Understanding liver function is fascinating to me. Yes, I am aware of how weird I am. Seriously though, the liver plays a vital role in the health of your pet. It regulates sugar, protein, and fat entering the blood stream. It filters out toxins from the blood. It creates cholesterol to protect arteries and manufactures hormones. It processes nutrients from food and prepares them for the intestines to absorb. It supports nearly every organ system in the body. When congested with toxins, the liver can effect the function of the gallbladder and pancreas.
The liver is the fastest regenerating organ system in the body. When your Vet tells you your pets’ liver enzymes are high or rising, it means the liver is over taxed. More cells are dying than rejuvenating. This condition can reach a critical state rapidly.
What are some of the causes of liver toxicity? Many things. High glucose producing pet food, excessive vaccinations, drugs, by-products containing virtually no clean protein needed for detoxification, flea treatment, yard chemicals, undisclosed chemicals sprayed on your pet food ingredients prior to manufacturing. These are just a few of the culprits.
Many pets appear to be healthy for several years eating low quality, high carbohydrate pet foods. The problem is over time the liver is collecting and storing toxins until it reaches a critical state. We meet a lot of animals between six and seven years of age with sever liver damage. Here is the good news. There are simple steps you can take allowing the liver to detoxify and regenerate.
1. First, eliminate all toxins currently used if possible.
2. Diet should contain clean, quality meat, free of antibiotics and hormones. As the liver detoxifies, it binds toxins to clean protein and are carried out of the body.
3. Feed a liver detoxifier such as milk thistle or other blended herbs formulated for the liver in order to free stored toxins allowing them to bind to the protein.
4. Feed a quality fiber. This step is critical. When the toxins are released into the bowel, fiber will absorb them assuring they are carried out of the body and not recycled through the blood stream, back into the liver.
There are wonderful effective supplements on the market to assist in this process. Quality products work efficiently, but I do caution to take it easy. You never want to rush a detoxification process. You can make your pet very sick by forcing too many toxins into the blood stream at once. Slow and easy and we usually see the Vet’s test results improve quickly.
Always consult with your veterinarian first.
Kim Kalendar
Murphy’s Pet Food Store, Winter Springs, FL
Pet Food Safety Advocate
WeAreMurphys.com
Tom
November 21, 2014 at 12:55 pm
Good stuff. Questions: Does psyllium help as a beneficial fiber, and would love to know your thoughts on kidney support. One of my dogs got Lepto a couple of years ago and there seems to be some questions as to whether or not a low protein diet is necessary. Sorry to get off-topic here!
Jeri
November 23, 2014 at 11:40 am
We use the Super Integrative Milk Thistle brand — and the dosages are on onlynaturapet.com: http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/products/Integrative-Therapeutics-Super-Milk-Thistle-X/106025.aspx
Easy.
debbie
November 21, 2014 at 2:08 pm
How should I dose milk thistle? Thanks for all that you do for us and our pups!
Valeria
November 22, 2014 at 10:56 am
Unless you have a holistic vet you don’t know how much milk thistle (or any medicinal herb) to give a pet. Instructions on the bottles are intended for human usage only. Typically NONholistic vets are clueless and it’s useless asking them for advice on such things.
Jane Eagle
November 22, 2014 at 11:37 am
Someone threw rat poison over my fence a few years ago. One of my dogs went into liver failure. We did all of the above and more. Although not all herbs are non-toxic, I believe milk thistle is pretty safe. For my 80 pound dog, I gave him a human dose, for a smaller dog, I would adjust. Alot of “alternative” treatments have not been researched (tested on animals to see how much it takes to kill them), so there is a fair amount of guesswork involved, even for an experienced holistic vet. And as I recall, I did use some psyllium to clear his liver.
Good article, and follows what I tell adopters: The less you spend on dog food, the more you’ll spend on vet care.
Valeria
November 22, 2014 at 6:28 pm
Oh yes! I got lucky with a cat who’d been hospitalized for heart failure, discharged on a cardio drug that put him back into heart failure after one pill, hospitalized and discharged again and told he’d live for about 5 months (because he couldn’t tolerate the drug of choice). I did my homework and started him on a combo of holistic supplements, all geared toward heart function, and he thrived and lived with no symptoms of a heart abnormality at all. I pared the dosages down based on his weight and the usual human dosages and it certainly worked for him. He (Boogers) never was hospitalized again, there was no progression, and he lived SIXTEEN more years, passing at age 20.
I love what you said re the cost because it’s my favorite saying – that we either do right by them by buying quality now, or we’ll (but really, THEY pay) pay for costly medical care later. And while they’re getting that medical care, they are miserable, not a good quality of life BECAUSE of the less than wholesome diet they’ve had.
Ellie
November 22, 2014 at 2:19 pm
Very good article. So very few people are aware of how many toxins we and our animals are exposed to day to day. Our pets are down close to so many contaminates indoors and out and they have to depend on humans to provide them with food that is not contaminated with steroids, hormones, etc. Sadly, most Americans are eating those toxins daily while wondering why so many are dying of incurable diseases.
Helen
November 23, 2014 at 3:28 pm
Valeria,
My dog has a heart murmur. I would be most interested in the supplements you used for Boogers. My dog is 4 pound Chihuahua.
