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belindaY · 07-20-2008, 03:49 AM

There are lots of things that can cause elevated liver enzymes, but there seems to be a frenzy lately to label everything "liver shunt" or MVD. Many vets will be thrilled to put your baby through a big, expensive liver surgery and at the end of the day come to you and say "sorry, couldn't find a shunt. Must be MVD and inoperable. Blackmail the breeder." I know how extreme this sounds, but it did happen to me recently---chain hospital (VCA) vet loaded up a small 4 mos old puppy with lepto vaccines, flea & tick preventive, various other things, then ran bile acids and got 2 pre and 53 post and convinced the customer the puppy needed immediate surgery. For those of you not familiar with the numbers, they are only mildly elevated. The customer refused my advice about waiting a few weeks before retesting. Two months and thousands of dollars worth of invasive surgery and tests later the puppy has been declared hereditary MVD, even though bile acids have not been retested!

07-20-2008, 03:49 AM	#6
belindaY Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: redmond Posts: 132	Be careful--- There are lots of things that can cause elevated liver enzymes, but there seems to be a frenzy lately to label everything "liver shunt" or MVD. Many vets will be thrilled to put your baby through a big, expensive liver surgery and at the end of the day come to you and say "sorry, couldn't find a shunt. Must be MVD and inoperable. Blackmail the breeder." I know how extreme this sounds, but it did happen to me recently---chain hospital (VCA) vet loaded up a small 4 mos old puppy with lepto vaccines, flea & tick preventive, various other things, then ran bile acids and got 2 pre and 53 post and convinced the customer the puppy needed immediate surgery. For those of you not familiar with the numbers, they are only mildly elevated. The customer refused my advice about waiting a few weeks before retesting. Two months and thousands of dollars worth of invasive surgery and tests later the puppy has been declared hereditary MVD, even though bile acids have not been retested!