Liver problem ( maybe copper in the blood??)

I happen to be an expert on having a Doberman with a liver issue. I’ll start with diet first because your Dobe looks to be under a year old and I’ve been there. Your Dobe has prolly stopped eating more than once, is not putting on weight, and may be vomiting or have diarrhea.

STOP FEEDING ALL COMMERCIAL FOODS IMMEDIATELY! They contain things that are making her sick. I can’t recall the amounts Daisy (my Dobe) got as a puppy, but as a 4year old she gets 12oz of white chicken breast a day. I break it up into bfast/lnch/dnnr. She gets 4 oz of chicken three times a day with either a hefty cup of brown rice or baked potato. Low-fat greek yogurt is ok in small amounts as well as low-fat shredded mozz topped over a meal.
AVOID: Beef, Fish, Eggs, anything that contains copper or vitamin E. ABSOLUTELY NO PROCESSED FOODS. Nothing Fatty. No Peanut butter, but I found PBfit at BJ’s which is a peanut butter powder than she can have.
Supplements: Milk thistle. Denemarin is a phamacutical grade milk thistle with silymarin that aids absorbtion. L-Carnitine.
I make plain low-fat mozz quesadilla’s baked in the oven cut up into bite size pieces for snacks, because almost all of the commercial snacks have copper. NO MILKBONES. But those little marrow ones (look like Combo’s) doesn’t have copper, but is high n fat. So these are an occasional (high-value) snack.

As far as the liver goes. I need more information. It sounds like you have taken your Dobe to the vet and had some blood work done, and they have suggested to you that your Dobe has a liver issue because her copper levels, and other things stuck out to your vet. The next step would be an ultrasound to inspect the liver without surgery. This allows visual access to the liver, and surrounding organs, and tissues. They will look for excess fluid in the periontal cavity (belly) and look to the Portal Vein for a leak, or shunt. The portal vein in important in that it delivers the blood to the liver to be cleaned. If there is a shunt is a leak of uncleaned blood into the body, and causes toxicity. So, in Daisy’s case the excess fluid was noticed when she was spayed at 6 months, and the vet needed to flush the periontal (belly) cavity to remove the toxins/dirty blood from where it doesn’t belong so it doesn’t cause sepsis or infection.

You may get answers at the ultrasound. We didn’t. Hoping it was a shunt (which can be repaired and a Dobe has full recovery), we opted for open exploratory surgery so the surgeon could get in there and actually determine what the problem was and while they were in there, fix the problem. In most cases, it would have been a shunt and been repaired and I could guide you from there. However, that was not the case with Daisy.

Daisy didn’t have a shunt, she had a bad liver right from the embryotic stage before she was born. It’s called a Hepatic liver.

I highly suggest Cornell University Animal Hospital in Ithaca, NY. Luckily we are 65 miles from them. Fabulous! Dr. Center is a world renowned liver expert.
http://www.vet.edu/hospital
(607)253-3060

Please let us know how you make out.

FYI: Protein is a double edged sword as it is required for the canine, yet processed through the liver.

Please, please let us know more about what is happening to your Dobe and what the prognosis is. Where are you located? Where did you get your Dobe? I am in NY and Daisy came from NY Dobermans (Middletown, NY) who procured them form Serbia.

Dr. Center herself from Cornell assured me that a Dobe with a liver problem can live a long ang healthy life with diet (don’t give food that taxes the liver), medication and supplements, exercise and tons of love!!!