If you don't have the money to do the surgery right now, you can put your baby on the Hill's l/d or Royal Canin Hepatic LS 14 (prescription food that is usually better liked by liver compromised dogs)...Make sure your vet gives you a prescription for lactulose...Lactulose is absolutely necessary for a dog with liver problems because it helps push the toxins out of the body. This should be given directly after meals...While on lactulose, their stool should be soft, but formed. Not firm and not diarrhea. So you will need to play with the doses to get it just right. Your vet should be able to help you get started...Although many times, vets aren't as knowledgable about liver shunts as they should be.
Also, you should buy some denosyl and marin or milk thistle. You can buy these on
www.entirelypets.com
These supplements will not harm your baby in any way, and can only help. They help protect the liver from further damage and help repair the parts that are already damaged.
It's important that you not feed her any red meat either in her dog food or in treats...You will need to start looking at labels...If there is protein from a meat source, do not give it to Gigi, as it is harmful to her.
When dogs ingest protein, it turns to ammonia...This ammonia is supposed to be filtered by the liver, but when there is a liver shunt, the ammonia is bypassing the liver and entering their systems causing hepatic encephalopathy symptoms like head pressing, staring off into space, drooling, seizures, etc. So you need to make sure and give her sources of protein that produce less ammonia which are proteins from vegetable, soy, and dairy.
For treats, you can give little pieces of peeled apple, watermelon(seedless), carrots, etc.
Remember, all of these are just suggestions...I have a yorkie with liver shunt/mvd and have been through all of this....I remember crying myself to sleep because I was so worried, but we got through it! He was diagnosed at around 9 months and he's now 3yrs old
I highly recommend that you join the liver shunt/mvd group that the link was posted above. The people there are extremely knowledgable and the files section has a wealth of beneficial information.
Don't lose hope
Your baby will be just fine!!
What kind of symptoms was your baby exhibiting?