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Originally Posted by cdnyorkie  He did this afternoon and it was firm. Looked normal to me. Good colour too. Tomorrow I will know more with these blood test results. I will figure this out once the liver problems have been confirmed. What is the purpose of lactulose? |
I "think" lactulose binds the toxins so they can be excreted through their stool. This pup absolutely needs to be on it immediately.
And as much as I hate to disagree with people's vets, I would say right now it is time to be extremely concerned about diet. Not tomorrow, not the next day... If this is liver shunt, it may do more damage to continue feeding him this way. I would get some canned L/D from the vet for now.
The blood tests that the vet is doing now only show liver function, but can't diagnose liver shunt. LS will be suspected if his bile acids are high but it could also be MVD. A Protein C blood test sent to Cornell can help in the diagnosis and then you could go on to scintography. Some vets insist on ultrasound and that is good to see the size of the liver and to see if there are bladder stones secondary to the liver problem but they are only 60-80% accurate in diagnosing shunts.
If this were my pup, he would be on Denosyl or Vetri DMG, lactulose, milk thistle, fish oil, vitamin e, possibly probiotics and low protein diet if hte results are high. I may even start now because of the severity of the symptoms...since they seem to be getting worse...
We are here if you have any questions.
