Okay, I have been researching this and extensively talked to cornell experts about this because we are going through this. Some people want to blame vaccines and poisons in herbs etc. To get acquired shunts (multiple) from a vaccine or poison, it has to be an extreme assault on the liver that would show up on liver biopsy, by sight, or by ultra sound. Next, the liver would have bruising and/or some disease: fibrosis, hepatitis, etc and the shunts are secondary to that disease. If there is no disease, then it wasn't poisoning that caused the shunt. A single shunt is most definitely genetic. Some vets believe that all shunts happen in utero and that sometimes a "poisoning" really was because the liver couldn't handle something because it already had shunting.
I found out my dog had them last year. Came from a show breeder. His relatives are doing very well in the show ring. I was shocked to say the least.
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Originally Posted by magicgenie  I asked the same question in the health and nutrition forum, but here goes again. I'm looking at the medical record of a presumably liver shunt puppy and what caught my eye was the lepto vaccine given at 16 & 20 weeks, just about the time the puppy started having little tremor type episodes. At 26 weeks pre-spay BAT returned 2.2 pre and 52.9 post, ultrasound shows "large blood vessel...appears to connect..." Conclusion: single extrahepatic shunt. You all know the devastating implications for the puppy, its owners, and the breeder, so several of us are very interested in making sure this isn't some backlash from an improperly administered vaccine. Any suggestions out there? Thanks very much. |