Chicken Liver

    • Gold Top Dog

    Chicken Liver

    I figured out a while ago that my girls cannot tolerate chicken (among other things) as it causes terrible itching. However, I do cook chicken liver for them in olive oil - it's their favorite, but I don't give it all the time. I make it about 2 weeks out of the month and alternate with other things like steak, salmon, eggs, etc., etc., etc. - all accompany their Orijen Fish kibble and daily plain yogurt. So.....I'm wondering why they do okay on chicken *liver* but not *other* chicken meat????? It's wierd. I can definitely tell when they've eaten chicken, besides the livers. Has anyone else experienced this???

    • Gold Top Dog

    they are probably reacting to one of the muscle proteins that aren't present in a non-muscle like liver.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Be careful with feeding so much chicken liver (or any liver for that matter).   Its super high in Vitamin A (which can cause toxicity) and super high in iron (in fact, it has more than twice the iron of beef liver) which could cause malabsorption of other minerals.

    • Bronze
    My Pomchee was recently diagnosed with a liver disease. He ran the blood work and told me that her diet needs to consist of a low protein. I didn't know that before I found out she had this disease, I was feeding her chicken and that was the last thing I should have been giving her because it is all protein. I thought that if I boiled it and omitted the fat that she would tolerate it and that did not help. She is doing much better since I am no longer feeding her that and am now giving her a low protein dry dog food (science diet). He recommended the prescription LD but it is expensive so I did some comparative shopping and found science diet to be about the same in protein. I would like to make her some home cooked meals. I've heard that sweet potatoes and other veggies are good. I gave her sweet potatoes last night, she loved them and seemed to do fine. Other diets seemed to also include fish, cod, talapia, salmon etc I am concerned because I believe fish is also high in protein. Any suggestions? She is only 5 lbs.
    • Gold Top Dog

    JoAnnDe

    Be careful with feeding so much chicken liver (or any liver for that matter).   Its super high in Vitamin A (which can cause toxicity) and super high in iron (in fact, it has more than twice the iron of beef liver) which could cause malabsorption of other minerals.

    If shes only giving liver once every 2 weeks, thats not too much. As long as it isnt a ton of liver every time. For BARF feeders, the general rule is organ once per week. Bailey gets a whole beef liver usually once per week, which is fine for him.

     

     

    • Gold Top Dog

    apederson62
    My Pomchee was recently diagnosed with a liver disease. He ran the blood work and told me that her diet needs to consist of a low protein. I didn't know that before I found out she had this disease, I was feeding her chicken and that was the last thing I should have been giving her because it is all protein. I thought that if I boiled it and omitted the fat that she would tolerate it and that did not help. She is doing much better since I am no longer feeding her that and am now giving her a low protein dry dog food (science diet).

    You can cook for her but I'd suggest you contact a dog dietician (either Monica Segal or Sabine Contreras) to actually help you with a balanced diet geared to be liver-friendly.  There are some veggies more than others that would be helpful.

    The other really good alternative for you would be to **add** a vet.  I'm not talking about you not going to your vet .. I mean specifically for you to add a vet who does TCVM (Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine) -- it is incredibly helpful for liver problems and can often help the liver regenerate.

    I had a dog who developed a liver disease -- and the TCVM vet actually discovered it was merely an infection rather than liver degeneration.  He *fully* recovered.  Acupuncture and Chinese herbs can do so much to augment what the vet is doing. 

    There are herbs like milk thistle that can help enormously to protect and detox the liver.  There are other herbs that can help calm the liver and help it function better.  If you go to http://www.tcvm.com there is a locator on the left -- you can search by state or by zip code -- and find who may be close to you.  Generally I tell people to contact several and see who they like.  If I can help please email me or pm me. 

    Acpuncture does NOT hurt ... and it can be a super benefit to a dog with liver problems. 

    btw ... you've actually replied to a thread that is very very old -- you may not get much response here -- I'm glad I found this.  Food is only a small part of this -- did your vet already put your dog on milk thistle/Sam-E or Marin/Denosyl?    Those will help bring down the liver values a great deal.  I'm far more a fan of the herbs than the Marin/Denosyl but whichever you choose they should help you a great deal.