VetriScience Liver Health Chews for Dogs, Chicken, 60 Count

Sometime around August 2021 Gus, my 16-year old 15-lb dachshund, started guzzling water, peeing all the time and becoming increasingly picky with food. I was filled with dread because in 2018 I lost a pup (Oscar) to renal failure that, at the time, seemed all of a sudden, but after talking to the emergency room vet I realized his symptoms (decreased appetite and increased water consumption/urination) had actually been happening over time. I thought this was “natural, with age” because he was 16. Gus could no longer sleep through the night without having to get up for water/to pee. Also he all but completely stopped eating (first) dog food (then) people food. I must have bought 500 worth of food trying to find something he would eat. The only thing I could get him to eat was dog treats and only certain kinds. I decided to take him ti the vet. I drove 1000 miles to go to my old vet because, thanks to the pandemic?, I couldn’t find a local vet who would see him any time soon and I hadn’t needed to take him to the vet the first 6 months we had been in our new town. I began putting Gus on kidney supplements thinking he was in early renal failure even before we got to the vet. The drops seemed to improve the frequency of his urination slightly. My vet agreed it was likely renal failure or something worse, given my history with Oscar. I let him know that, according to his doggy DNA report, Gus has this health condition that may show liver levels as lower than they really are. So if his liver levels are low, it’s likely they are actually normal. To great relief, Gus’s bloodwork came back “normal.” Confusingly, nothing explained his symptoms. This made me wonder if he was having a liver issue not showing on his blood panel. I quickly researched liver supplements for dogs and I believe this was the first product I found. I read the reviews and ordered it immediately. Since Gus is so small, he only needs half a “treat.” At first I was encouraged because I put it in front of his mouth and he licked it. Then he tried to eat it but it was CRAZY hard. Like crack a tooth hard. Which bored him and he refused to try to eat it. I almost panicked because this supplement seems rather expensive. Then I remembered one reviewer suggesting to grind it down. I did that and put it in liver sausage and he happily ate the liver sausage treat. Then we went to bed. And he slept through the night. For the first night in WEEKS. Literally this supplement cured his increased urination and drinking after one treatment. Or it was fluke, the skeptic in me thought the next morning. I had to continue the treatment to see if it really worked so I made sure to feed him his liver sausage “treat” every night before we went to bed and it seemed that his water issue really was immediately cured. However, he still wasn’t really eating. At this point he was downright refusing dog food and would only sometimes eat people food. Shortly after starting this supplement my mom flew in for a visit. Between my sister and I, she is used to us having old dogs who are picky eaters. So she whipped up some chicken and rice and pumpkin for Gus. I rolled my eyes because I knew he wouldn’t eat it. He doesn’t really like vegetables. Surprisingly, he lapped up a small amount. For about a week my mom made him several very small meals of chicken, rice and pumpkin and I fed Gus with a fork. I was terrified when my mom left that Gus would stop eating because I wasn’t sure I would get the ratios correctly but he kept eating. Then I got him to eat turkey and mashed potatoes (it was Thanksgiving). I was rotating him between turkey and mashed potatoes with a small amount of gravy and turkey and mashed potatoes with pumpkin and he was getting “fatter” (ie normal weight). Then my sister put some dog food out for him and I chastised her because he wasn’t eating dog food. A few hours later, he trundled over to the dog food and ate it! Around this time, Gus began to get resistant to his nightly liver sausage “treat.” He didn’t like that he could taste the supplement in the sausage. I had to grind it up really fine to hide it (I just used a knife to “chop” really finely). Eventually he downright refused the liver sausage “treats” and I had nothing else to hide the supplement in so I stopped them. Miraculously, he didn’t seem to need the supplements anymore. He was back to normal. Normal weight. Eating dog food again in normal amounts. Drinking normal amounts of water. Peeing normally. I stopped the kidney supplement shortly after stopping the liver supplement but I believe the liver supplement cured Gus. So what was wrong with him in the first place? I’m assuming liver toxicity or over-stressed liver. In July he ate an entire NY strip steak and got diarrhea the next day. I thought perhaps too much protein (he loves meat!) taxed his liver. Disclaimer: Obviously there is nothing scientific about my account and I have no idea what was actually wrong with my dog. I was comfortable trying a natural supplement out on Gus because I was willing to try anything to make him feel better. I’m thankful I found this supplement. To me, it was a miracle!

