CAH and Copper Toxicity (Food Help)

[rkw...@gmail.com]

Hello, 

Our 9 year old german shepherd stopped eating completely. We took him in and his liver enzymes were awful. Followed by a ultrasound that didn't look good we figured liver cancer. Took a biopsy and no cancer, but sever Chronic Active Hepatitis. Dug further and it is a result from copper toxicity, poisoning, build up, whichever you chose to call it. Jerry had been on Hill's l/d for 2 months. Once starting the Chelation Therapy (penacillamine) he stopped eating again. He is on a nausea pill and appetite stimulant and he wont touch his food. All we can assume is the pencillamine makes him feel so yucky that he has gotten a food aversion. I was curious what other diets you all have your dogs on? I don't know what to switch him to. I found a EarthBorn Great Plains Feast that has 1.6mg per 400kCal but its low in fat and higher in protein 32%. Which is a huge difference than his RX diet. Unsure where to turn next... how to address this... he isn't eating at all. The vet just said try going back to his old diet if he wont eat period but that his crazy high in copper. 

Jerry is currently on penacillamine, Ursodiold, Denamarin, and an appetite stimulant. 

[Susan Schmitz - A Dog's Life Photo]

Sorry to hear about Jerry. Have you tried home cooking for him? A lot of us have seen good results from that. There is some information on this forum about that with some recipes. Maybe just try some chicken and rice to start with. Wishing you and Jerry all the best.

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[rkw...@gmail.com]

I haven't yet, but he went 2 full days without a bite, not even a taste of any kind of food, he is too sick right now to do that so I gave it a go. Tonight was a pasta grain, chicken breast, and steamed carrots. He ate the entire plate (about a cup and a half to two cups). It made me happy. I am going to do some reading on this forum and also talk to my vet and do this. He has 2 more months of treatment, we have to get through it somehow! 

[BeeJay]

Hello RKW.  I just found this forum and read your post about Jerry.  How is he doing?  My Coton de Tulear is 8 years old and weighs 17 pounds and just diagnosed with something similar.  He had liver biopsy two weeks ago.  The best way I can describe his biopsy results is that, genetically, his liver isn’t normal and as a result has been unable to excrete excess copper.  His diagnosis is copper-associated hepatopathy and it has built up to a toxic level.  We must “de-copper” him with the medicine you described - Penicillimine.  It has been ordered from the compounding pharmacy, Wedgewood, and should arrive this Friday.  It will be in liquid form and must be given without food and twice a day.  He has already been taking Ursodiol and Hepato and put on Hills Liver Diet.  In prep for the biopsy, he was also diagnosed with mitral valve disease and on a drug called Vetmedin - an entire other issue we have to manage.  Anyway, Kooper has never been a big eater and your issues with Jerry and the Penicillimine makes me think the same might happen to him.  He can have cooked chicken which I mix with the Hills Liver Diet..but, he doesn't eat much, and he clearly doesn't like the Hills.   I'm going to try to read more posts in this forum to see what others are doing with food issues, but was wondering specifically about Jerry. 

[robinw...@u.boisestate.edu]

Hello BeeJay! I am sorry to hear about Kooper. Jerry has been doing well once we found a combination of medications that made him feel well enough to eat. He actually is on his last week of his 3 month treatment and on September 12th goes in for a blood draw and another biopsy to see that hopefully all that copper is gone! Jerry seemed to eat enough of the Hills l/d it was just that the penicillimine made him feel very ill and he didn't want to eat because he was so sick feeling. So we got him on an appetite stimulant and an anti-nausea medication. I don't have the bottles near me but if you are interested I could find the names for you. They are rx's given from the vet. Jerry has his 3 treatment pills each day along with 2 pills to make him eat and it ended up working out for us. 

[Robin Salomon]

Hi rkw! 

Not sure if you are still having these issues as I see you posted back in June....

Our 9 yr old Lab mix, Ozzie, was just diagnosed with this. Ozzie currently takes Penacillamine, Ursodiol, Metranidozole, Prednisone, Colchicine, Denamarin & Vitamin E. We found that the appetite stimulant (we used Entyce) wasn't working because the Penacillamine was making him nauseous... so basically a waste of money. We tried making him chicken, ground beef (plain and with carrots & broccoli), pasta, chicken nuggets, rotisserie chicken, deli turkey, cheddar cheese, etc, etc, etc. Some things would work for a meal or two then Ozzie wouldn't be interested in it anymore. Yesterday we took him back to the vet who suggested stopping the Penacillamine, Ursadiol, and Colchicine for 24-48 hours to see if it helped him to eat - which, thankfully it did. He ate the Royal Canin Hepatic diet dry food mixed with Plain non-fat yogurt. So now the vet wants us to open the penacillamine capsule, give him 1/2 in the morning mixing it in yogurt and do the same at night for the next few days. Fingers crossed this will help...

As for your food, there are websites for Wilson's Disease which list foods both low & high in copper which has been helpful. I have also noticed that a lot of commercial dog food contains a "Copper Amino Acid Chelate" (which I think basically adds copper to the food).

What a struggle this is! 

On Wednesday, June 21, 2017 at 2:57:50 PM UTC-4, rkw...@gmail.com wrote: