with your Chinese vet too about feeding options
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Here is a link to series of articles about ethoxyquin.
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Thank you for all the advice. The interesting thing is that my partner has liver problems, and one of the things he's supposed to stay away from are preservatives, so it's pretty amazing that there are preservatives in foods that are supposed to be good for the liver. I think the food is already ordered, but I don't feel compelled to feed it to him. I'm going to try the cleanse, the milk thistle and the hepagen-c and see where it gets us. He's going to like all the attention and special foods - he loves vegies.
And then I'll take him and his test results to Dr. Wen and see what he has to say. What he's done in the past for a cat I had with severe liver problems due to taking prednisone for a long time was, in conjunction with a few other things, put her on a chinese herb remedy. I thought we were going to lose her, but she's fat and happy now.
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Can you try returning the food?
And sounds like a good plan of action to me…. fingers crossed he does well!!!
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By the way with the Hepagen-C, I break the capsule and mix the power with the food…
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Science Diet will give you a refund for the food…as long as the dog hasn't eaten more than 1/2 of a bag of the dry, and for any unopened cans. If you bought it from the vet, they should give you the refund directly. I wasn't happy with Science Diet, but the Vet was really pushing it. It's almost like human doctors who get lots of perks from the pharm reps to push their products.
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Science Diet will give you a refund for the food…as long as the dog hasn't eaten more than 1/2 of a bag of the dry, and for any unopened cans. If you bought it from the vet, they should give you the refund directly. I wasn't happy with Science Diet, but the Vet was really pushing it. It's almost like human doctors who get lots of perks from the pharm reps to push their products.
Exactly… and as with everything, buyer beware... it is our responsibility to do the research and ask the questions.... but it just floors me that these so call prescription foods are loaded with things like ethoxyquin. I found this out when Kristii was having food allergies.. and the Vet at that time was pushing Euk....
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Funny you guys mention this as today Dallas had his third vet appointment for his puppy shots [rabies, etc] & when the vet found out I was feeding Merrick's he didn't like it. He kept trying to convince me that Purina, Euk & Science Diet are the best & that Merrick's is too new to really have the quality of food that Euk & the others have been "perfecting for centuries". I like this guy but it kind of annoyed me actually. :mad:
He said he would switch him back to Euk if he were me & also said that if I choose to stay with Merrick's I should at least have him on their puppy blend not the regular because of the extra stuff pups need. I didn't bother to mention the fact that adult Merrick's have more protein, fat, etc than any commerical puppy kibble :rolleyes: Less fillers & more concentrated…sounds better in my opinion.
Oh & also, I mentioned adding fish oil to his kibble & he said it "wasn't necessary" & that his dry skin in his ears is because I am swbbing them too frequently. That actually may be the case [too much cleaning on my part] but the fish oil could never hurt right?
