My dog has hepatitis. Is it contagious to humans? Life expectancy?

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I will assume when you say feline hepatitis that these cats are being treated for non specific inflammation of the liver (or cholangiohepatitis). As many things can cause this it is a little challenging to know how to completely answer this question. With that being said, most cats with this syndrome have inflammation that may or may not be associated with a bacterial infection. And often there is no infectious agent that has been diagnosed. I am assuming your kitty is not staying in the same home. If so, the risk of you giving anything to your kitty is low, especially if you are washing your hands after handling the affected kittys/litterbox waste. For yourself, i would just either wear gloves when handling the litterbox waste or do not directly handle with bare hands, and then wash your hands after handling waste and the kitties. It is a little challenging to know fully about risk so i think what would make you feel better is to get a little more information from the pet owner about the diagnosis. I hope this helps!

Yes you certainly can get him on the Urinary and Hydrolzyed protein diet; however, this food does not help for any underlying liver condition. There currently is no a combo diet that will help with both urinary and liver problems. You may have to discuss with your vet and determine which disease you will focus on with diet and which can be treated with alternative treatments (i.e. Denamarin liver protectant). You may have to end up consulting with an internal specialist in order to find out the best way to manage both conditions. Best of luck with your pet Malcolm moving forward. Take care.

Hello. There are many diseases that cause High liver values, but they are not technically contagious to other pets or people. That being said, Leptospirosis can be transmitted from an infected pet to others through urine contamination. Hepatitis, & some of the tick-born diseases possibly can be spread through contaminated blood products, but not through casual contact. Severe bacterial infections in the GI tract like salmonella or E coli, if someone would ingest contaminated fecal material, could also set up a septicemia that affected the liver. So there are no specifically contagious diseases that would cause elevated liver values. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

This is a very valid question and it is important to consider his overall wellbeing and comfort above and beyond prolonging the length of his life. If he is mobile, greeting family members as he normally would and eating enough (a specialised liver diet and supplements can help to reduce some of the symptoms of poor liver function by reducing the amount of toxins the liver needs to excrete. As long as his appetite is sufficient to prevent significant weight loss then it is likely he is feeling ok in himself. The following link can be very helpful for all family members to sit down together and discuss and can help in the medium term decision making https://vet.osu.edu/vmc/sites/default/files/import/assets/pdf/hospital/companionAnimals/HonoringtheBond/HowDoIKnowWhen.pdf

please provide more information on the liver condition - tests performed and most recent diagnosis so we can try and help further? Although dogs can withstand 7-10days of fasting as long as they are drinking, any longer can this can cause serious internal damage and worsening of other underlying conditions. I recommend you seek referral to a specialist internist and hospitalisation for supportive feeding and nutrition as well as further investigations and treatment if she is not responding to initial medications

It is all dependent on the cause of the liver failure. Is the liver failure due to a primary tumor or other cause? Prognosis varies from pet to pet. Whether it is cirrhosis of the liver or a tumor causing the problem, the prognosis can be days to years depending on how severe it is. What I would recommend is further testing to help determine if there is a primary cause. You can drain his abdomen periodically to make him comfortable. If there is a liver mass, some liver tumors can be removed surgically by removing the affected liver lobe. Not that long ago, I removed a large tumor on a friend's dog that was causing fluid in the abdomen and also the mass / cyst contained approximately 750ml of fluid! The dog is doing great and the prognosis is very good as the tumor was benign. Some outcomes are favorable and others are unfavorable. It would be best to seek further testing to help get a better grasp on what the prognosis will be for his dog. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions / concerns and I would be happy to help you further.

I am so sorry that Soju isn't doing well, and I sincerely apologize that we did not get to your question sooner. I suspect that Soju has turned a corner for better or worse by now, but based on the blood test results you posted and on the information you gave, I am very concerned that he was sick enough that he wasn't likely to survive. We don't often see infectious hepatitis in the US because it's widely vaccinated for, and in in 15 years of practice I have not seen a case. I also cannot find a survival rate to pass on to you, though when they are as sick as Soju, based on the blood work and his very young age I suspect he's got less than a 25% chance of survival. Having said that, if he has made it through the past couple of days and if he is showing some improvement, by all means continue treating him, as he may be one of the lucky ones. I hope that information helps you. Again I am so sorry we couldn't help you sooner and so sorry you are Soju are having to go through this. Thank you for asking fPetCoach!