Thank you for posting your story. I hope it will inspire more people to insist that their puppy have a bile acids test done before bringing their puppy home as Dr. Center suggests:
I know I've posted this a million times, but here it is again. This is from page 22 of Dr. Center's handout from her seminars:
2: The best approach to avoid "over diagnosis" is to test bile acids in young dogs of highly affected breeds (at 4 mths of age) while they are clinically healthy and before they are adopted into pet homes. Highly affected breeds include: Yorkshire Terrier, Cairn Terrier, Maltese, Tibetan Spaniels as well as many other "terrier" type breeds (Miniature Schnauzer, Lhasa Apso, Shih Tzu, Dachshund, Bichon Frise, Pekingese, Toy and Miniature Poodles, and Havanese and others). Proactive assessment of serum bile acids will limit the awkward circumstance imposed when an MVD dog, with minor health issues, is suddenly recognized to have abnormal bile acids by a pet owner's veterinarian. This circumstance can lead to unnecessary diagnostic confusion and unwarranted invasive tests such as liver biopsy and portovenography. How old dogs should be at he time of initial testing has not been established.
Too many breeders are still reluctant to do this simple, inexpensive test. 12 hour fasting is no longer required so there really isn't any excuse for not getting it done now. |