YorkieTalk.com Forums - Yorkshire Terrier Community - View Single Post - how young is too young to test for liver shunt??

Woogie Man · 07-26-2008, 12:42 PM

I'll say first off that I have no experience with a liver shunt puppy. However, if the vets do in your area like they do here, you won't get any results for days from a BAT. Here, they send out the blood to an outside lab for analysis. In the meantime, you have a tiny puppy that needs to eat. Overall, I would agree with Gardenyorkies on what to do now. With your pup being 13 weeks, he most likely has had a recent vaccination which could skew any test result. Plus, he seems to be in a weakened condition now so drawing blood will only weaken him further, if only for a bit. No one here can tell you for sure what is best for your puppy, that should be between you and your vet. If it were my dog, I would hold off on drawing blood until he had gained some strength (is eating better) unless the vet gave me a compelling reason to do otherwise. I would concentrate on getting that baby to eat, keeping him warm and making sure he doesn't over-exert himself for now.

07-26-2008, 12:42 PM	#21
Woogie Man Donating Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Mississippi Posts: 2,564	I'll say first off that I have no experience with a liver shunt puppy. However, if the vets do in your area like they do here, you won't get any results for days from a BAT. Here, they send out the blood to an outside lab for analysis. In the meantime, you have a tiny puppy that needs to eat. Overall, I would agree with Gardenyorkies on what to do now. With your pup being 13 weeks, he most likely has had a recent vaccination which could skew any test result. Plus, he seems to be in a weakened condition now so drawing blood will only weaken him further, if only for a bit. No one here can tell you for sure what is best for your puppy, that should be between you and your vet. If it were my dog, I would hold off on drawing blood until he had gained some strength (is eating better) unless the vet gave me a compelling reason to do otherwise. I would concentrate on getting that baby to eat, keeping him warm and making sure he doesn't over-exert himself for now.