Dry mouth has numerous causes in dogs and cats. Here's what you can do to prevent the discomfort and complications that can be associated with dry mouth in pets. Pets - How To Information. ![]() Liver Disease Signs, Symptoms, and Diagnosis. Liver Disease: Signs, Symptoms, and Diagnosis. Column written by: Dr. Fleming, Sherwood Animal Clinic (Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada)This topic is as big as the states of Alaska and Texas combined. ![]() ![]() ![]() I really cannot do it justice in a short essay, but I think it deserves some mention, if only to give the pet owner some understanding as to the difficulties involved when a veterinarian is faced with a case of possible liver failure. If you asked ten people on the street what they knew about . The best description of the liver I can give you is that this organ is the main industrial centre of the body. The liver processes raw materials, manufactures the building blocks of the body, recycles the old to make new, and detoxifies the industrial waste of the body. In short the liver is involved in just about every biochemical process required to run e body. As a result of this relationship, liver disease can affect just about any other part of the body and thus the symptoms of liver disease are typically unpredictable and non- specific. Furthermore, because the liver acts as a . It is estimated that three per cent of all disease seen by veterinarians is liver based. The liver has a double edged nature which, while being life preserving, makes diagnoses and treatment of liver disease extremely difficult. The liver has a tremendous reserve capacity, which means that it can easily perform it's duties with up to 7. While it certainly is a benefit that our liver can keep us alive despite an overwhelming infection or a massive tumour, it also means that the disease is well advanced and possibly untreatable before any symptoms are noted. We all know that disease is most easily conquered early, but the very nature of the liver makes this an impossible task. ![]() ![]() ![]() One thing about livers though: they are the only organ in the body which is capable of complete regeneration and thus is we do manage to successfully treat the disease, there is a chance of complete recovery. Because of the complexity of this topic, I am going to cover it using very abbreviated point form. I will try to skip over the experimental theories and the more esoteric points and keep to the meat of the topic. Common Presenting Symptoms: All, some, or only one of these signs may be present. Intermittent recurrent abdominal or gastrointestinal upsets. Progressive depression or lethargy. Swollen belly with a . This is also known as ascites and is actually fluid accumulation in the belly due to circulation alterations in the abdomen. Pale gray feces. Bile pigments are what gives poop it's characteristic brown colour and if the liver is not processing bile properly, the feces will not get their colour. Epilepsy is a group of neurological disorders characterized by epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures are episodes that can vary from brief and nearly undetectable to.Orange urine. The improper processing of bile results in the excretion of bilirubin in the urine in high amounts, thus orange urine. Jaundice, also known as icterus. Any pale or white skin or visible tissue takes on a yellow hue. Again the biliary pigments are accumulating in the body because the liver is not processing them. Rarely: bleeding problems. Many of the proteins required for proper blood clotting are created in the liver. Remove these proteins and blood clotting decreases. Hepatic encephalopathy, or severe neurological signs. May be associated with meal time. Pain associated with the abdomen. This is due to the stretching of the liver capsule. May be noted when the dog is lifted around the belly or when the veterinarian probes (palpates) the abdomen. The veterinarian may also notice a swollen liver while palpating with some of the more acute liver diseases. Chronic weight loss or wasting. The liver processes all the building blocks. If it fails to process, the body fails to maintain itself. Increased water consumption and urination. Most likely due to dramatic shifts in serum and kidney salt balances. May be behavioural too. Points on notable symptoms: 1. Bile pigment processing. Bile is a complex mixture of organic and inorganic compounds. It is primarily responsible for alkalizing the intestinal contents (acidic from the stomach),emulsifying the dietary fat, and prevention of putrefaction of digestive material. Bilirubin, one of the bile pigments, is derived from the break down of hemoglobin, the oxygen carrying molecule carried in our red blood cell. Bilirubin is quite toxic, but it usually binds to a protein called albumin, which harmlessly carries it to the liver for detoxification and excretion. Albumin is made in the liver. Liver failure results in poor bilirubin processing and decreased albumin manufacturing, which results in a dangerously high level of free floating bilirubin. The liver excretes the bilirubin after binding it to an amino acid into the bile duct system. Eventually the conjugated bilirubin enters the digestive tract, where