Protein Losing Enteropathy - What Food Has Worked For You?

[Guest zoolaine]

My 7 year old dog - not a grey but I still love him dearly and know you guys can help out - was diagnosed with low albumin levels and protein losing enteropathy. He has not been acting sick at all, except for about 2 months ago he had terrible diarrhea for about 4-5 days. His yearly geriatric bloodwork showed the low protein levels. My vet called the lab and was told that he "would be on death's door in 3 months". We had an abdominal ultrasound and everything looked fine - he had a small spot on his spleen but the vet didn't see anything that would be causing the PLE. He is on metha-something-rather medication and on Hill's Science Venison and Potato food.

Looking at the ingredients the Hill Science is junk - I also looked it up at dogfoodanalysis.com it is basically potato water, saw dust, a little venison and a cancer causing perservative. And cost $54 for 17.6 pounds. I am looking to switch him to Natural Balance Venison and Sweet Potato food which is a way higher quality food and much cheaper.

So my question is: Is there anything special in the Hill's Science version or would it be okay to switch? What foods did you find worked well for you greys with PLE? - I don't think my vet knows a lot about nutrition.

 

Sunny goes for more bloodwork Friday and hopefully is protein levels are up, otherwise then I have to feed him a homemade bison and sweet potato diet.

 

Thanks for all your help, I appreciate it so much.

[ahicks51]

This may be utterly irrelevant and strongly biased from my own personal experience, but here goes.

 

In cattle, there's a disorder called Johne's disease that is caused by Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis. The disease takes 2-1/2 to 4 years to incubate, causing diarrhea and malabsorption problems. One of the most obvious signs of the disease is "bottle jaw," which is the manifestation in ruminants of protein-losing enteropathy (PLE).

 

The bacterium is known to infect other animals on an experimental basis; in humans, the bacterium is thought by some to be responsible for Crohn's disease. Recently (July 2008), a paper was published in Germany where dogs were found to be able to contract the disease as well. I have a query in with the author of the paper as to the exact nature of the diet used to treat affected animals, but I *suspect* it comes down to eliminating the vegetable matter from the diet.

 

In ruminants, the disorder is invariably fatal. In humans, the disease remains incurable. But if the diet is adjusted to remove certain vegetable components (the ones containing oligosaccharides and polysaccharides), the host can go into remission.

 

With this in mind, I would suggest cutting out all vegetable matter entirely- no rice, no corn, no wheat, no potato. No starchy matter. No carbohydrates at all, if possible. If this were one of my animals, I would go straight to chicken and beef, and see what happened.

 

Canines are facultative carnivores, meaning they eat meat but can do well in individual cases on diets high in vegetable matter. For whatever reason- environment, genetics, exposure to pathogens- some dogs clearly cannot do well on diets high in grains and starches. I suspect- but have no proof other than the paper referenced above- that the bacterium may be responsible. In the canine, adjustment of the diet may be the best venue.

 

Glanemann B, et al. Detection of Mycobacterium avium Subspecies Paratuberculosis-Specific DNA by PCR in Intestinal Biopsies of Dogs. J Vet Intern Med. 2008 Jul 11. Clinic for Small Animals, Internal Medicine, Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany.

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18638019

[Burpdog]

If you have to feed a prescription diet, go with Innovative Veterinary Diets (assuming they have not changed since the buy out).

 

I personally would feed a good quality otc food.

[Trudy]

You will find tons of articles on both sides of the fence for diet and protein loss.

 

Many feel that if the dog is losing protein, feed a high protein food. Others feel that is not at all the way to go.

We did change Ryan off of Evo, but not because of his issues, but because he just wasn't doing so well on it.

My vet would not suggest a Rx food and just told me to feed Ryan whatever - not too high and not too low in protein.

He's still around after 11 months, so something is working - but he's still peeing out protein faster than his body can make it.

[chcalifornia]

On 8/18/2008 at 11:47 AM, Guest zoolaine said:

My 7 year old dog - not a grey but I still love him dearly and know you guys can help out - was diagnosed with low albumin levels and protein losing enteropathy. He has not been acting sick at all, except for about 2 months ago he had terrible diarrhea for about 4-5 days. His yearly geriatric bloodwork showed the low protein levels. My vet called the lab and was told that he "would be on death's door in 3 months". We had an abdominal ultrasound and everything looked fine - he had a small spot on his spleen but the vet didn't see anything that would be causing the PLE. He is on metha-something-rather medication and on Hill's Science Venison and Potato food.

Looking at the ingredients the Hill Science is junk - I also looked it up at dogfoodanalysis.com it is basically potato water, saw dust, a little venison and a cancer causing perservative. And cost $54 for 17.6 pounds. I am looking to switch him to Natural Balance Venison and Sweet Potato food which is a way higher quality food and much cheaper.

So my question is: Is there anything special in the Hill's Science version or would it be okay to switch? What foods did you find worked well for you greys with PLE? - I don't think my vet knows a lot about nutrition.

 

Sunny goes for more bloodwork Friday and hopefully is protein levels are up, otherwise then I have to feed him a homemade bison and sweet potato diet.

 

Thanks for all your help, I appreciate it so much.

My Yorkie has PLE and is 11 years old. She was diagnosed with it 3 years ago. She almost died. I went to Blue Pearl Vet in Lewisville, Texas and Dr. Gallagher saved her life. He’s an internist and as far as I’m concerned my hero and Lola’s. After bringing her albumin levels back to normal he put her on a low fat diet of tilapia, sweet potato, one teaspoon of canola oil per recipe and minerals from Balance-it. Go online and look at their website. They have many recipes for dogs that you can make yourself and know what goes in it. Don’t trust PLE to an average Vet. No offense. They don’t know enough about it to save them.  She’s also on several medications and minerals I’ve had to adjust to find out what works, including chemo (just a bit). Steroid (just a bit). Believe me it’s a balancing act and learn as you go experience. Their bodies change and you have to keep watch for signs. Shaking, diarrhea, lethargy. They are all signs of crashing. We spent a small fortune, but I am willing to share what I learned and contacts if it saves one dogs life. I know her’s is worth it. Best of luck.