Quote:
Originally Posted by Woogie Man  From what I've read (limited though it may be), it seems that liver shunt, by its very nature, would present outward manifestations. The elevated ammonia levels display themselves in behaviors such as head pressing, walking in circles, lethargy, excessive drooling, vomiting,diahrrea , seizures, disorientation, lack of weight gain in puppies and a general lack of vigor (I'm sure I omitted some symptoms). With all these outward clues, why do most feel it necessary to test every single dog, even those asymptomatic ones? Is it more a peace of mind issue or are there valid medical reasons? With the numbers stated here of liver shunt in Yorkies (36 times the incidence of all breeds combined), it seems that no bloodline is 'safe' and that the problem is within the entire breed or else the numbers are skewed by increased awareness and testing among Yorkie owners. Also, I haven't seen where it has been concluded that liver shunt is an inherited trait (though it is only common sense to not breed a 'sickly' dog) so doesn't testing healthy breeding dogs lead to a false sense of security? I'm not trying to re-start a debate, only posing some questions based on the info I have.    |
Those are symptoms of liver shunt but microvascular dysplasia (small shunting throughout the liver) can be asymptomatic and these dogs shouldn't be bred. So, it is very common for there to be no symptoms with MVD. And, one dog I know of wasn't diagnosed with a liver shunt until age 8, so they don't always show symptoms right away.
I think most Yorkie bloodlines are affected, so there is no way to be completely sure that you aren't breeding a carrier of LS but you have a better chance if the parent doesn't have it.
Yes, you do have to study bloodlines and that is very important but what if a breeding dog had asymptomatic MVD and passed this on to their puppies because the breeder didn't bile acid test? It could have been prevented but wasn't which isn't fair to the new owners.