Thank you,
Helen
Valeria
November 23, 2014 at 7:59 pm
Hi Helen! Is the murmur linked to a heart disease diagnosis? Murmurs are benign a lot of the time and people and pets can grow out of them. If the murmur is UNconnected there’s nothing that warrants medicating. Boogers also had a murmur but he had a serious cardiomyopathy aside from that. Even though my supplements were his literal life support all those years, the murmur was always heard and it never impacted the situation one bit. Boogers weighed 13 pounds. Every day he got 60 mg Co-Q-10, 4 drops of Gaia’s ‘Hawthorne Supreme’, and 2 droppers full of a product called Res-Q (a pharmaceutical grade marine oil). I’d break open the Co-Q10 capsule and mix the other two right in so it would be a wet paste and put that on the roof of his mouth. Although I’d use the oil to make that paste, that was not how I gave him the 2 droppers of oil. I gave him the paste AM and the 2 droppers of the oil separately, in the PM. I was lucky in that he never fought me all those years.
Both Hawthorne and Co-Q-10 are amazingly effective for us and pets and I gave him the Res-Q wanting to avoid having him ‘throw a clot’ which paralyzes them from the waist down. They’d told me cats with his condition were prone to that. These supplements alone worked like magic. Boogs was never on a heart drug. Not only that, but cardio vet actually withdrew a bp med he was on, saying he never showed the symptoms that it was prescribed for to begin with, once he got the supplements.
As I said, if your dr has made an actual heart disease diagnosis, then it would be time to experiment with the remedies. I did it because my pet couldn’t tolerate the drug and got a 5-months to live prognosis. I simply researched as much as possible. Pitcairn’s ‘Natural Health for Dogs and Cats’ was a bible for me on this journey. They were WAY ahead of their time.
Helen
November 23, 2014 at 9:57 pm
Hi Valeria. Thanks for all the great info on the supplements. Yes, the vet has diagnosed Freddie to have a heart murmur. No drugs have been prescribed yet. He has had a total of 2 seizures. The first seizure brought us to the vet where he got his diagnosis. His second seizure was about 3 years later. He coughs everyday but not often, about 1-2 times a day. I am always interested in natural remedies. Perhaps your suggestions will keep Freddie’s health from deteriorating further. I will try. Thank you. Much appreciation.
Valeria
November 24, 2014 at 12:01 am
Now I’m a bit confused. I’d (if I were you) ask your vet what the connection is between those seizures and a heart murmur. I wonder what one has to do with the other. In my experience, a heart murmur if benign, wouldn’t cause seizures or other medical conditions. Benign murmurs don’t cause problems and can disappear. Could it be your dr already told you your pet’s heart murmur is NOT benign? I’m confused because you imply your pet has a murmur that may have caused those seizures. You don’t say if your dr has found a definite link between the murmur and seizures. That’s what you need to know. Don’t hesitate to keep asking your vet questions till you clearly know everything possible in order to effectively care for your pet. The seizures must have a cause. Heart murmur may have absolutely nothing to do with it (unless you were told otherwise) and so you’d want to know what caused the seizures and that is what needs to be addressed. Keep asking questions. And remember, we can always get a second opinion re diagnosis. Did a heart murmur actually cause seizures???????? That’s the question to ask. Maybe someone else can provide feedback on this.
Helen
November 24, 2014 at 10:55 am
Hi Valeria. Sorry, I meant to type Freddie was diagnosed with a heart murmur and early signs of congenitive heart failure. Sorry for the confusion.
Valeria
November 24, 2014 at 6:49 pm
Oh! OK then, take the info in my messages here re those heart supplements to your holistic vet asap. Heart failure (caused by serious cardiomyopathy) is what landed Boogers in the ER, followed by treatment in the hospital. Again, they’d chosen a cardio drug for him that he reacted poorly to (put him back into heart failure) and the rest is history, and why I learned about those supplements. You say your pet’s not on a prescription drug. Your holistic vet knows what your dog needs. My cat’s life support was Res-Q (go online or call 1-800-26-ALIVE), Gaia’s Hawthorne Supreme (at Whole Foods) and LuckyVitamin.com & Whole Foods has Co-Q-10. Res-Q comes in gelcaps or liquid. You’d need the liquid. And a dropper.
Your holistic vet very likely might even be able to offer you some combo of remedies that includes these. Except Res-Q. People give that to dogs and cats as preventive measure for heart diseases.
Valeria
November 23, 2014 at 8:24 pm
Helen – important PS…………I had to wing it with Boogers because I had no holistic vet to advise me and take the guesswork out of how much to ‘dose’ a pet with. My vet and the hospital’s cardio vets were as good as it gets BUT they were not holistically trained. I shared with them the supplements I’d started Boogs on and they were skeptical at best, no familiarity with them. One worried about liver function, etc., but they gradually saw that Boogs tests were always normal – he had no side effects. That’s more than I can say for drugs over time. Once I get a diagnosis, I get busy on the ‘net and I advise everyone today to RUN not walk to a vet who is knowledgeable and experienced holistically. You’ll not have the guesswork I had to do.
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