Customer Reviews

Hope For Healing Liver Disease In Your Dog: The Complete Story

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is a must for any one battling liver disease in their dog. It offers hope and a wealth of knowledge and valuable information. I highly recommend this book. My dog benefitted greatly from this book and I am most appreciative and grateful to this author. It was clear that the author thoughtfully researched and wrote this book as a labor of love for her dog.I Would give this book 10 stars if that were possible.

Diane Reilly
Boston, Ma.

Our dog was given Carprofen (Rimadyl, Novox) TWICE, the last time causing major liver damage. We found Cyndi Smasal's book on the web, and decided to help our vet by helping with the treatment for the liver disease. The information in this book has been terrific. About two months ago, our vet called US to get a copy of the diet that we are using, since he was so impressed with the outcome of the treatment, and readily admitted that he credited much of the success of recovery on the diet. As far as commercial foods, look at "[...]" for some eye opening information of some of the "garbage" foods out there. Thank you Cyndi for your dedication to your dog. Our's has flourished from that information. Our lab is reasonably well, and the damage has been reduced to manageable. We expect to have her around for some years to come. Again, thanks.

The recipe found in this book "Basic Homemade Meal for Liver Disease" is really working for our dog! Although, I did minor changes to the recipe...

The recipe called for tofu, cottage cheese and macaroni. I used the substitution of 1/2 cup of Chicken Liver and Organic Potatoes since both are found in nature.

The recipe also called for the vegetables to be boiled or steamed. I varied the recipe by very lightly pan frying my Organic Vegetables (chopped to tiny morsels with a hand chopper) with a very low flame I served the vegetables almost raw to keep the nutritional value.

The recipe also called for preparation of the Chicken Liver to be boiled which leaves most of it's nutritional value in the water. I varied the recipe by baking the Chicken Liver in my toaster/oven for 15 minutes at 250 degrees then placing the Chicken Liver in the same pan as my pan fried Organic Vegetables and then frying them together in a very low (almost off) flame for a few minutes.

It would have been helpful if there were instructions on how to prepare a Fresh Artichoke. I grew up in a household of vegetarian parents. I've never eaten an Artichoke!!!

So, I went to my local grocery store and examined what Canned Artichoke Hearts looked like so I knew which part of the Fresh Artichoke I needed to give my doggy.

Combined with my Veterinarian prescribed "Denamarin" and feeding my dog with the recipe "Basic Homemade Meal for Liver Disease" found in this book, in less than two weeks the levels in my dog's liver went significantly down almost a thousand points!!!

Although, I still give full credit to The ALMIGHTY LORD and HIS Healing Power WHO is healing my dog...I still recommend the recipe for the Basic Homemade Meal for Liver Disease found in this book. I will continue to feed my dog home cooked food and will never touch commercial dog foods again!!

My 10 year old Shetland Sheepdog, Trevor, was diagnosed with liver disease 2 years ago. Over that time the vet has been unable to determine its cause. Getting progressively sick & unhappy, Trevor was quickly approaching the end of his rope. The vet had no suggestions except Sam-e & milk thistle supplements...which were not working on their own. His liver values kept increasing, fast.

Searching for help I stumbled on this book. I read it cover to cover several times & eventually made notes & highlights for my own use. Trevor has many food allergies so I was surprised that many of the food suggestions he could have. Within a week, I had completely weaned him off of his (high grade) commercial kibble.

Over a two month period my family noticed a big difference in his attitude and play drive. He seemed happier and more energetic. Encouraged, my vet referred me to one of the top animal nutritionists for confirmation. After analyzing Trevor's home-made diet, she only tweaked the vitamins & supplements a bit. We were on a healthy course.

With fingers crossed we re-ran his liver values for the first time after 2 months of the home-made diet. His Alkaline Phosphatase went from 724 to 344! That is still outside of the normal range of 0-140, but for a dog that had this value doubling every month, this was amazing news! Another key value, ALT dropped from 184 to 102. Normal is 10-120.

We will re-test him again in two months. Again, fingers crossed that the positive trend continues. Regardless, this book has offered Trevor a happier quality of life. This book offers sound nutrition approaches & offers what it says...hope. Thank you!

