[ARCHIE]

Originally Posted by Ladymom

Do you know why Yorkies are more likely to have a liver shunt than all other breeds? Not bad luck as you suggest, but because of genetics. Until a genetic marker is found, the only way to deal with the problem is for breeders to routinely bile acid test all breeding dogs and make sure her puppies are being bile acid tested per Dr. Center's recommendation:

"The best approach to avoid "over diagnosis" is to test bile acids in young dogs of highly affected breeds (at 4 mths of age) while they are clinically healthy and before they are adopted into pet homes. Highly affected breeds include: Yorkshire Terrier, Cairn Terrier, Maltese, Tibetan Spaniels as well as many other "terrier" type breeds (Miniature Schnauzer, Lhasa Apso, Shih Tzu, Dachshund, Bichon Frise, Pekingese, Toy and Miniature Poodles, and Havanese and others)."

If you are doing this, then Joey's shunt was an "unknown" and not preventable. If you are not, you are responsible for Joey and the statistic from U of T:

"In the United States, Yorkshire terriers have almost a 36 times greater risk of developing shunts than all other breeds combined."


Portosystemic Shunts FAQ

That was very informative and thank you for posting it.