[letsgoskiing]

Hello again poodle fam!

Hope you all had a nice holiday. Just checking in to say hello and give a quick update on Sperry! He is doing absolutely great after his hepatitis diagnosis this spring. He will be on meds and a strict diet forever, but he has been solid for several months now and feeling like his old self. We are planning to add another poodle to our household in about a year (probably a mini!!!) so I will make another post about that too. Hope you all are doing great, and happy new year from me and Sperry, who turned four last month!

 

[PeggyTheParti]

My goodness, he is SUCH a handsome boy.

 

[MaizieFrosty]

Hi!! So nice to see you and Sperry Very glad to hear he's doing so well and looking cute as ever

 

[Charmed]

Oh Sperry, that camera angle makes your paw look huge. How big are you? There is no need to question you about cuteness; you look like a real cuddle bug.

 

[letsgoskiing]

Thanks everyone! I am so relieved that we have been able to get his condition under control. There was a point last spring where we thought he might not make it. We're hoping that it will continue to be treatable for many more years. That's not the best picture, but yes, he is a tall dog. He's about 26" and weighs 57 lbs.

 

[Asta's Mom]

How good that you know how to help Sperry & that he is doing well. Wonderful pictures. Love the abstract on his belly.

 

[Porkchop]

Hi, Sperry! 👋 Glad you’re feeling good.

 

[letsgoskiing]

Thank you! When he was little the white spot was on the front of his chest but as he grew it migrated underneath. So you can only see it if he's sitting or laying down. It's so good to see him feeling good and happy. He's so much more energetic and playful now that we've figured out what he needs.

 

[tgen]

Hi.

Our Onyx is a standard poodle cross but seems to have similar issues as Sperry. Could you share what diet and medication worked for Sperry? I can discuss it with our vet. Would be super helpful.

As background, Onyx had low appetite and intermittent bile vomit since she was a pup. It always got worse after any meds or vaccines. Turned out, her ALT was high (>400) and we couldn't diagnose anything. It's always about that much whatever we do and she had a very strong reaction to her vaccine booster shot.

Hello again poodle fam!

Hope you all had a nice holiday. Just checking in to say hello and give a quick update on Sperry! He is doing absolutely great after his hepatitis diagnosis this spring. He will be on meds and a strict diet forever, but he has been solid for several months now and feeling like his old self. We are planning to add another poodle to our household in about a year (probably a mini!!!) so I will make another post about that too. Hope you all are doing great, and happy new year from me and Sperry, who turned four last month!
View attachment 463494

 

[tgen]

I would like to add, that after years of hard work, we have found that low fat beef and sweet potatoes work best and her chronic diarrhea is gone. We cook it at home and add her liquid complete vitamin supplement and a probiotic. That part is good. ALT values are still the problem though she is high energy and has no symptoms any longer

 

[letsgoskiing]

I would like to add, that after years of hard work, we have found that low fat beef and sweet potatoes work best and her chronic diarrhea is gone. We cook it at home and add her liquid complete vitamin supplement and a probiotic. That part is good. ALT values are still the problem though she is high energy and has no symptoms any longer

Hi tgen,
So sorry that Onyx has similar issues to Sperry. It's not an easy problem to deal with! With Sperry, we also deal with allergies that we've done tests for and done elimination diets with no real answers. So he eats Royal Canin hydrolyzed food and it has cleared up his chronic ear infections by about 90%. Every time we try to add an ingredient back in, boom, an ear infection. So we will stick with this until it doesn't work anymore, but hopefully it continues to be good for him. I know that might not be the right choice for Onyx but it's what we've resorted to and it's just nice to see him doing better.

Last year we worked with our regular vet as well as a specialist (the specialist is now retired but luckily we haven't need him since our initial visits). My vet prescribed Ursodiol which is a bile acid - this is expensive and we have to get it from the human pharmacy but luckily we have insurance for Sperry so I just submit it every month. We also use Denamarin, an antioxidant liver supplement with milk thistle that helps support the liver function. Also expensive! Both meds together would be almost $200 a month without insurance. But they have truly helped him a lot. I have a lot of trust in my vet, I think he is outstanding, and if you want his name I can send it to you in case your vet wants to get in touch with him. Sperry's ALT levels are now routinely in the low 100's, they go up and down a little, but nothing like what we had before. I think at one point we were around 1000. Very scary.

