Hello, first time poster

[Claudia]

Hello,
I am using All about dog food for years and find it extremly helpful!
But now I have a question, I can't really work out how to find the relevant food.
My 13 year old Miniature Schnauzer has elevated liver enzymes. The vet suggested to change his food and use either either Purina HP, Royal Canin Hepatic or Hills I/D, none of them is obviously any good.
All my three dogs get Natures Menu raw once a day, then for second meal Markus Muehle topped up with a bit of Natures Menu wet food.
I need to find low protein, high fibre food I think. Natures Manu and all raw food is high protein.
The search didn't really produce anythign useful.
Any ideas what to feed?
Thank you!

[Dottie]

Hello and welcome to the forum. We have a lot of threads about diet for dogs with liver disease. There are too many to provide links for each one but if you type 'liver' into the search box it will return all the relevant posts. You may well find some of them useful. Some of them contain advice about using the filters on the Dog Food Directory to source a suitable product and may contain the results of previous searches.

This one might be helpful.  There are some suggestions for wet foods here.  This thread includes advice from David on the relevant issues and what to look for when selecting a suitable food.

The cold pressed foods tend to fit the criteria for high fibre and low fat (particularly the ones with brown rice), moderate protein but as copper is rarely listed you would need to speak to the company about this.

If you are inclined to home cook for your dog it can be a good way of providing a tailor made diet. There are some useful links in the Home Cooking section and this thread might be of use. The fresh food company Different Dog might be worth looking at. They have a vet on the staff and if you telephone them they will ask her to call you back.

Before you make any changes it would be best to discuss these with your vet. Is your dog on Denamarin or milk thistle supplement? If not, perhaps speak to your vet about it. Also worth looking at is Golden Paste (turmeric). 

[Claudia]

Thank you, Dottie!
I still find it difficult to find good quality wet food (over 90 in ratings) when I do a search. Will have a look into Different Dog.
Yes, vet suggested to get a supplement as well, she just gave me a list but did not recommend a particular one.

[Dottie]

The 90%+ wet foods usually have high protein and fat content and might lack the fibre that you need. You could reduce the amount and supplement with something like well cooked brown rice or oatmeal but I am not sure whether that would be suitable. Different Dog is very good quality and they have lower fat recipes. It can look expensive but when compared with good quality wet food it’s not so bad. Some people feed half and half to make it affordable.

All dogs are different, but if it helps I found that my older dog, who had raised ALTs and ALPs responded very well to Denamarin. She had it for circa six weeks and has since had two normal blood results. Currently she just has Dorwest Herbs Milk Thistle tablets. She is fed entirely on DD and has the lower fat recipes.  With any change of food it is well to remember that it can take some time to effect an improvement, especially  if the dog has impaired liver function.  In my dog’s case it was about three months. A gradual transition to new food is recommended.

[Claudia]

Thanks again,  Dottie.
I just ordered the Denamarin and I am in touch with  Different Dog to see what they suggest.

[Dottie]

I hope that there is a positive outcome and that the liver function can be supported by suitable treatment and diet. Denamarin is expensive and I am annoyed because my insurance company won’t pay for it. They regard it as a supplement and won’t reimburse for medication that can be bought over the counter, even if it was prescribed by the vet. Please can you keep us updated with progress?

[Claudia]

Yes, will do.
Found Denamarin at Animed for £38 for 30 tablets, which seemed to be the cheapest. As you say, same here, insurance will not pay for it.