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Originally Posted by Brodies Mommy  ALSO to quote from what you sent me to read - Symptoms of congenital PSS usually appear by six months of age[1] and include failure to gain weight, vomiting, and signs of hepatic encephalopathy (a condition where toxins normally removed by the liver accumulate in the blood and impair the function of brain cells) such as seizures, depression, tremors, drooling, and head pressing.
Brodie has none of this at all... this is why my vet didn't think it was a shunt at all. He also had no symptoms appear until he was 8 months of age and the only symptom being one stone that was in his bladder and much to large for him to pass that happened to be urate. He had no crystals and did not have concentrated urine.
The article also states - Surgery definitively shows the shunt if it is extrahepatic.
Brodie already had surgery, he is just recovering. My vet didn't tell me he saw any external shunts and has suggested he thinks it is an internal one.
And this is the exact reasoning my vet gave for concluding he didn't want to operate on Brodie - Intrahepatic shunts are much more difficult to surgically correct than extrahepatic shunts due to their hidden nature, large vessel size, and greater tendency toward portal hypertension when completely closed.
Am I being really stupid? I really don't understand how my vet could be wrong about it being internal. I also don't understand why Brodie lacks all signs of a liver shunt? I am glad, but it makes no sense to me. In your opinion I should go into my vets office and demand he perform another test because I don't believe he didn't see an external shunt? Then demand I take my dog to Tennessee for a surgery my vet has told me is too dangerous for my baby?  |
i am telling you your vet is not real familiar as the odds of a yorkie having an internal shunt is a LONG SHOT. They have external internal run in BIG dogs and yes i am asking you to question this vet. I helped a dog that was older than yours had NO SYMPTOMS FOR YEARS had stones like your dog and whamo 3 shunts when dr tobias opened him up and she closed him up and could do nothing - now had shunt been repaired when a pup then 3 shunts would not have occured. Multiple shunts are acquired due to one shunt not being repaired early enough the dogs body throws more shunts to adapt to shunt and if a dog has multiple ones no repair can be done. I have friends with shunt dogs where the symptoms do not appear until 2 years of age so it is not unlikely but your dog is showing a symptom - urate stone is a symptom of liver disease, the bile acids are very high too another symptom. Unless your vet did the test wrong or gall bladder contracted but even so the numbers would still not be that high.