CHRONIC ACTIVE HEPATITIS and HILLS HOME COOKED DIET

By Darlene Young

Article in part reprinted from Fall 1996 Doberman Quarterly, author:  Darlene Young, all rights reserved.

I originally published this article in the Doberman Quarterly in 1996.  When I had placed Kendra on a special diet of home cooked food, the word spread among my friends about her fast recovery from CAH.  Many called or wrote asking for the diet ingredients, etc.  I decided it would be a good idea to publish an article in a National magazine and thus the article in the Doberman Quarterly.  Since this article was published I continue to get inquiries regarding the article and thus have decided it might be a good idea to republish it in this annual for a more permanent reference.  Enjoy.

Kendra was 6 years when she was began loosing coat and weight gradually so I became very concerned.  I had thyroid post pill testing done to determine if the dosage of thyroid that she was on was the correct dosage.  Everything looked fin there.  Then quite often she began have bouts of nausea, with vomiting.  I took her to my local vet, who basically gave her an antacid to combat the nausea, but did not feel a blood panel was necessary.  After treatment with the antacid, the nausea seemed to get better.  A few months later, I decided to have her spayed and took her to a different vet for the procedure.  When the new vet asked about her medical history, I told him about the bouts with nausea, weight loss and coat loss.  He would not spay her without completing a blood pane and I agreed.

When the results of the blood panel came back, the vet called me and recommended that a specialist see Kendra.  It seemed her liver values were extremely high, in fact alarmingly high, which made the vet suspect liver cancer.  The areas of elevation in her test results were in SGPT, with normal values of 10-88, Kendra was 3606; her Cholesterol, with normal values of 125-250, were 552; and her Alk Phos, with normal values being 20-150, were 6000.  I was really frightened, and took her to a recommended specialist immediately.  More tests were run, with the same results, so the next step was a liver biopsy.  I remember, leaving her off for the biopsy, they did a preliminary ultra sound and her liver seemed enlarged.  I was shocked to see her abdominal area seemed jaundiced and I was really getting worried.

The biopsy was done and the diagnosis came back as Chronic Active Hepatitis (CAH).  I was told by the specialist that she would probably not live more than 6 months, and that treatment was needed immediately.

Kendra began treatment, which included a copper reduction drug, antibiotics, and a special diet, which I cooked myself.  The cooked diet was nothing other than home cooked Hills Diet of KD. The diet was given to me by my country vet and he got it from Hills.

After Kendra was on the treatment, we began doing periodic blood panels.  Surprisingly, within a few months Kendra's levels were all back to normal.  She remained on the drugs for several more months, and I kept her on the home cooked diet for over two years. It was very palatable and we never had another episode of indigestion during the entire time she was being fed the diet. 

I'm not sure at this point if Kendra was misdiagnosed or if she did, indeed have CAH because I was told the disease was terminal in all cases.  There was a seminar at one of the Nationals during this time, and I was told by the Veterinarian giving the seminar that she could not have had CAH because of the fatality rate and the he had not heard of any Doberman suffering from the disease ever surviving more than a year after treatment.

One thing I am sure of though, is the diet I cooked for Kendra did considerable good, in that her coat came back and her weight maintained.  I have received many phone calls over the years about this diet, as many of my friends saw the results.  The main results is that Kendra did live to be 12 ½ years old, 6 years past the time she should have died from the Liver disease.  I have given the diet out to many people with dogs recovering from surgery, with elevate liver values and with other ailments.  In all cases I have them to check with their veterinarian before giving it to their dogs.  I am not a veterinarian and can therefore not prescribe medication, etc.  I have also used this diet over the years and changed it to add vegetables and pasta and made a like diet and the dogs have done very well on it.

The diet is as follows:
 

I would cook this in large quantities, dish into plastic freezer dishes per daily rations, and freeze until I used it each day.  With the invention of disposable storage dishes, the process of storing is even easier today.  If you desire a less expensive process of storing, zip lock baggies can also fulfill the need of storage in the freezer.  If you store daily rations, you only need to pull out a day or two from the freezer at a time.   One other thing is that instead of bread, I used unseasoned stuffing mix, which was much easier to mix.  Calcium carbonate is basically Tums, but can be purchased in powered form and is good for both calcium replacement and as an antacid.

It is important to keep in mind that this diet only yields 17% protein calories, 30% fat calories, and 53% carbohydrate calories.  Kendra did very well on it, and she was able to eat about 2-2 ½ cups twice a day and maintained good weight the entire time.