Symptoms and Treatment of Fatty Liver in Dogs
📝 Summary
Canine fatty liver is fat buildup in the liver from disrupted metabolism, causing low energy, poor appetite, vomiting, and an enlarged liver, and can progress to cirrhosis and heart failure. Primary causes are rich diet and inactivity; secondary come from hepatitis or diabetes. Diagnosis uses blood, biochemistry, and imaging, and treatment pairs medicine with diet change and exercise.
1 Causes and Symptoms
Causes: primary fatty liver arises from long-term high-fat, high-carb, low-protein food, starvation, too little exercise, or lack of anti-fat substances. Secondary fatty liver follows acute or chronic hepatitis, other infections and parasites, chronic pancreatitis, chronic metabolic disease, or diabetes, as body fat is moved into the liver.
Symptoms: low spirit, reduced appetite, occasional vomiting and bloating, sometimes diarrhea or diarrhea alternating with constipation, an enlarged liver, and no clear tenderness on touch.
Pathology: simple fatty liver shows only fat change in liver cells; steatohepatitis adds necrosis and inflammatory cells, sometimes with Mallory bodies and fibrosis; steatofibrosis adds central and periportal fibrosis; steatocirrhosis rebuilds the liver structure with false lobes and regenerating nodules. Untreated, fatty liver leads to whole-body anemia, heart disease, even heart failure, threatening the pet’s life.
2 Diagnosis and Treatment
Diagnosis rests on clinical signs plus a blood count, biochemistry, and liver imaging. In blood and biochemistry, AST, total cholesterol, and triglycerides are the main markers of liver state.
Treatment: overfeeding rich protein and fat is the direct cause, so beyond medicine, change the diet, stop forced feeding, switch to dog food with set times and portions, add proper exercise, and reduce weight.
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