Liver Disease

Chronic Inflammatory liver disease (chronic hepatitis)
This mainly affects middle aged (and older) dogs, and the breeds that are primarily susceptible breeds include the American and English Cocker Spaniel, Labrador Retrievers, Bedlington Terriers, Doberman Pinschers and Standard Poodles.

A virus, bacteria, drug or immune mediated response, or toxins cause primary hepatitis. Hepatitis can also result from other diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, chronic pancreatitis, and infections of the kidney, urinary bladder, or skin. In most cases, the underlying cause will remain unknown. Your vet will make a presumptive diagnosis through blood, urine and bile acid tests, with definitive diagnosis via a liver biopsy.

If your dog has chronic hepatitis, your vet will gear treatment toward correcting the underlying cause, if possible, and managing the condition with medication, diet, vitamins and antioxidants. Some dogs will make a complete recovery and others will require livelong management.

Portosystemic shunt (PSS)

This structural birth defect causes blood to shunt around the dogs liver, either through a single blood vessel or through multiple vessels (a condition known as microvascular dysplasia). As a result, blood passes from the portal vein around the liver without being detoxified.

This is generally seen in small breeds and typically in puppies and young adults (up to 2 years old).

Treatment calls for partial or complete surgical occlusion of the vessel, or installation of a device that will gradually tie off the vessel. For dogs whose owners decline the surgery, the vet will manage the dog's symptoms though low protein diets and drugs that reduce the quantity of toxins presented to the liver.

Copper Toxicosis (copper storage disease)

This problem affects Bedlington Terriers mainly. Other breeds rarely have this problem.

Copper storage disease is a genetic abnormality in which the liver fails to appropriately balance copper intake with excretion in bile. If untreated, the accumulation of toxic amounts of copper eventually leads to liver failure and death. The diagnosis is made by a biopsy of the liver. Drug therapy to decrease the amount of copper in the liver is quite successful if the vet catch it early and begin to treat it before it gets too bad. unfortunately, many dogs don't start showing clinical signs until they reach the point where treatment is no longer affective. Owners of Bedlingtons should have their dogs genetically tested for this disease at one year old.

Liver Cancer

Liver cancer mainly affects dogs who are over eight years old. With benign (non spreading) liver cancer, the tumor can get quite large, but if removed, the prognosis is extremely good. The prognosis for malignant (spreaqding) cancer is very bad.

Veterinarians use bloodwork and X-rays or ultrasounds to diagnose dogs and biopsies to distinguish between the malignant and benign cells.

If the dog suffers from liver disease, the best prognosis requires accurate diagnose and an early treatment. The liver can regenerate as long as it maintains its normal architecture. After it gets a lot of scarring and severe damage, the ability to adequately regenerate is diminished.

Types of Biopsies

Needle Core Biopsy

Needle core biopsy guided by ultrasound is the least invasive but does not always reliably harvest affected tissue, so the results can be misleading. Laparoscopy is minimally invasive, using an endoscope that enters the abdominal wall through a small incision. With this, the vet can obtain larger samples, and this reduces the chances of being misled.

Laparotomy is invasive, open abdominal surgery. With this you can see the liver, take adequate samples, and remove any masses in one procedure.