I see you are offline.... I hope you were able to get the meds and start your baby on them.... after skimming through some of the posts here I need to give some more info: Liver damage can be reversed to some extent with proper medication and feeding. The liver can regenerate and the medications support this regeneration. After you give her the Lactulose, you may see marked improvement within 24-48 hours if not some immediate improvement.
And I neglected to tell you to get some antibiotics for her. Mine has to take Amoxicillin every so often, depending on Bloodwork results.
This is what happens: All puppies have a liver shunt. The shunt carries dirty blood past the pups liver to the mom before they are born and the mom's liver does the job of cleaning it. Normally this shunt will close up after birth and the pup will maintain normal liver function. In a Liver shunt pup, it does not close and the some of the dirty blood is taken to the heart or the brain and released back into the circulatory system. The pup becomes toxic after a while depending on the severity of the shunting.
When you feed the pup, bacteria in the gut break down the food and ammonia is released. Normally the liver removes this. In an LS pup the ammonia circulates in the blood stream and can cause symptoms like shaking, incoordination, seizures, head-pressing, etc. To help the pup, antibiotics are given to kill the bacteria and stop the ammonia production. Lactulose is given to absorb/bind the remaining ammonia, so the liver has less work to do remove it. It also hurries the food from the gut so it spends less time in the pup and he poops it out. Then Denemarin (or similar product) is given to support the liver by helping to remove toxins, preventing liver cell death, and promoting liver cell regeneration.
Feeding low protein, vegetable protein foods help by not overworking the liver. It is recommended to feed nothing over 18-19% protein. Hard boiled egg and cottage cheese contain good, easily digested forms of protein and can be added to her food.
So even though she's very sick now, on these medications her health can improve greatly. Some pups with LS are managed solely with proper food and medications, and can live a relatively normal life.
And I'll be checking back for an update... |