ROYAL CANIN GASTRO DOG DRY FOOD [2 KG]

Royal Canin Liver Diet: What to Buy and What It Costs

Royal Canin's liver diet is called Hepatic, it is made for dogs, and we hold all three pack sizes in stock.

• Royal Canin Hepatic Dog Dry Food 1.5kg, ₹2,100
• Royal Canin Hepatic Dog Dry Food 6kg, ₹7,300, which is the cheaper way to buy it per kilo
• Royal Canin Hepatic Dog Can Food 450gm, ₹700

If your vet has written Hepatic on a slip, that is the whole decision. Buy the 6kg if the dog will be on it for months and you have the storage, and keep a can or two for the days the dog is picky, because appetite is often the problem in liver disease.

Three things worth reading before you order.

A liver diagnosis does not automatically mean a liver diet. This surprises people, so here it is from the Merck Veterinary Manual, in their words: "A diagnosis of liver disease should not automatically dictate a need for restricted dietary protein allowance." Protein restriction is for dogs with clinical hepatic encephalopathy, ammonium biurate crystals in the urine, or a confirmed portosystemic shunt. Merck is explicit that it should be avoided in most dogs and cats with chronic necroinflammatory liver disease at the point of diagnosis. A raised liver enzyme on a blood test is not, by itself, a reason to buy this food.

If the patient is a cat with a fatty liver, do not restrict protein. Merck again, and this one is a survival matter rather than a preference: "Protein should not be restricted in cats with HL because protein restriction compromises survival." Hepatic lipidosis is the commonest feline liver disease and it is a condition where getting calories and protein into the cat is the treatment. Royal Canin Hepatic is a dog food and we do not stock a feline Royal Canin liver diet. Speak to your vet before putting any cat on a liver diet.

Know the emergency signs. Hepatic encephalopathy is what happens when a failing liver stops clearing toxins from the blood, and it shows up neurologically. Merck lists everything from "mild dullness, anxiety, and inability to respond to basic commands" through to circling, head pressing, wandering, blindness, tremors, collapse and seizures. Head pressing and circling in a dog with known liver disease is an emergency, not a next-morning appointment. Our Parel branch is open 24 hours.

The Real Reason to Buy the Prescription Diet

If you are weighing Hepatic against an ordinary food marketed for liver support, this is the argument, and it is about copper rather than protein.

Copper accumulates in the liver in several breeds and drives ongoing damage. Today's Veterinary Practice puts the numbers side by side: a therapeutic hepatic diet should contain "< 1.2 mg/1000 kcal of copper," while the median in over the counter maintenance diets is "4.4 mg/1000 kcal (range, 2.3 to 9 mg/1000 kcal)." That is roughly four times the target in a typical bag, and up to seven times at the top of the range.

The follow-on matters even more if you were planning to shop around: "Only 3 currently available products meet the low-copper recommendations for dogs with CAH." Merck agrees that "prescription liver diets currently are the only diets reliably restricted in copper content."

So a bag labelled for liver support that is not a therapeutic diet is very unlikely to be copper restricted, and copper restriction is the part that is doing work in a copper storage case. The breeds where this matters most, per Today's Veterinary Practice, are Bedlington terriers and Labrador retrievers, with heritable causes suspected in Doberman pinschers, West Highland white terriers, Dalmatians and Skye terriers.

Royal Canin Hepatic's own ingredient list names low copper levels along with soy protein isolate, rice, L-carnitine and taurine. That combination is the diet doing its job: a moderate amount of a high quality protein rather than a starvation ration, with the copper kept down.

Price Per Kilo Across Every Liver Diet We Stock

Royal Canin is not the only hepatic diet on our shelves, and if cost is deciding, the comparison is worth seeing.

Wet food, for appetite or for topping the dry: Royal Canin Hepatic can 450gm at ₹700, Vet Expert Hepatic can at ₹525, Vetlife Hepatic dog can 300gm at ₹520, and for cats the Vetlife Hepatic cat can 85gm at ₹249.

