Acute bacterial hepatitis. Any info? Using Denamarin to treat.

Milk thistle twice a day with meals and one Sam E two hours after feeding. Really helps support the Liver,
returned my girl to normal! Good luck.

bacterial hepatitis would be treated with an antibiotic (likely multiple antibiotics). The denamarin is a supplement that would help support treatment. not sure what info you are looking for? How did you get the specific diagnosis of acute bacterial hepatitis?

The diagnose was made by my vet. Blood work taken before surgery, then an ultrasound confirmed. After initial antibiotic have been on Denamrin for several months. Wondering if this type of hepatitis is common and if this is the only treatment. Also whether or not Denamarin is the right choice of support and for how long.

My vet had little experience with it so I went to an internal specialist that told me the first course of treatment is 30 days of antibiotic in the hopes its just an infection.

Antibiotic did nothing.

I used 100mg of milk thistle (best if it also has dandelion and licoriche root in it) a.m. and p.m. meal

And SAMe - away from meals as mentioned above.

Also best to give a B50 complex with each dose of SAMe to help with better uptake.

Vitamin E at 200 to 400 ui and alfalfa also support the liver

I got my supps at www.vitacost.com Best prices I could find.

The supps were reccommended to me by my vet and confirmed with a friend/author of holistic care for dogs.

It took quite some time to get levels back in normal range but all has been good here since Jan. (diagnosed in Jan of 08 via bloodwork and ultrasound)

Not telling you what to do (talk to your vet) just telling what worked for me.

I have also heard that milk thistle can be detrimental to a healthy liver so once levels were in normal range I stopped it and all other supps but continue to check blood work periodically. When I had a slight elevation again I used the SAMe, 400mg 2x/day with the B50 with each SAMe but only gave the MT 1x/day.

I do continue with the E. B50 and alfalfa for liver support. 1 per day.

Prayers you get your dog back in normal range.

How does a dog come down with these types of hepatitis or liver disease? Is it airbourne from shows, dog parks or from wild animals on our property, or is it a weak auto immune system?

If the affected dog already has get on the ground, could the get have a higher chance of winding up with similar or the same problems? Can they inherit a higher chance of a weak immune system if that is the case?

Wendy, you would know this best being a vet I would imagine.

From my research the only liver disease that is hereditary is coppertoxicosis. It is prevelent in Dobermans and some other breeds.

If I am correct there are some types of poisoning or toxic things that can cause liver disease. (Like antifreeze causing kidney failure.)

This was not the case with my dog. It just came out of nowhere.

And lets not forget Rimadyl and some other NSAIDS causing liver disease.

found this article:

http://www.vetinfo.com/causes-liver-disease.html

Maybe Wendy has more info.

obviously, too much can be toxic. That is why I give the amounts I give with the approval of my vet.

The SAMe and MT amounts were also advised by my vet.

you will also notice I told the OP that I was not prescribing/telling them what to do (they should talk to their vet)

True, bacterial and acute are not the same.

But if the OP treated with antibiotic with no change it sounds to me like it is not bacterial.

Unless the antibiotic was not given long enough or was the wrong type of antibiotic? (as Wendy mentioned the use of multiple antibiotic). I was only given one type for 30 days by my specialist. If I remember correctly it was Amox. 500mg 2x/day.

Curious to hear from the OP what antibiotic her vet prescribed.

Hoping Wendy comes back to post on this.

Acute bacterial hepatitis would be treated with antibiotics, as well as other liver support.
FYI Denamarin IS milk thistle AND SAM-e, and is excellent liver support.
Hereditary liver diseases in Labrador retrievers are: Chronic, Active Hepatitis (now called "Active Hepatitis"), Copper Storage Disease or Copper Toxicosis, and above and beyond that, I don't think the research has been complete and there may be many more things coming down the pike.
I have had Active Hepatitis and Colangiohepatitis in my line---is it related, is it hereditary? No one knows.
Keep in mind, "hepatitis" simply means "inflammation of the liver" and that can present itself in many forms.
Other drugs used to treat various liver conditions would be: prenisone, antibiotics, Denamarin SAM-e + milk thistle) or Denosyl (SAM-e alone), Ursodial, or Marin (milk thistle) It's important to get a diagnosis, sometimes not attainable unless you do a liver biopsy.

About one year ago my beautiful Champion bitch started
to vomit one day and would not eat. I took her to the Vet that day for a work up and her Liver Levels were through the roof. We did an ultrasound and the edges looked pretty good so he treated with antibiotics,that did not work, I was freaking out and I could not get her to eat. I started doing research on this Forum, my Vet(who I trust and love) was in the process of scheduling her for a liver biopsy, I was so scared for her. Not the $5,000.00 it would have cost but the risk to her. I asked the Specialist
if he thought I could try a month on the treatment that was suggested from this Forum. We did the bile acids and he thought I would be Ok to at least try first as long as she was not getting worse, I was cooking low fat for her and she was eating a little. Thank you posters! She is now just perfect and did not have to have her liver cut into. For all the nasty things that we can all say at times out of envy, and we have all done that! I still believe that we are more good than bad and all of us would help anyone in need even if we did not exactly admire them. Lets all try to be better, respect each other, lets feel really bad when we hear about someone having a bad report on their sweet Labs and not jump on the gossip wagon. Every Lab has something swimming around in that pedigree, don't throw stones and keep those helpful posts coming, I will be forever grateful!!