**your name and your babies name.
Miko
** breed and is it purebred or mix
purebred yorkshire terrier
**what symptoms did you observed.
We didn't realize he was having symptoms until later on, looking back...urinating dark yellow, orange color...drooling when he was a pup, head pressing, seizures...
**how old was your puppy?
I can't remember exactly, but I believe he was around 8 months old when he was diagnosed.
**what was the immediate treatment?
Royal Canin Hepatic LS 14, lactulose, denosyl**did you perform surgery? if not reason?
The vet went in for exploratory surgery and was not able to find the liver shunt...**Where did you take them for surgery and when?
My vets office
**WHat was the surgery cost including tests,surgery and post surgery?
Not sure, it's been awhile...The cost is probably $1500**And how are they doing now?
Miko is doing well now, and it's been over 2 years since he was diagnosed...His medical condition is managed through diet, medication, and supplements**What do you feed them?
Royal Canin Hepatic LS 14, which he has done extremely well on...He did not do well with Hill's products...Even though the RC Hepatic is really good for him, we are home cooking for him now in light of all the recalls.
**Any additional info, tips you wanna post...
Lactulose after meals is extremely important, it pushes the toxins out of the body so that the ammonia doesn't build up and cause seizures...Denosyl(Sam-E) and milk thistle or marin are very important as well..They help the liver function better and they prevent further damage to the liver and help repair the damaged parts of the liver...These are supplements that can be purchased in the health/vitamin section...Dosage is about 1/4 of the human dose...Also, low protein, non-animal protein is very important. Animal protein produces more ammonia causing more chance of seizures...
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/L...d_MVD_Support/
That link takes you to a liver shunt/mvd support group. The people on there are extremely knowledgable about liver conditions and will help you. Also, their files section is full of wonderful information for liver compromised dogs...One more thing, go to a vet that has extensive experience with liver shunts and liver conditions...I cannot stress that enough. University of Tennessee is the best place to go, as Dr. Karen Tobias is the vet who heads up the liver shunt research and has many years experience