Liver Shunt Success Story

[ecucurlyq77]

We wanted to share Max’s liver shunt success story. I hope that this can help other people that are going through a scary time like this….

On Tuesday March 3rd our 4 month old yorkie Max started having seizures. He had 3 seizures within 1 hour then they quit and he started acting normal. We were just going to take him to the vet the next morning. But in the middle of the night he started having the seizures again constantly. We were scared to death and rushed him to the animal emergency clinic. They gave him valium to stop the seizures and did some blood work on him, which showed elevated liver enzymes. They said it was possible he had a liver shunt and wanted us to go to our vet to have a bile acid test run. We went straight to our vet Wednesday morning and they kept him there all day and did the blood draw for the bile acids. He had a few more seizures during that day. We brought him home with us that night and took him back to the vet Thursday morning for the vet to watch over him again. That day, we found out that his bile acid tests came back very high indicating a liver shunt. Our vet set us up with a meeting with a vet surgeon in town that performs this type of surgery.

So the next day we met with the surgeon and he went through all of our options and we decided to go ahead with the surgery and hope and pray that it was one fixable shunt. The vet told us that 85% of the liver shunts in yorkies were just one shunt that needed to be tied off. We went home with antibiotics, lactulose, and low protein food. Thankfully he didn’t have any more seizures after this. So, the next Thursday, May 12th, we took Max in for his surgery. We were a nervous wreck all day and got a call at 5:00 that he made it through surgery and they found only one shunt and put a slowly dilating ring around it to close off the shunt and re-route the blood. They also took a liver biopsy to test for any other liver disease or damage. He had to stay at the vets for 4 nights and we got to bring him home on Monday, May 16th. We were sent home with instructions to keep him inactive for a couple of weeks, but try telling a 4 month old puppy that. You would never know that he just went through a major surgery! He is still taking the lactulose and low protein diet until we know his liver is functioning normally again.

It has now been almost 4 weeks after his surgery and he is doing great! His liver biopsy came back showing no liver disease, damage or shunts inside his liver. He has to get his bile acids tested again in a month to see if everything is working like it should.

We did call the breeder after we finally got him home and she claimed that she had never heard of a liver shunt and had never had a sick puppy. I explained to her that this is thought to be a genetic problem and that she should not breed those 2 dogs anymore and that she should have all of her dogs tested. She had the nerve to tell me that if I would have contacted her before he had the surgery that she would have swapped me out another puppy. I told her that there was no way I would just hand over my sick little puppy that I love knowing that she would have let him suffer (she wouldn’t refund our money or partial money to help pay for the surgery, why would she get him fixed herself)! I really didn’t expect her to give us our money back, but I did tell her I was going to send her some information on liver shunts so she could get educated on a problem that can be common in dogs she breeds.

I hope this liver shunt success story can help other parents that are going through this. My husband and I were heartbroken when we found out our little puppy had this problem, but are so happy now that he is fixed and happy again! It was very expensive but I would do it all over again if I had too! I know that this is not a very common surgery for a lot of vets, but we highly recommend the vet surgeon that we used. He and his staff were some of the most caring individuals and called us everyday with updates on Max. If anyone has any questions or just need some support, please feel free to contact me!

Brooke, Michael & “Max”

[Marie]

Brooke and Max,
Congratulations on your succes story. Im so happy that Max is doing so well. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful story of hope. Please keep us posted with his progress.

[red98vett]

That's an awesome story ! Congratulations on the sucess of Max's surgery ...I know this WILL help people facing this or experience similar problems with their own puppy -

You've given symptoms and a good description of what to look for.... which I know people will read and remember.....and what to do if it ever happens to them ......You had an awful scare ...but sharing your story may really help someone in the future !

It's so nice to read happy endings - congratulations on your little angel and I hope you have a long happy life with him

[jennifermcb]

Thank you for sharing your story!

We were told by our vet that Sophie had a liver shunt. After doing lots of research, I demanded that she be retested with a pre/post feeding test. Those results came back normal. We were thrilled!

I applaud you for trying to educate the breeder. I find it hard to believe that any conscientious Yorkie breeder was unaware of the liver shunt problems associated with Yorkies. Hopefully she will do her research and discontinue breeding Max's parents.

[lily's mom]

That is fantastic!!! It is so great to hear a happy ending!

[MeganS]

I'm so glad he's ok. that's wonderful. unfortunatly our puppy bandit wasn't too lucky and we had to put him to sleep because they couldn't get him out of a seziure.

[red98vett]

Originally Posted by MeganS

I'm so glad he's ok. that's wonderful. unfortunatly our puppy bandit wasn't too lucky and we had to put him to sleep because they couldn't get him out of a seziure.

What you went thru is terrible...sharing these stories helps educate people on what to look for ...but it very sad you had to go thru it.

[Yorkieluv]

I'm so glad to hear your success story!!! It keeps me optimistic. My yorkie also has a liver shunt, and he had the surgery, but unfortunately they weren't able to find the shunt when they went in. I guess he was in the 15% that you were talking about. The vet knows for sure that he has a shunt though. His bile acid test results came back at over 300, and he has a lot of bladder stones, and he had a couple of seizures until we put him on denosyl ( a liver supplement), lactulose, and Royal Canin hepatic diet (very low in protein). My vet is guessing that the shunt must be intrahepatic (in the liver) and he says its too risky for him to get in there as he is not experienced with intrahepatic shunts. He has also ruled out liver disease.
He's 1 yr and 2 months old and he's been living with it all his life. We only found out 3 months ago though...Because he never had any symptoms up to that point, we had no clue! Our vet is very optimistic because other than the bladder stones (which were taken care of) and the lab results, he doesn't show any of the symptoms associated with liver shunts. He's very energetic and constantly on the go, he's grown to his full capacity (almost 9 lbs!), he doesn't have seizures anymore.
We're researching to find out if there's another facility around here that has more experience with intrahepatic shunts. The vet said that some yorkies that have liver shunts can be medicated and live almost 9 years without any problems or pain or anything at all depending on how bad it is.
Believe me though, he's the most spoiled baby! He's got all the love in the world, all the toys in the world, and anything he wants. We will never give up on our baby!!!

[schatzie]

Always nice to hear a happy ending to a story, even more nice that you are sharing your story in hopes to help others some day dealing with this same issue. Too kind!!

You mentioned your breeder had never heard of Liver Shunt, wow!! And also never having a sick puppy. I've never heard of a breeder having a success perfect rate of 100%, but maybe the breeder is new. Also, in no way am i trying to bash your breeder, this just caught my attention. There is always two sides to the story so I will give the breeder the benifit of the doubt to be more nice about it, LOL.

I am so glad to hear Max is doing great and he is so very lucky to have you as his Mommy!

[DiOrGiRLy]

congrats!!!! best of luck to u guys

[luzangela428]

Congratulations and my prayers go out to you and Max...hopefully everything will be successful and Max will go on to live many years shunt free

[Olivier]

Congratulations for your success story .