How do you identify the early signs of liver disease in pets?

I am the Original Holistic Pet Health Coach, and am now training passionate pet parents, and pet professionals to be Certified Holistic Pet Health Coaches so that more pets can be helped holistically.

Hello, I’m Dr. Ruth Roberts, your pet's ally. At any rate, what I wanted to talk with you about today is liver disease. And most of the time, you’re going to hear that your pet has liver disease from your veterinarian because the liver values are mildly elevated on the lab work.

And so, these include things like alkaline phosphatase. It is not uncommon for us to see dogs and some cats with alkaline phosphatases around 250. So, the top end of normal for frame of reference is about 150. So, we’ll see them floating around at these 250 values for years, literally. And they never actually develop full-blown liver disease. But that means that something is out of whack. And we’ll tell you, and I’m guilty of this myself, "Oh well, it’s not that high, so don’t worry about it too much." But what that really means is that something upwards of 75% of the liver has been insulted, and that is not a good thing.

So, it’s not necessarily meaning that it’s been, you know, the liver tissue has been DNA damaged beyond repair, and certainly, the liver is one of those organs that can self-repair itself really, really well. And so, this is partly why we see this chronic elevation but not liver disease. Now it’s a whole separate story when your pet has overt liver disease, meaning that there is severe dysfunction. So, for instance, with portosystemic shunts or in young puppies, meaning that the blood flow is shunted away from the liver, and it’s not being cleaned properly. Adult dogs can get liver damage, sort of like a cirrhosis type thing. There’s chronic active hepatitis, that sort of stuff, and those are all just not fun to deal with for anybody.

For liver health, it's essential to consider holistic pet care and holistic pet health. A holistic approach to pet care takes into account the overall well-being of the animal, focusing on natural remedies, balanced nutrition, stress reduction, and lifestyle adjustments. Incorporating holistic practices can complement traditional treatments for liver issues and help support the liver's self-repairing capabilities. If you are interested in exploring holistic options to address liver health at home, I have various options available for you to consider.

The Original CrockPet Diet

One thing to remember is if your pet has relatively mild liver value changes using the keep my pet healthy protocol may be enough to get things turned around. Here are several options as far as food supplements and then ways that I can assist you as well liver support protocol. So again, if you’re not cooking, start our goals here are to improve detoxification, improve liver function, and reduce liver enzymes. Detoxification happens in the liver, but the gut is also extremely important for improving detoxification.

If it’s not working properly, like if your pet has chronic sort of a sensitive stomach, I think is the thing that most pet owners said, meaning they'd see their puppy, their kitty has diarrhea or vomiting periodically, the liver is going to be impacted.

It’s really important to make sure the gut function is good. Now the brassica veggies are the ones that are most important for improving liver health. And those include things like broccoli, kale, cauliflower, those veggies. They provide phytonutrients, which actually support the liver in improving its ability to get rid of garbage. And they also improve gut function. That increase in fiber helps the good bacteria in the gut take charge, and it really helps tremendously.

When it comes to your pet's health, taking a holistic approach is crucial. Holistic pet health focuses on addressing the overall well-being of your pet, considering both physical and emotional factors. By incorporating holistic practices, such as including brassica veggies like broccoli, kale, and cauliflower in their diet, you can support liver health naturally. These vegetables provide phytonutrients that aid the liver in its detoxification process and promote better gut function. Additionally, considering supplements that aim to reduce inflammation, improve detoxification, and strengthen the gut can be beneficial for your pet's overall health and well-being in a holistic manner.

For those of us that are worrywarts, it can help us feel a little bit more relaxed. For pet pet supplements, again, supporting gut function supports the liver. To my patients that have chronic liver disease, any chronic disease related to the gastrointestinal tract, which delivers, considered to be part of, we will always talk about doing a rotation and elimination diet to kind of get the system back on, help on, on a sort of a stable ground so to speak.

And then if you know that your pet has got some really tough issues to solve, that’s where consultations can really be helpful. This is the link to our advanced care program.

It includes all of my digital products, the Original Crockpet diet, the kidney health diet, all of those things and also a medical record review. And then the the big thing is that I will be able to design a food plan in a supplement plan specifically for your pet and then help you adjust it as time goes on so that we’re doing exactly what your pet needs.

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