For those dealing with liver disease in their loving dog, this book is a good start. There is a lot of useful information. The book is very easy to read, and it should be read completely before utilizing it for a diet though. The information on herbs and supplements is especially useful, and something that can be helpful, while putting together a plan for your dog (with your vet).

However, there is some information that is not stellar, like the listing of raisens as a source of potassium...raisens have been known to be a danger to some dogs, causing renal failure and kidney damage. Some dogs can eat these with no problems, but when dealing with a dog that has liver disease (or any related liver problem), I would not want to chance finding out if my beloved dog is one of those to get renal failure from raisens. None of the few recipes use "raisens" in the ingredients list, but someone without prior warning of feeding raisens to dogs, may end up feeding them as a snack. Also, throughout each recipe, the microwave is often the suggested means of cooking. I am not in favor of using the microwave, since this can remove more nutrients than the traditional ways of cooking (or feeding raw). The recipes also use ingredients like pasta, brown rice, oatmeal, white potatoes and/or sweet potatoes. The recommendation for my husky is low grain (less than 25%) and high protein/low fat/less than 50% carbs (including grains) thru his holistic vet and oncologist. Otherwise, the remaining ingredients look fairly good and easy to find.

Note: my 13 yr old husky (healthy everywhere else and acts like he's 5-6) is having his gall bladder removed & has a small growth on his liver (found via ultrsound). This may be much different than what your pet is going through. It's unknown if it's cancer, but liver disease is noted as highly possible from his bloodwork (which is thankfully getting better).

The author does state throughout the book that treating your dog with a homemade diet, supplements, etc... will involve much trial and error; to find what works for your dog. She is sharing what she believes ended up helping her and her dog. So, this should be kept in mind, while reading through this book. Overall, the book is well written and should have a lot of useful information that you can discuss with your vet; as well as, some great tips on caring for your sick pet, things to look for (common symptoms) and possible solutions to try. it's not a one size fits all solution for liver disease, but it truly is a helpful read.

This book takes all the work out of figuring out how to deal with your dog and liver disease! It's easy to read and follow. Moreover, understanding how liver disease works makes it so much easier to figure out how to change things around to fit your particular situation. This book has been critical to keeping my dog's quality of life high and dramatically decreasing her liver enzymes. I would recommend this book to EVERYONE that has a dog with liver problems!

Macy Gray had been given 6 months to live by the vet and I was desperate. She had lost 20 lbs, wouldn't eat, her gums were white and her eyes looked like the pee of a horse that needs to be put down. She had been quarrantined, undergone a liver biopsy and had every horrible thing that could possibly be done to an animal, done. The day after her biopsy, she was crying so desperately, we had to sedate her to keep her from going into shock. That was a year ago. I started a desperate search for foods she could eat and found Cyndi's book. Within two weeks she was out of jaundice and in three months her blood panels were back to normal. Macy is now the happy, healthy girl she always used to be. You can search the internet for the rest of your life and you won't find a plan like this one. It works, it makes sense and the recovery is mind boggling!

The homemade food recipes in this book have made a huge difference with my dog who had been unable to keep any other food down. We are still waiting to see if she starts to gain weight back, but she is much more her normal self now, playing a cuddling, which is very encouraging since she seemed so close to dying just a few weeks ago. I definitely recommend giving this book a try.

Thank you for all your information. I'm following the meal plans and am seeing improvement in my dog Daisy. I learned so much from your book. I now can understand my dog better, and feel more empowered to meet her needs. Thanks again!

Imagine our surprise when our less than 1 year old Westie was diagnosed with Liver Disease. For those of you who are also battling this problem you know that you feel almost powerless. For those of you who are new to this medical issue, you will soon feel frustrated and then proceed to powerless. The story, the advice, the recipes in this book handed back some of our power with this disease.

It's a one day at a time type of situation, and by utilizing the advice in this book, our dog has became a lot better, gained 6 lbs to normal weight and is functioning like a normal dog. She has went from 3 meds to 1 (Demamarin - which she will probably continue for life with it's Milk Thistle liver regenerating properties). If your baby has been diagnosed - start here.