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River · 05-01-2009, 11:06 AM

Hi all
I haven't posted in a year or so, but I had some disturbing news yesterday and needed to talk to people that would understand, so here I am. I don't know if some of you remember my posts in 06 and 07 regarding my Yorkie Indiana (Indy). He had a liver shunt at 6months, that I had fixed and he seemed to thrive, but at 1yr, 6mos, he developed shunt #2, which I also had fixed. Here we are 2 years later, Indy is 4 now, and his bile acids climbed yet again so we were at the ultrasound doctor and Indy has shunt #3. All shunts are extra hepatic (outside his liver), including this one. But, the surgeon feels he is not a good candidate for another surgery because he feels there is something going on in the liver that is causing hypertension on the portal vein, therefore making his body produce these shunts as "relief valves" to relieve the pressure. Here's the odd part. His liver seems perfectly normal. Ultrasound shows it is healthy and normal size, no change from shunt #2 pictures, he had a biopsy done during surgeries for both previous shunts and no MVD was shown, liver tissues were completely healthy and normal. His liver enzymes in the CBC that we did were perfectly normal, as was everything else on the CBC. I am completely frustrated. I am seeing an Internal Medicine vet next Wed to see about supportive measures we can do to keep his liver healthy as long as we can. Any suggestions out there? Anyone ever heard of this before?

05-01-2009, 11:06 AM	#1
River Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: PA Posts: 188	liver shunt #3 Hi all I haven't posted in a year or so, but I had some disturbing news yesterday and needed to talk to people that would understand, so here I am. I don't know if some of you remember my posts in 06 and 07 regarding my Yorkie Indiana (Indy). He had a liver shunt at 6months, that I had fixed and he seemed to thrive, but at 1yr, 6mos, he developed shunt #2, which I also had fixed. Here we are 2 years later, Indy is 4 now, and his bile acids climbed yet again so we were at the ultrasound doctor and Indy has shunt #3. All shunts are extra hepatic (outside his liver), including this one. But, the surgeon feels he is not a good candidate for another surgery because he feels there is something going on in the liver that is causing hypertension on the portal vein, therefore making his body produce these shunts as "relief valves" to relieve the pressure. Here's the odd part. His liver seems perfectly normal. Ultrasound shows it is healthy and normal size, no change from shunt #2 pictures, he had a biopsy done during surgeries for both previous shunts and no MVD was shown, liver tissues were completely healthy and normal. His liver enzymes in the CBC that we did were perfectly normal, as was everything else on the CBC. I am completely frustrated. I am seeing an Internal Medicine vet next Wed to see about supportive measures we can do to keep his liver healthy as long as we can. Any suggestions out there? Anyone ever heard of this before?