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Originally Posted by mdcote  My hubby and I discussed this today and we're getting our 3 babies tested (just in case). A woman we knew had a Yorkie and didn't find out until after it died, at 5 years old that it had a liver shunt. She was so devastated.
I wouldn't want to go through that.
My vet suggested we do an ultrasound instead of BAT. He said this is a better way to detect a for liver shunt. Do you think we should do the ultrasound instead of a BAT? I've heard more discussion about Bile Acid Testing than ultrasound....so I'm wondering which is better? |
An ultrasound is a pretty expensive test so most people don't start there. I've asked a couple breeders what route they take and some will start with a pre-op blood panel to see where the numbers are, go to a BAT if they feel they need to and do an ultrasound after that, if it's needed. Now, on another forum they were talking about a test that can be done after the BAT instead of jumping to the expensive ultrasound...it's called a protein C test and I believe they said it will tell if there is a shunt there. I guess it's all a matter of personal preference on the route you take but you might want to discuss that route again with your vet before you jump right into the most expensive test.
In my area the BAT is $96.00 per dog, not sure what a pre-op blood panel costs but I believe it's less than that, I don't know the cost of the protein C test and, if I remember correctly, the ultrasound for Boog several years ago was around $375.00. So, it might not hurt to talk with your vet about each test, find out exactly what each test will tell you and decide from there what you want to do.