My 14 year old smooth-coat fox terrier showed some higher than normal values on her recent checkup. Her ALT (liver) was 232 (normal is 10-125); her ALKP (liver) was 355 (normal is 23-212), and LIPA (pancreas) was slightly high at 1856 (normal is 200-1800). She had a decreased appetite, pickier than normal, and she had lost some of her energy and enthusiasm, although she is 14. I started her in the Vetri-Liver, recommended by the vet, who sold me the first bag. Before I gave it to her, I read reviews on the product. Most of them said it was effective, and a number mentioned a ' strong, earthy, pungent' odor. Within a week of starting this product, she showed an improved appetite and increased activity and vigor. I ordered my second batch, and soon will be taking her back for another blood test. I did additional reading, and discovered that sharing my almonds and walnuts with her is a BAD idea; they are detrimental to dogs. Of course, I stopped sharing, and although she is not happy, she has adjusted. I do not know if these contributed to her abnormal values or not. At first, she sniffed the mini-bone shaped, smelly supplement with suspicion. After a little investigation, she got the first one down. After a few days, she considered them a treat, and comes to me after her morning walk wanting her 'cookie'. When I first opened the package, I was struck by the strong odor, and must confess, I would not have blamed my dog (Phantom) if she refused to take it. She has learned to like it, and I have learned to hold the package at arm's length and not inhale while I open the package. I am looking forward to her next visit, and to finding out how her three values mentioned above have, hopefully, decreased.

UPDATE: The company finally offered me a refund check, which they said in an email would arrive "soon." it has been a week and a half and no refund check is in sight. ORIGINAL REVIEW: I wish I'd seen the reviews of these "chews" being hard as a rock before purchasing them, and before contacting the company in a good-faith question of whether they had possibly expired because my cats are TOTALLY uninterested in them, no matter what I do. (There is no exp date on the package.) Below is the unbelievable response I got from them, copy/pasted. I would not touch any product from this company ever again. "Thank you for reaching out to us with your question. We often get owners of dogs and cats saying their pet will not eat the product so that does not surprise me in the least. The worry is the product is bad or something changed with the formulation. Dogs and cats lives are ruled by their noses. Because we are a company that focuses on the ingredients everything affects the product.. like weather, drought, humidity, soil conditions etc. Due to these constantly changing seasonal conditions we expect at some point customers may have issues with their pets not loving some or all of the product due to its difference in smell, texture, density or even color. We, as a society, have become used to mass production and lots of additives and preservatives to make the unlikeable.. likeable… We do our best to keep that to a minimum and focus on the ingredients and adding only the most natural preservatives that enhance our product. We learned from a cat owner that if you put our treats in a baggie with something your pet loves the smell and taste of and leave them there for some time.. and let the smells cross onto each other... 95% of the time it works like a charm. For cats a brand-new smelly catnip toy and for dogs a smelly treat even the end of a parmesan rind. You may have to let it sit together for a longer period of time if it doesn't work the first time. If you are part of the 5% this is what we will need to process a replacement or refund for you. A picture of your receipt: Where you purchased the product from: Picture of the front and back of the bag to include the lot # ( 8- or 9-digit number followed by a space and four digits) Picture of the remaining product: Full name and address: We recommend that you try the trick, if you submit for a replacement/refund check, we ask that you donate to a shelter or rescue that can use the product." All this for a crappy $15 product that clearly had gone bad. No other vendor in the world makes you give this much documentation for a bad or expired product. These treats went into my trash. Avoid this company. ADDENDUM: After much emailing back and forth, they are sending me a refund. They still refuse to admit there's anything wrong with this product, or with mislabelling them as "chews" when they are not chewable by cats. They still claim they hardened because of "the weather" or other defensive reasons. Clearly just trying to avoid a bad rep, they don't really care. Sorry, but that doesn't work. They have a problem with this product.

