[alaskayorkie]

Just a follow-up. It's long but might be useful to someone in my same situation sometime:

So I decided to go with Dr. Remillard at petdiets and I'm mostly happy but there were a few problems with Eddie adapting to the diet, I think.

Best news is her first suggestion for addressing his elevated liver enzymes was to remove him from all the supplements I had him on. I'd put him on a bee-pollen supplement years ago on the advice of a vet at our local state fair. It was supposedly to reduce pain and ease swelling. He was also on CBD oil, a new and unproven non-hallucinogenic cannabis extract. Also glucosamine and a Dr. Pitcairn Healthy Powder.

Anyhow, I did that two weeks before starting the diet. While I went on to have problems with the diet itself, his liver enzyme count dropped dramatically in 5 weeks. They're still a little high, but they're considered normal for a dog his age (14). I attribute that mostly to removal from the supplements. He's also been on prescription Denamarin for his liver for 7 months, with no change in his liver count after the first 3 months. My suspicion is it was the bee pollen supplement because, though his liver count initially went up when a vet had prescribed longterm Rymadyl, I went to bee pollen when I pulled him off Rimadyl. That might explain why it never dropped when I removed him from Rimadyl.

The diet itself was exact proportions of either A) white rice, sweet potatoes and meat (chicken, beef or fish). Or B) Wheat pasta/butternut squash and meat. Added to that was a specific amount of a powdered supplement called Chef's Canine Complete along with some Salmon Oil for fat.

I kept him on diet A with no supplements added for a week with no apparent issues. A little white vomit one day but it went away. Stools were good. When I added the supplements, I started having problems. I added both the Chef's Canine Complete and the Salmon Oil at the same time and within days there was vomiting and diarrhea. I stopped the Chef's Canine Complete but the Salmon Oil had already been added to the food I froze. He seemed to improve but not all the way.

Because I didn't really like the idea of so much rice in his regular diet, I switched to Diet B with wheat pasta. First I did sweet potatoes with it, then I switched to butternut squash the next time. He appeared to like it, but there was soon more vomit. Even a bloody stool, lethargy and he stopped drinking. I took him to Pet ER and a water IV seemed to perk him right up. He also went on antibiotics and nausea meds.

I pulled him off everything and went to straight rice and chicken, and that combined with a few trips to the vet for IV water seemed to bring him back to his old self.

So that's where I sit right now. Dr. Remillard has suggested adding back the foods and supplements one ingredient at a time until we narrow down the problem, but since his liver count is now normal, I'm thinking I won't bother. I'm just going to put him back on a good kibble. I may add Dr. Remillard's diet -- without the supplements -- as an addition to the kibble. I've always mixed his kibble with some kind of home-cooked.

It's been a frustrating battle because I still don't know exactly what caused the distress. Was it the powdered supplement? The salmon oil? Or maybe it was one of the ingredients itself -- wheat pasta? Butternut squash? And what if that stuff had NOTHING to do with it. Maybe he got into something bad on one of his walks to the park? I'm thinking kibble might be safer, at least while his liver is healthy and there are no other health issues.

Sorry for the novella, but surely someone will be able to benefit from my experience some day!