Principals of therapy for acquired liver disease Part 2: Drug choices and supportive care

Abstract

Canine chronic hepatitis has also been suggested to be an autoimmune disease and one study suggested that steroid treatment improved outcome (Strombeck et al., 1988). However, it is likely that the condition actually represents a common end-point of any one of a number of immunological, infectious, toxic or metabolic insults (Watson, 2004). Consequently, steroids should be considered on a case-by-case basis and used only where there is biopsy evidence of ongoing inflammation (Fig. 1) and when infectious and metabolic causes of hepatitis have been ruled out.