Dietary Intervention for Chronic Cirrhosis

Presentation Description / Summary: Cirrhosis is a long and drawn out disease process in many cases, and nutrtional intervention will change depending on stage of disease and an understanding of genesis of the disease process is important.  Lower protein commercial therapeutic diets have their place however they may not be entirely appropriate in early and very late disease due to nutrient profiles and/or palatability issues.  A rise in copper related hepatopathies leads the the necessity of a liver biopsy in many cases to understand whether chelation is necessary and in general lower copper recommendations are necessary regardless of treatment and the disease process as many commercial foods contain far more copper than necessary.  In human medicine as encephalopathy developes there are nutritional interventions that will be discussed and how they might be applied in canine medicine including the creation of easy to prepare home prepared diet options. 

Learner Outcomes:
To become aware of when the therapeutic diets are indicated versus over the counter diets in managing chronic cirrhotic disease
To understand how certain interventions with supplements may be helpful to manage the early and late cirrhotic patient.
To be able to comfortably formulate a home prepared diet plan using commonly found cost effective ingredients and approrpiate supplements to feed dogs with and without copper related issues.
To understand how to utilie components of the urea cycle and certain amino acids to create a nitrogen sink to slow hyperammonemia in the late stage cirrhotic patient