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Old 02-06-2008, 02:26 PM   #14
Ladymom
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: North Carolina
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I know her weight came up in your other thread about breeding.

Do you know if her breeder screened her dogs for liver disease before breeding them? Yorkies are thirty-six times more likely to have a liver shunt than all other breeds combined. It is inherited so reputable breeders should screen the parents before breeding them. Even then, a shunt can still show up in a puppy.

A Yorkie can appear very healthy, but failure to gain weight is a symptom of a liver shunt. To be safe, you should have bloodwork and a bile acids test (BAT) done on her. Just bloodwork alone won't tell you whether or not she has a shunt.

A BAT is a very simple and inexpensive test, about $40-80 depending on where you live. Because of the high rate of shunts in Yorkies, Dr. Center, one of the leading authorities in the country) recommends that all Yorkie puppies have a BAT done before going to their new home.

Hopefully everything is fine, but you really need to get that test done to rule out a shunt.
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