Thanks for impressing on me the potential seriousness of his behavior.
I found this description of shunt symptoms:
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"If your dog has a congenital portosystemic shunt, you will likely see signs of this while he or she is a young puppy. These signs are generally associated with the central nervous system, the gastrointestinal tract, or the urinary tract. Most consistently, there are signs of hepatic encephalopathy - neurological and behavioural evidence of diffuse brain disease due to liver dysfunction. These signs can be quite vague and may include loss of appetite, depression, lethargy, weakness, poor balance, disorientation, blindness, seizures, and coma. The signs may wax and wane, and may worsen after eating a protein-rich meal.
Your pup may appear to be growing very slowly. Other non-specific gastrointestinal signs can include intermittent loss of appetite, vomiting and diarrhea.
Failure of the liver to clear ammonia means that there will be increased excretion in the urine. This commonly leads to urolithiasis - kidney, bladder or urethral calculi or stones due to the build-up of mineral salts. Your dog may have blood in the urine, or difficulty or pain in urinating.
The first sign of PSS in a dog may be a prolonged recovery from anesthesia, or excessive sedation after treatment with some medications. This occurs because the drugs are not metabolized as they would normally be by the liver, but instead are recirculated in the body."
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He doesn't seem to match that description, which I think is a good thing.
Still, I think your idea to take him into the vet is a good one, and I'll arrange for it. |