Complete recovery after suspected phenobarbital‐induced acute liver failure in a dog

Abstract

Acute liver failure is a syndrome with poor prognosis, with idiosyncratic drug injury being associated with a particularly poor outcome in both veterinary and human medicine. This case report presents a 4‐year 9‐month‐old, male, entire Eurasier with history of phenobarbital treatment for 1 year 6 months for idiopathic epilepsy that presented for investigation of a 5‐day history of abdominal distension, 2 weeks of hyporexia, polyuria, polydipsia intermittent vomiting and increased epileptic seizure frequency. The patient made a complete recovery from acute liver failure, presumed to be induced by phenobarbital toxicity. The presentation, diagnostic approach, investigations performed, treatment and progression are discussed in the following pages. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first described case of a dog to make a full recovery after acute liver failure due to suspected phenobarbital toxicity.