I’ve tried out a lot of liber supplements for my golden and these seem to have worked the best. Every time I take him to the vet his levels keep gradually declining which is great! The price isn’t too bad compared to some others. My dog looks forward to eating these “treats” every morning My only complaint about these are some bags smell terrible and some just smell like regular dog treats. Currently have a stinky bag but my dog still loves them.

Vetri-Liver and Denamarin is working!!! My story: Our dog is a 12ish Jack Russell mix. In August 2017, he was off. Not himself. Bloodwork and ultrasound showed he likely had Chronic Hepatitis. Put him on Denamarin. Bloodwork improved, but still not perfect. Had the vet do a dental thinking that the liver issues could be from bad teeth. They put him on a preventative antibiotic. 1 week after the Dental he spiked a 106 fever. He was ultimately put on IVs with a different antibiotic. Fever came down, felt better. Noticed that he had developed a licking issue after eating which was new. Fever slowly started to climb back upward. At 104 he was put back on IVs, taken off of all antibiotics in an attempt to get the bacteria to flourish and to isolate it. The only problem was that once he was off of the antibiotics his temperature went normal never to return. Eating throughout this has been difficult. Turning down filet mignon or whatever concoction I could come up with to tempt him to eat. I had pointed out to the vets (lots of them) that the antibiotics warned against liver and kidney issues. Everyone poo poo'd that. Well, it turns out that his liver couldn't process them. I took him home on Christmas Day from the vet hospital. They wanted to do a liver biopsy, but I rejected it. He already looked like warmed over death. Wasn't eating a thing in the hospital. They would have had to put him back on antibiotics. - And there was no clear indication that the liver was the origin of the problem, and could just be a secondary to another issue like heart disease (he does have a small heart murmur, but his heart is working sufficiently), cancer, etc. Even if we knew exactly what the liver diagnosis was, the treatment wouldn't be much different: Diet, supplements and potentially prednisone (which is hard on the liver as well - catch 22) At home, he was a new dog. He started eating. I researched every liver diet, and started with a very bland, home-cooked meal. I noticed that if I added a hi-end kibble to his diet, there would be more licking (licking surfaces like the carpeting). I read where compulsive licking is often intestinal distress. I'm not convinced that he also didn't have some kind of gastric issue, like gastric ulcers, or other intestinal issue, perhaps because of the liver or maybe even driving the liver problem. It is the end of April 2018, and he is doing well. I started him on Vetri-liver in the AM a couple of months ago with a breakfast of eggs, cottage cheese, oatmeal, rice, and chicken/turkey or beef). The Vetri-liver isn't extremely palatable, but I just cut it in pieces and put it in meat or cheese, and it will go down. Since I don't have a firm diagnosis for the liver problem, I looked for zinc and anti-oxidants to help the liver even if he had a copper retention problem. Zinc is supposed to offset copper in your diet. It also has some other supplements that he may need. Afternoon, he gets his Denamarin tablet (2 hours after the last meal) and 1 hour before dinner. Supposedly vegetable protein is better for dogs with liver disease. So I came up with some treats that also helped, especially in the beginning when getting him to eat was hard. I fill a turkey pan with: eggs, meat, carrots, sweet potatoes, tofu, wheat germ, peanut butter, coconut oil, and enough oats and a little bit of flour to make a cookie dough. The secret ingredient is a little bacon grease and bacon for palatability. Yes, bad, but makes the difference between this going down the hatch. These can be a mid-day snack, or actually a small meal if we are out hiking, etc. I bake them on cookie tins like brownies, cut them into squares, put them in baggies, and throw them in the freezer. This way they stay fresh. Dinner is rice/oatmeal/sweet potatoes/pumpkin or yams mixed with eggs/chicken/turkey/beef along with some well-processed veggies. I'm not convinced that I'm feeding a balanced diet, so I bought some senior dog vitamins that he gets periodically. Slowly the weight is coming back on. Exercise is important, because he is hungry after exercise. So a small walk in the morning before breakfast and walk before dinner really makes a difference with the pills and food going down. As long as he is eating soft, smaller meals, the compulsive licking has stopped. He is energetic, playing with toys, bright on his walks and back among the living. His liver enzymes are not perfect: ALT started at 275 (August 2017), went to 1,800 during the antibiotic reaction and spiked fever, back to 275 and now down to 253 most recently. ALP started at 263, 656 at its worst, and now at 167. I don't know if I will be successful in getting them to normal ranges, but if I look at his quality of life, it looks pretty good now. I wanted to share my story, because you don't hear often that antibiotics could almost kill your dog. And.....your dog can come back after refusing to eat anything after dire illness. Considering a backpack Trip!!