Two honest notes on that table. The 6kg Royal Canin is 13 percent cheaper per kilo than the 1.5kg, so buy big if the dog is settled on it. And we cannot tell you the copper content of the non Royal Canin options, because none of those listings publish it. If your dog's diagnosis is copper associated specifically, that is a question to put to your vet rather than to a price table.

What Is in Stock

All three Royal Canin Hepatic packs are in stock as we write, which is not something we can say about most therapeutic lines.

The wider Royal Canin veterinary range for dogs runs 32 products with 29 in stock, and includes Renal, Urinary S/O, Gastro, Gastro Low Fat, Hypoallergenic, Anallergenic, Satiety, Mobility, Cardiac, Skintopic and Recovery. The full Royal Canin brand shelf is 150 products with 116 in stock.

One gap you should know about. There is no Royal Canin Hepatic for cats on our shelves. If you need a feline liver diet, the Vetlife Hepatic cat can at ₹249 is what we have, and please read the section on cats below before you buy it.

What a Hepatic Diet Actually Changes

It is not simply low protein food, and that misunderstanding causes real harm.

Merck describes what a hepatic diet should be: "easily digestible, highly palatable, calorie dense, easy for the owner to prepare and feed, and fed frequently as small meals." Palatable and calorie dense are on that list for a reason. A dog with liver disease often does not want to eat, and a diet it refuses helps nobody.

On protein, the modern position is about quality and tolerance rather than blanket restriction. Merck: "The protein allowance for an animal with HE should maintain a positive nitrogen balance, avoiding tissue catabolism. Because maintenance of lean body mass (muscle) provides a temporary respite from ammonia toxicity." Cut the protein too hard and the dog breaks down its own muscle, which releases the very ammonia you were trying to avoid. That is why body condition gets monitored on these diets and why your vet may adjust upward over time.

For dogs with hepatic encephalopathy, Merck's approach is to start around "a minimum of 2.5 g protein/kg" and increase "by 0.25 to 0.5 g/kg every 3 to 5 days," watching the neurological response. Preferred protein sources are dairy, vegetable and white meat rather than red meat and fish. Which is exactly why Hepatic is built on soy protein isolate rather than beef.

The other levers are copper down, and antioxidant support, with vitamin E recommended for necroinflammatory disease. And meals small and frequent rather than one large one.

How the Diagnosis Gets Made, and Why It Decides This Purchase

The copper argument above is the strongest reason to buy a therapeutic diet, and it only applies if copper is actually your dog's problem. So it is worth knowing what establishes that, because you cannot tell from a blood report alone.

Raised liver enzymes are the starting point, not the answer. Merck describes the early picture as "persistent or cyclic increases in activity of ALT, AST," with bile acids and bilirubin rising as things progress. Those numbers say the liver is unhappy. They do not say why.

The test that answers why is a biopsy. Merck: "Chronic, sustained, unexplained increases in liver enzymes usually indicate liver biopsy," and the sample has to be a proper one, "at least 15 contiguous portal triads," taken from more than one lobe.

For copper specifically, the biopsy has to be measured rather than merely stained. Merck is precise about this: "copper stains must be reconciled with quantitative copper measurements to avoid erroneous interpretations." Copper matters because it "fosters oxidative injury" and worsens the damage already happening.

What this means at the counter is simple. If your vet has quantified copper and told you the dog needs a low copper diet, Hepatic is a well aimed purchase and the price is justified. If nobody has biopsied the dog and you are buying on a raised ALT, you may be buying the right food for the wrong reason, and it is worth one more conversation before committing to months of it.

What Usually Goes Alongside the Diet

A hepatic diet is rarely the whole plan, and the other half is often things we stock in our liver supplements range. We are not going to tell you to add them on your own, but you should recognise the names when your vet says them.

SAMe, S-adenosylmethionine, is the antioxidant most commonly used. Merck gives 20 to 40 mg/kg by mouth on an empty stomach every 24 hours. The empty stomach part is not optional, since food substantially reduces how much is absorbed.

Vitamin E, at 10 units per kg with food daily, for its antioxidant effect in necroinflammatory disease.

Ursodeoxycholic acid, 10 to 15 mg/kg daily with food, used for its anti-inflammatory and bile-flow effects.