Your message has funny timing because just today Sperry has some of his poor appetite stuff happening again. Here's hoping it's not liver related! I'll update here if we end up with a trip to the vet. Good luck to you and Onyx - keep me posted if you want to talk more about this.

 

[tgen]

Sincere thanks. I will discuss it with my vet and reach out if we have any further questions. Hope sweet Sperry gets his digestion sorted. Took us a long time and a lot of experimentation to get that right for Onyx. Any deviation even after a year and a half and it's problematic.

Hi tgen,
So sorry that Onyx has similar issues to Sperry. It's not an easy problem to deal with! With Sperry, we also deal with allergies that we've done tests for and done elimination diets with no real answers. So he eats Royal Canin hydrolyzed food and it has cleared up his chronic ear infections by about 90%. Every time we try to add an ingredient back in, boom, an ear infection. So we will stick with this until it doesn't work anymore, but hopefully it continues to be good for him. I know that might not be the right choice for Onyx but it's what we've resorted to and it's just nice to see him doing better.

Last year we worked with our regular vet as well as a specialist (the specialist is now retired but luckily we haven't need him since our initial visits). My vet prescribed Ursodiol which is a bile acid - this is expensive and we have to get it from the human pharmacy but luckily we have insurance for Sperry so I just submit it every month. We also use Denamarin, an antioxidant liver supplement with milk thistle that helps support the liver function. Also expensive! Both meds together would be almost $200 a month without insurance. But they have truly helped him a lot. I have a lot of trust in my vet, I think he is outstanding, and if you want his name I can send it to you in case your vet wants to get in touch with him. Sperry's ALT levels are now routinely in the low 100's, they go up and down a little, but nothing like what we had before. I think at one point we were around 1000. Very scary.

Your message has funny timing because just today Sperry has some of his poor appetite stuff happening again. Here's hoping it's not liver related! I'll update here if we end up with a trip to the vet. Good luck to you and Onyx - keep me posted if you want to talk more about this.

 

[tgen]

Sincere thanks. I will discuss it with my vet and reach out if we have any further questions. Hope sweet Sperry gets his digestion sorted. Took us a long time and a lot of experimentation to get that right for Onyx. Any deviation even after a year and a half and it's problematic.

Hi tgen,
So sorry that Onyx has similar issues to Sperry. It's not an easy problem to deal with! With Sperry, we also deal with allergies that we've done tests for and done elimination diets with no real answers. So he eats Royal Canin hydrolyzed food and it has cleared up his chronic ear infections by about 90%. Every time we try to add an ingredient back in, boom, an ear infection. So we will stick with this until it doesn't work anymore, but hopefully it continues to be good for him. I know that might not be the right choice for Onyx but it's what we've resorted to and it's just nice to see him doing better.

Last year we worked with our regular vet as well as a specialist (the specialist is now retired but luckily we haven't need him since our initial visits). My vet prescribed Ursodiol which is a bile acid - this is expensive and we have to get it from the human pharmacy but luckily we have insurance for Sperry so I just submit it every month. We also use Denamarin, an antioxidant liver supplement with milk thistle that helps support the liver function. Also expensive! Both meds together would be almost $200 a month without insurance. But they have truly helped him a lot. I have a lot of trust in my vet, I think he is outstanding, and if you want his name I can send it to you in case your vet wants to get in touch with him. Sperry's ALT levels are now routinely in the low 100's, they go up and down a little, but nothing like what we had before. I think at one point we were around 1000. Very scary.

Your message has funny timing because just today Sperry has some of his poor appetite stuff happening again. Here's hoping it's not liver related! I'll update here if we end up with a trip to the vet. Good luck to you and Onyx - keep me posted if you want to talk more about this.