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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - is salmon good for the liver?
| This acutally ? for my other dog, non AIHA, but since everyone here has such good advice and here, I thought I would throw the question out since he does have a liver problem. He has been on raw beef for years (he is 12 years old) and over the last several months his ALK has continued to rise. Its been hovering around 1100 for the past few months. I put him on raw beef because of his allergies, he was always chewing/licking and since he was on this beef everything went away. I have weaned him off the raw beef since its not good for the liver and switched to kibble but everything I try is making him itch/scratch. I do know 2 of his allergies are chicken and flax seed. I now have him and California natural lamb and rice, a limited ingredient food and he is about to itch/scratch himself to death. I found a few foods with salmon and know that whitefish is okay, but what about salmon? Since its a lot richer, would it cause the kidneys to work harder like beef? Laurie |
| Laurie CA |
| Laurie, This is actually a complex issue depending on the actual problem your other dog has with his liver. If this were me, I would want to know why the alk phos is elevated and treat that if at all possible. Here is a snip from a veterinary site about a alk phos that is moderately high, approx 2-10 times the upper limit. "The Alkaline Phosphatase is moderately elevated. This is a liver and bone enzyme that is elevated when there is inflammation of these tissues. Systemic disease or medication can also cause this enzyme to be elevated. Some common reasons for this elevation include pancreatitis, gastrointestinal disease, liver disease (gall bladder obstruction, cholangiohepatitis, cirrhosis, cancer, toxicity or infection of the liver), Cushings Disease (an adrenal hormonal disease), right sided heart disease, copper storage disease (in Dobermans, Westies, and Bedlington terriers) and arthritis or other bone lesion. Some of the medications that can cause this elevation are corticosteroids, some anti-seizure medications, estrogen, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (like Aspirin, Rimadyl®, Deramaxx®, or Metacam®) and barbiturates. Also, this enzyme is commonly elevated in dogs under 8 months or age due to their bone growth. This finding may or may not be significant. It should be interpreted in light of the other lab results and physical exam findings." That's quite a laundry list of things to check. You don't mention other health issues besides the allergies so it's difficult to guess at the problem here. Overall, how is his health? If you notice, they mention gastrointestinal disease above as a possible contributing factor. I wonder if he has developed food allergies and the small intestine is inflamed? The number one item that many dogs are allergic to in their food is grains. Wheat is at the top of this list. Other related items are corn and soy. Dogs simply don't have the ability to digest complex carbohydrates like this. The food ends up moving into the large intestine mostly undigested where bacteria have a good time with it, creating gas. Rice may be ok for many dogs, but not in large quantities. If you browse the kibbles on the shelf you will often see the first ingredient, or at least high on the list, wheat of some kind. Proteins are the nutrient that initiate the allergic reaction. Unfortunately, grains do have proteins in them. You could try a dog food that doesn't include grains. There are now some good ones on the market, albeit very expensive. Some owners, when faced with nutritional issues, will begin making a home made diet so they can control the ingredients. This takes some study and preparation to do correctly. However, I might recommend that you talk to your vet right now about using a prescription diet. It might take a few tries at different products to find the right one. If this were me, I might start with the prescription diet for allergies, but monitor the alk phos. There are prescription diets for digestive problems that may also be very non allergenic. As for your original question, is salmon ok for dogs with liver problems? Actually, fatty acids are the new buzz word for nutrition. And they are certainly HIGHLY recommended for dogs in quantities you would not believe. I attended a day long workshop in March with the vet in charge of the nutrition program at Cornell on feeding dogs with diseases. Fatty acids kept coming up as an important part of many treatments. He actually ended by saying, if there is one supplement you add to your dog's diet, it would be fish oil. For Chance's heart condition, he's getting a 1,000 mg fish oil capsule for every 10 pounds of body weight. That is 9-10 capsules a day! So yes, salmon in general is an excellent food for dogs. It must be cooked, no raw. When you say richer, you are really saying fatty. But this is the kind of good fat for dogs (and humans!) What if there is truly some kind of liver disease? The diet must be carefully crafted to avoid many different kinds of proteins. I won't go into the details why here, but suffice to say the diet looks very different from regular food. I wouldn't apply a diet like this unless there were diagnostic results that definitely indicate liver disease. There are prescription diets specifically for liver disease that control the kinds and amounts of proteins very carefully. my best patrice |
| Patrice NYS |
| Thanks for the info Patrice. All of Jakes values are good except for the ALK. My vet suspects early stage of Cushings, he does have a few of the symptoms. And said to lets monitor the ALK and other values before we decide on the Cushings test. But did mention the gall bladder too as a possibility The ALK has been a slow steady climb since 1/08, at that time it was 250 and then continued up. His ALK was up to 1600 and and when I started him on Standard Process adrenal support it went down to 1100 and it was been there for almost 3 months. As for a prescription allergy food, I am kind of leary, My vet carrries Royal Canin and I looked at their allergy food the potato and whitefish and for him it would be 6 1/2 cups of food a day, that means its full of filler. I might as well as make my own. The good kibble would be only 3 cups. I did have Wylie ont eh Royal canin vennison and potato last year and her thirst doubled with it. I bought a sample bag of this salmon kible, now I cant remember the name Laurie |
| Laurie CA |
This thread was discussed between 01/07/2009 and 02/07/2009
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