Phosphatidylcholine, 25 to 50 mg/kg with food daily, used against fibrosis.

Note what is not on that list. Silymarin, the milk thistle extract in several of the syrups on our shelves, is widely sold for liver support in India and it is not among the doses Merck specifies for canine chronic hepatitis. That does not make it useless, and if your vet has recommended it, take their advice over ours. It does mean we are not going to imply it does the same job as the four above.

Doses here are quoted so you can recognise a correct prescription, not so you can write one. All four are vet decisions, and several interact with other medicines.

Cats Are Different, and It Matters Here

We have put this in the safety note at the top and it earns a section of its own, because the instinct to buy "a liver diet" for any animal with a liver problem is strong and in cats it can be dangerous.

The commonest liver disease in cats is hepatic lipidosis, a fatty liver, and it typically follows a period of not eating. The treatment is nutrition, delivered aggressively, often by feeding tube. Merck's line is unambiguous: "Protein should not be restricted in cats with HL because protein restriction compromises survival."

So a cat that has stopped eating and turned yellow needs a vet the same day, and it needs calories rather than a restricted diet. Do not buy a hepatic food for a cat on your own judgement. If your vet has specifically asked for one, that is different, and the Vetlife Hepatic cat can is what we stock.

Switching, Feeding and Making It Work

Therapeutic diets fail on palatability far more often than on formulation, and a bag the dog will not eat is money burnt.

Switch over about a week, mixing an increasing proportion of Hepatic into the old food. A dog that already feels unwell and gets an abrupt food change often decides the new food is the reason it feels sick, and then refuses it for good.

Feed small and often. Merck's guidance is frequent small meals rather than one or two large ones. Three or four times a day suits most dogs on this diet.

Warm the food, or use the can. Warming lifts the smell, and mixing a little of the wet through the dry does more for appetite than most appetite stimulants.

Everything else has to stop. Treats, dental chews, table scraps and anything given to hide a tablet all carry protein and copper the diet was designed to control. This is the part people miss, and it quietly undoes the whole exercise.

Ask what should be rechecked and when. A therapeutic diet is a treatment, so there should be a blood test that tells you whether it is working. If nobody has named one, ask.

Order From the Counter

Goodman Pet Chemist runs four branches and moves stock between them.

• Parel, open 24 hours, which matters if you are dealing with encephalopathy signs at night
• Mahim
• Sewri
• Seawoods, Navi Mumbai

Send us the dog's weight and a photo of the prescription or the discharge note. Therapeutic diets are bought for months, so it is worth us confirming pack availability before you commit to a size.

Questions We Get at the Counter

What is the Royal Canin liver diet called?
Hepatic. It comes as dry food in 1.5kg and 6kg and as a 450gm can, and all three are in stock.

What is the Royal Canin Hepatic price?
₹2,100 for 1.5kg, ₹7,300 for 6kg and ₹700 for the 450gm can, before the site discount. The 6kg works out about 13 percent cheaper per kilo than the small bag.

Can I buy Royal Canin Hepatic online without a prescription?
The listing does not require one, but we would rather you had a diagnosis. A liver diet is a treatment, and Merck's position is that liver disease does not automatically mean a dog needs restricted protein.

Is there a Royal Canin liver diet for cats?
Not on our shelves. Read the section on cats above before you buy any hepatic food for a cat, because in feline fatty liver, restricting protein compromises survival.

Can I feed an ordinary dog food for liver disease instead?
For a copper associated case, almost certainly not. Therapeutic diets target under 1.2mg of copper per 1000 kcal against a median of 4.4mg in ordinary maintenance food, and very few non prescription products meet the low copper target.

How long does a dog stay on a hepatic dog food?
Often for life, sometimes for a defined period while the liver recovers. Your vet decides, on repeat bloods, and it is a fair question to ask at the first appointment.

My dog will not eat it.
Slow the switch down, warm it, and mix in the can. Tell your vet if it still fails, because there are other hepatic diets and a diet the dog eats beats a better diet it refuses.

Can I still give treats and chews?
No, not without asking. Treats carry protein and copper, and they are the commonest reason a carefully chosen therapeutic diet stops working.

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