What to Feed a Dog With Liver Disease or High Liver Enzymes

First: "liver disease" is not one thing

This matters more here than in most conditions. Raised liver enzymes on a blood panel are a finding, not a diagnosis. They tell your vet to look further, not what to feed. The underlying causes are genuinely different diseases with different dietary answers:

• Copper-associated liver disease: copper accumulates in the liver and damages it. Diet is central.
• Portosystemic shunt: a blood vessel abnormality bypassing the liver. Different approach, often surgical.
• Gallbladder and bile duct disease: often a fat question rather than a copper one.
• Chronic hepatitis from other causes, toxins, and tumours: each managed differently.
• Hepatic encephalopathy, the neurological complication, changes the protein calculation regardless of cause.

So a page recommending "liver diet food" without knowing which of those you are dealing with is not being helpful.

The copper story, and why it is getting more attention

This is the part where diet does real work, and where the research has moved recently.

One study followed 55 Labradors. All had eaten the same brand for at least a year, then had liver biopsies. The pattern was clear: more copper and less zinc in the food meant more copper in the liver. The authors concluded that the copper levels found in ordinary dry dog food can be a risk factor for these dogs, if the breed is prone to it (Fieten et al., 2012).

The treatment side has real numbers behind it. Researchers followed 28 Labradors who were storing copper without showing signs yet. A treatment diet gave them about 1.3 mg of copper and 64 mg of zinc per 1,000 calories. In the dogs who responded, liver copper dropped a long way (Fieten et al., 2015). Notice what that diet pairs: low copper with high zinc. The zinc is not an extra. It blocks copper from being absorbed.

The problem also looks like it is growing. One review covered 4,559 dog liver biopsies taken between 2010 and 2020. Half had liver copper above 400 ppm, and 19% were above 1,000. The normal range is 120 to 400. Dobermanns, Labradors, and West Highland White Terriers showed up far more often than they should have. The authors tied the rise to how much copper has gone into commercial dog food since the 1990s (Ullal et al., 2022).

That has prompted a direct challenge from veterinary specialists, published as a paper asking whether it is time to reconsider current guidelines for copper in commercial dog food (Center et al., 2021). One structural reason it matters: AAFCO sets a minimum copper level of about 7.3 ppm on a dry matter basis, and no upper tolerable limit has been established by AAFCO or the NRC (Amundson et al., 2024).

Where our food fits, condition by condition

It depends on which liver disease your dog has. Treating them all the same would help nobody.

If it is copper-related, choose Chicken, not Beef.

Our Beef recipe contains beef liver and beef kidney. Beef liver holds more copper than any other organ meat in common use, roughly twenty times the copper of chicken liver by weight. The recipe also has no added zinc, and zinc is the half of the pair that protects. So for a dog with copper-related liver disease, or a breed prone to it, our Chicken recipe is the one to ask your vet about. It is built on chicken liver, which is far lower in copper.

Most liver disease is not copper-related, and that changes everything.

This is worth saying plainly, because many owners hear "liver disease" and assume every food is now off the table. It usually is not. Gallbladder and bile duct disease, liver shunts, and many cases of chronic hepatitis have nothing to do with copper. For those dogs, there is no blanket reason to rule out a whole-food, high-protein diet. Some need their fat kept moderate. Some need no change to protein at all. Your vet's diagnosis sets the rules, not a generic "liver diet" off a shelf.

So here is the short version. Copper-related disease means Chicken, not Beef, and your vet should agree first. For every other liver condition, ask what your dog actually needs. The answer may well include us.

What about protein?

Worth correcting a common assumption. Protein restriction in liver disease is not a blanket rule. It matters specifically for dogs showing hepatic encephalopathy, the neurological complication, with signs like disorientation, head pressing, or seizures. There, the source of protein matters as well as the amount.

Many dogs with liver disease actually need adequate protein, because the liver is a synthesising organ and losing muscle mass makes things worse rather than better. Both our recipes are very high in protein, at roughly 112 to 114 grams per 1,000 calories, which is too high for a dog with encephalopathy and unnecessary for many others. This is squarely a vet decision.

What to actually do

Get the diagnosis first. Ask your vet which liver condition your dog has, whether copper has been measured or should be, and whether your dog's breed puts them in a higher-risk group. If it is copper-associated, expect a copper-restricted therapeutic diet and treat that as the intervention, not as a suggestion.

If your dog is simply showing mildly raised enzymes with no diagnosis yet, the useful answer is not a new food. It is finding out why.

And if you have a Labrador, Dobermann, or West Highland White Terrier, the copper research above is worth raising at your next check-up even if nothing is currently wrong. You can read our full ingredient lists and take them to that appointment.