the intestinal bacteria break it down to a harmless product called urobilinogen. Urobilinogen, after complete digestion in the intestines, is brown, therefore the feces tend to be brown. Jaundice, also known as icterus, results from the accumulation of conjugated and unconjugated bilirubin in the body tissues. This becomes visible to the veterinarian, especially around the whites of the eyes and on the pale areas of the gums. Important biological functions. The liver is both the target organ for many of the body's hormones and the recycling centre for most of the hormones. Some of the symptoms stemming from liver failure may mimic a major hormonal imbalance. Practically all the vitamins consumed in our diets are either directly involved in liver function or require liver aided transformation to be used in the body. This includes Vitamin C, the B vitamins, Vitamins A, D, E and K. Vitamin K is important to maintain blood clotting and requires hepatic transformation from the inactive form to the active form. Red blood cell maintenance. In the mature dog the liver plays an active role in the removal of aged or damaged red blood cells from circulation. It is also active in the metabolism of hemoglobin and the storage of iron. Abnormalities in red blood cell structure is one of the harbingers of liver disease. Anemia may be present in chronic liver disease. Hemostasis or blood clotting ability. Most of the proteins involved in the creation of a functional blood clot are made in the liver. The clotting system is an extremely complex, interlocking system ; remove some of the factors involved and you end up with a tendency to bleed or hemophilia. Carbohydrate and fat metabolism: Sugars, or carbohydrates are the basic fuel of the body. The liver is the primary centre for processing of the sugars into the form immediately required. The liver is also responsible for the destruction of insulin, the hormone directly involved with the cellular absorption of blood sugars. Alterations in liver function often do not affect blood sugar levels until much of the liver has been destroyed. Fat metabolism is extremely complex due to the vast number of functions fat carries out in the body. The liver sits at the centre of those many functions. Cholesterol is probably the most common fat based product in the body, being the major component in the cell wall, the basis for the steroid hormones and bile pigments, and the precursor of vitamin D. Any disease in fat metabolism can adversely affect the liver, and any disease in the liver can result in problems in fat metabolism. An example of this is the . The major protein is albumin, which is required for transport of many nutrients and toxins (i. Albumin is also responsible for keeping the serum concentration constant, which is important with regards to serum fluid and salt balance. Elevations of select globulins may indicate a particular hepatic pathology. The building blocks of proteins are the amino acids. The liver is also primarily involved in processing of dietary amino acids to modify them into required or useful forms. Some of the amino acids require direct hepatic metabolism, while others can be used by the body unchanged. Experimental efforts have been made to diagnose and track liver disease based on the relative proportion of the various amino acids to each other. In liver failure the amino acids requiring hepatic alterations prior to use should climb in concentration as compared to those amino acids unaffected by the liver. Important Liver Enzymes: Traditionally the medical practitioner has measured the relative concentration of several enzymes which may indicate alterations in liver health. The following enzymes typically change values in the face of liver failure: Alanine Aminotransferase: ALT. Liver specific in the dog and cat. Cell damage will cause elevations of A- LT due to leakage. The elevation of the enzyme correlates with the number of cells damaged. Falling levels of ALT may indicate recovery or may indicate a failing number of functional liver cells. Rapid increases in ALT may indicate an acute process, while slow increases may indicate bile duct obstruction. Aspartate Aminotransferase: AST, an enzyme seen in the liver, heart, kidney, skeletal muscle and brain. The half life of the AST in the blood stream is much shorter than that of ALT, therefore the values of AST tend to drop more rapidly once liver function is resumed. AST elevations and ALT elevations should parallel each other in liver disease. Alkaline Phosphatase. This enzyme is present in many tissues, therefore it is not very specific in liver disease, but it appears very early in the progress of liver disease, therefore it is considered quite sensitive. ALP tends to be slightly more specific in the cat, but not quite as sensitive. A similar enzyme or isoenzyme is secreted as a result of high levels of cortisone, therefore an effort must be made to separate Cortisole induced ALP or CALP and normal ALP. Liver ALP is released from the liver when many anticonvulsant drugs are administered to the dog. A similar sensitivity has not been noted in the cat. This must be taken into account when evaluating ALP levels.
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