VetriScience® Laboratories - Vetri-Liver Canine, 60 Bite-Sized Chews

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.

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!

Good product.

To start I highly recommend the product. It has helped lower my senior dogs liver levels due to daily need for pain meds. However I’m no longer purchasing via Amazon because I’ve received several bags that have blown up like a balloon which is not normal. The bag on the left is from chewy and the bag on the right is from Amazon. The Amazon bag is a replacement for the original order that looked like this. I’ve informed the manufacturer of the situation & they are looking into it.