JulesP

With levels that high and the breed it is possible your pup has a liver shunt. Is your pup small, fussy about eating and displays some odd behaviour (pressing head into a wall, shaking, arching neck and licking lips etc). The next step would be a bile test. Ultrasounds often do not pick up things like a shunt. The best test for this is a CT. I would suggest going on a prescription diet (Royal Canin Hepatic or Hills L/D) immediately to reduce protein load on the liver.

I didn't know Ivory Coat had changed formulas. Grrrr.

The fair price is the one you are willing to pay. If everyone pays the 6K then that is going to be the fair price. When I was breeding dogs I asked my breed club what the going price was and I charged that. Pretty much all the good breeders did that and there wasn't much variation in price. Seems to be a bit more variation creeping in now.

I do this with the Prime rolls. Chop the whole roll up at once and freeze it.

I have a dog with liver problems. I've never used milk thistle, although it is a popular thing to use. Denamarin is the popular choice. There I have been very strict with what I feed my dog and do keep the protein levels low and feed her prescription food. No bones, vegetarian cookies etc. Kidney & liver prescription diets are fairly similar, kidney is slighter higher protein from memory and I think liver is higher fat. Think of it of giving the liver a little holiday from processing stuff and see if the levels improve.

I haven't been there for a while. A work colleague went recently though with a dog that wasn't great on lead, wasn't aggressive, and they were recommended to go to the person Tassie has recommended above. I would also recommend this person.

I was a bit surprised when I heard what puppies were going for these days. That is the sort of money I used to spend on horses. But that is mainly because of the length of time that has passed since I purchased a puppy (10+ years). From my first border collies to the second generation was 15 years and the price had doubled then, they have pretty much doubled again in the same time frame. So not that bad? I am more concerned about actually getting a puppy when I want one.

Yeah mine lasted maybe 2 years. my corded Dyson has been going for about 15 years though and don't do maintenance on it!

Woof you were one of the people that helped me when Amber was first diagnosed

Thanks guys. I think she is rather lovely Snook! I tried to get a really nice photo of her today but she was having none of it. I was siting on the floor looking at the photos I had taken and the cheeky beast was watching me so I quickly took a photo. All the other ones she looks very miserable as she didn't want a photo shoot Poppy of course kept posing beautifully!

Today is Amber's 10th Birthday! This would be exciting for any dog but it is super exciting for me & Amber. When Amber was 11 months old she was diagnosed with multiple liver shunts. This was inoperable and she was given a prognosis of around 6 months to live. I did a lot of reading and put her a strict diet and medication regime. A Yahoo support group was very valuable in the early stages. Amber has always been happy and full of life. There have been a few times were I thought I might lose her but she has never said that she has had enough. It hasn't been easy but she has totally been worth it. She is my little stalker and is always around staring at me with her lovely eyes. I didn't dare to hope that we would get to 10 years. This is the low end of a normal life span for a Border Collie but to even make it into the normal life span is amazing. So Happy Birthday Amber!

I feed the Prime SPD rolls. https://prime100.com.au/product_categories/single-protein-diet/ Give them a call to see what they recommend. I've found them to be very helpful in the past.

I've managed to get a couple of bags of the food at different supermarkets. I finally got a response from NG today! Over a month later. And the response was "call Coles or Woolworths", so no help at all really. Used to be a great company until it was sold. Such a shame.

I've had pets die in all ways possible (I think). None of the are 'nicer'. I had one pet pass in its sleep at a really old age and with no illness, I was still really sad. So you need to do what is best for your pet. If your dog is distressed in the hospital and you really want the dog to pass at home call your local vet and ask if they will come out to your house and euthanise your dog. The liver not working probably also means that drugs don't work quite the same way as a lot of drugs are processed through the liver. This might also be why the vet hospital aren't keen on giving you the drugs to take home. In this respect we are kinder to our pets than people (although laws are changing). We send people home to die slowly but release our pets from pain in a much kinder manner. I am sorry you are going through this.

Yeah NG customer service used to be great. Hopefully it is back in stock this weekend. Amber has picked up a bit but is still not well. She is making a fuss to get fed though and actually just barked at me! lol So that is a good sign.

You can't make the new owners desex them. The only way to ensure this happens is if you do it. Not sure what you are talking about with the microchip. I also hope you are not going to let them go at 5wks. That is way too young. 8wks is the youngest they should go. Whoever you got the dog from is irresponsible for not desexing the dog prior to rehoming her. This entire story is extremely odd.

NG have not responded to my query - not amused. Petbarn/Greencross vet did respond to my whinge. Waiting to hear how they are going to solve the issue. My Hepatic food went missing at the vets today, sigh. The vets are going to order more and deliver to me, so much better customer service!

It is stocked in lots of places but even the tins were out of stock in my Woolworths so something must be going on. My local IGA sells the tins but I can't remember seeing the dry in there. When I first got NG tins it was from their factory a loonnnnggg time ago!

Yes that is what she eats! It is the the second week it has been out of stock. Well she isn't eating anything but roast chicken at the moment but I need to transition her back to normal food.

After Amber decided that the Hepatic dry food was poison I tried her on the Nature's Gift semi moist and she liked it. So I've been feeding that for about 5 years. She actually improved in condition on it. I don't know what is going on with Nature's Gift but for the second week the stocks in general are low and the Semi Moist has been out of stock. I've been stressed that they stop making it anyway as there isn't anything else like it on the market. Does anyone know what is going on? Don't need this stress at the moment! Went to Petbarn and the Greencross vet was still open but they didn't have any hepatic food and wouldn't sell me anything else. Said I could go and buy something in the normal section.....

Have you/your SIL contacted whoever Rusty was purchased from and let them know that it is not working out?

Is Tully on medication that could be making him feel sick? I use baby food pouches to get food into dogs that aren't eating. You can squeeze a bit of the food into their mouth quite easily. I just squeeze a bit on to the tongue (not down the throat!) and they then eat it. Sometimes if they get some food in their tummy they feel a bit better and will then eat by themselves.

That is great your dog is showing improvement. i hope he continues to get better.

Perhaps something like "Thanks for the idea but we did transition over slowly and my dog still had trouble with the food" would have been more polite.

Nothing special about the ingredients. Similar to what you will see in Meals for Mutts, Black Hawk, Ivory Coat etc. Would put it in the same category.