[quote=bjh;1849738]
Quote:
Originally Posted by dudley1984 
I don't think we will ever know what breeders do with liver shunt puppies because it seems that most breeders are afraid to admit they have produced a liver shunt puppy. I know there are many Yorkie owners on this forum that have liver shunt puppies and I think some of them do quite well on a proper diet. I do really wonder how many liver shunt puppies are out there. Many of them probably die before they are diagnosed with liver shunt. I hear of a lot of puppies dying from hypoglycemia, more so than with liver shunt, and I wonder how many of those had liver shunts. So many breeders today just send tiny Yorkie pups to their new homes with a tube of Nutri-cal and just tell the new owners to be careful.
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You make an excellant point here and one that the LS expert at Cornell told me. Could there be more dogs who have this who live long lives and have such small symptoms that we dont' know it????? we have so much better testing now. The thing is...many dogs are NOT showing signs. Some aren't finding out until they are 9 years old...13 years old!!!!!! Being one of the unfortunate ones, I have come acrossed a lot of this. And YES it is NOT a death sentence. My dog has multiple external ones but he is doing fine with his liver. He is a strong athletic dog. You would never know he has it but he does have a small othe rproblem we are dealwith with.
I would NEVER return my dog. I got him from a well known show breeder and saved my hard earned money because I wanted a HEALTHY dog and from her answering my questions, thought she had a healthy line but how do any of us know what is going on at a breeders? I have some questions now (after the fact--finding out some things that I didn't know before I put money down) but even breeders who DO strive to breed healthy could produce LS so it is such a hard call.
Bottom line...bile acid test ALL your yorkies so you can catch the problem right away and put them on medical/supplement management or even correct the problem with surgery.