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Is there any thing in raw that would affect my dogs liver adversely?

Vinny

Well-Known Member
In January our boy got into something and we don't know what. He got very sick and within 3 days eventually refused all food he went from 120lbs. to 101 in days. and was in liver failure. He received a plasma transfusion to help his clotting levels. He also received iv antibiotics along with meds for his upset stomach and vitamin k.He was tested for lepto and it was negative. He responded well to treatment and his clotting levels and bilirubin rates improved. After a 5 day stay he came home and still had a diminished appetite we began feeding him rotisserie chicken which was all he would eat. Eventually he regained his appetite and we were feeding him high calorie natural kibble and some wet. Introducing raw slowly. He had a follow up with blood work and his blood work was good. He also re gained his weight. Forward to the past week. Naturally he wanted more raw and no longer kibble. After approximately 10 days back on raw he developed the same symptoms as before. Vomiting lack of appetite. Based on his past experience I left our vacation and drove him 3 hours to the er where he was treated in January. His levels are now high again and he lost weight. While neither as bad as last time mainly because I acted promptly because I had an idea of what was happening. He is once again in the hospital receiving treatment. He could have came home with oral meds but forcing him to eat did not go to well last time and his health deteriated fast with no treatment. Of note our female who also has thrived on raw is fine even after vomiting some chicken from the same batch. My question is mainly... is it possible that he has a harder time processing any bacteria etc. and his liver can't handle it as well as his sister? I just think it way to coincidental that he got so sick again after being back on an all raw diet.
 

dpenning

Well-Known Member
I think that would be best answered by a vet. Your vet does know what his diet is, right?


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Vinny

Well-Known Member
Yes my ims and vet know his diet. I asked on this forum because it is a broader base of people familiar with raw and as we know some vets are not always a fan of the raw diet.
 

DennasMom

Well-Known Member
Whoa. It does sound like it was something in the food, but if this is the same diet your other dog is doing well on.... I'm flabbergasted....

There's always the potential of a bad batch of food, and maybe it's something the other dog just isn't sensitive to.... what food exactly do you think is doing it? Is it a pre-made/purchased raw? game meat? or grocery store meat? What brand? Do you still have the label?
That your female also rejected (vomited) some of the same batch, makes me think there might have been something amiss with that batch...

I've heard more horror stories like this from eating foreign or rancid kibble.... not home-prepared raw... but... there's definitely something not working for your guy! Hope he's on the mend, and you can figure this one out.
I'm stumped!

I'd feed him the kibble/wet mix again (since that seemed to do well) and get him stable for a few months to let his systems stabilize and recover before trying raw again... maybe by then, you'll have a light-bulb moment and can let us know what happened. :\