They smell terrible and my dog hates them

In July my Vet told me that my English Springer Spaniel who is 9 years old had high liver enzymes. After frantically researching how I could help him I read a review here on Amazon from a man who was experiencing the same problem He said he was giving his dog these liver supplements along with homemade healthy meals and snacks. On my second check up, I mentioned these suppliments and my vet said recommended the ingredients and changes to his meals. I want to thank the man for his lengthy review and pictures. I am including pictures of my furr baby from a walk today. It has been almost 4 months since receiving the devastating news. I give him 2 supplements daily and feed him boiled chicken breast stew with a variety of ingredients like Kale, yams, rice, quinoa, flax seed , yogurt and more. It took awhile for him to get used to the veggies and the liver chews. They smell horrible and my dog wanted nothing to do with them. I finally found that covering them with a little cream cheese hid the smell and he could not separate it from the pill and spit it out. Now he loves the time I give these to him and eats them easily. As you can see in my pictures, he is happy and is running more than I have seen him run in a long time. Thank you Vetriscience Laboratories.

With supplements, you always wonder whether or not they actually work. When a product I previously used was discontinued, I switched to this one. My elderly dog has elevated liver values. The previous product lowered them. This one lowered them even more! The smell is not nearly as vomit-inducing as the other one, but it is not fabulous. My dog gobbles it up, just as she did the other one. It's the efficacy that scores major points, though. I can tell with a little smelly supplement if it actually works. Again, this one smells WAY better than the other one. Her levels were never in the 800s, but they were (and still are) on the high side of the scale. I am not sure how effective this is for dogs with severe liver issues. Maybe it is worth a try? Ask your vet. Now, let's discuss Amazon. They have a problem with the label. Their bar code strip that is affixed to the bag says "Vetri Science liver." They attached the strip to the WRONG package. Twice, I ordered the liver support product and received the heart supplement. Because I desperately needed the product and could not take a THIRD chance on receiving the wrong one, I ordered the VetriScience liver product from another vendor. I promptly received the correct product. So - great product - would be hesitant to order it from Amazon. **Update*** I have some tips about using this product, because it really does work. First, when it is time to give the supplement to your dog, pop it into the microwave for 7 seconds. Watch your microwave - you may need to adjust the time. The last thing you want to do is burn it. The smell is HORRIBLE. Second, I break the supplement into pieces and stuff it into a homemade goodie. You could try placing the supplement in a pill pocket or similar item. I do this because 1) HRH demands it, 2) the smell is off-putting, so she won't eat it "raw," and 3) she has had several teeth pulled and cannot chew it. Yes, the product really stinks. It wouldn't be worth the effort, though, if it did not work.

I've seen some improvement of my dog.

Good product.