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Originally Posted by jencar98  Rose, I'm so sorry for your loss of Teaser. My heart breaks for you, especially knowing you were trying to do the right thing when this horrific thing happened.
Having said that I do also have to comment though on testing puppies in general, after several on this thread have come out screaming about not testing and being "pressured" into testing. I too, would not test young puppies under 2lbs, and would feel unsettled about blood being drawn for any test, from the jugular vein of any yorkie, even though I know it has to be done in some cases.
I do wonder how much of any injury during this procedure has to do with the competence of the vet. Last fall Ruby had blood drawn this way and ended up with an abscess that almost killed her. I changed vets over this.
Still yet, with the incidence of so many sick yorkies (even a few from breeders right here on YT) you can't really blame people for wanting to make certain they are getting a healthy dog. And, with so many yorkies tested this way without any complications, one has to think for the most part that testing is safe......not without risks, but generally safe....just like many medical procedures. Afterall, this procedure is done hundreds of times every day and we don't hear about hundreds that died from testing.
And for those who think your health guarantee should be enough, that's good but there are many who don't stand behind their guarantee when problems with a sick pup arise. I've seen this happen too many times (even on YT). So those that keep talking about non-breeders not "walking the walk", etc. I would say there are just as many heartbroken yorkie owners out there who purchased sick dogs and they don't want to walk that walk again.
Again, I'm so sorry for your loss and don't want to come across as harsh, I would never want to hurt you that way. |
This is so true...
Yorkies are very high-risk at having congenital liver shunts...
We all want the same thing...A healthy puppy....You are right that many, many puppies have had blood drawn without any complications. My yorkie was very sick when he was a pup...Under 2 lbs and had to have blood drawn. Everything went fine for him.
I definitely believe that sick pups should be tested...If it is an apparently healthy puppy that has NEVER shown signs of pickiness or lethargy or hypoglycemia, etc. then I think if the new owner trusts the breeder and the breeder has it in the contract that they will either pay for the BAT or the guarantee is solid, then it may be okay not to test the puppy until 6 months of age, as I stated earlier....
I want to share a story with you all...
If my yorkie had been tested, they would have known he had liver problems when he was a pup, and I would have known that I needed to feed him special food and put him on meds...
I'll tell you what happened. He got very sick one night as a puppy, and we rushed him to the Emergency Vet. They said they needed to draw blood, so they did, and many of his numbers were off....ALB was low, ALT was high, etc, etc.
I suspected liver shunt, but the vet told me that it was impossible for him to have a liver shunt because he was a puppy!! Can you believe this??? She said that we would not see liver problems in a puppy that age.....She said she did not see any reason at all to bile acid test, and the cause for his problems was simply a terrible infection, coccidia, and hypoglycemia(which was actually being caused by his liver problems). She said that because of these reasons and these reasons only, he would not make it through the night....
He did, and we took matters into our own hands, cooked for him, etc. etc. and he seemed to get a little better. He had occassional times of lethargy, which I attributed to just being lazy some days, and pickiness almost all the time, unless we homecooked or gave him specific kinds of baby food, but I was told by the vets that yorkies are just picky dogs. All in all, he seemed much better.
A few months later, he got his first UTI, took him in, gave him antibiotics, and then a month or two later, he got another UTI...Blood in urine and everything. Again, they said UTI. At that point, I said, I don't care what the vets said, he is having a bile acid test....I set up an appointment to have it done, and the Sunday before his BAT, he had a seizure out of the absolute blue...We rushed him to his vet, and they got the seizures to stop, they did bloodwork and scheduled him for a BAT, and they found that his numbers were through the roof...
He had very bad liver problems...If I had confirmed this when he was a puppy, and they would have done the BAT and the further tests at THAT time that I wanted done, I could have prevented the seizures that started happening...I could have prevented the tons of stones that he would pass in one day. 20+ stones he would pass in just one day.
Early intervention is important....Although we thought he had gotten better, and every vet we took him to said he was fine from the looks of him, he was NOT fine, he was not okay...
I could have prevented a lot of the things that he had to go through with a simple test that should have been done when he was a pup....
Just as we have to understand breeders' positions, I hope you all can understand why buyers, particularly those who have gone through very traumatic situations with our babies feel the way we do...Pickiness, UTI, tiredness, hypoglycemia are all symptoms if liver problems and should not be ignored....I believe these puppies should be tested. If ALL is well, then they can wait a little longer.
I am very sorry for your loss
