Quote:
Originally Posted by cpeanut  Can Livershunts be asymptomatic in a 8mo old yorkie female? does she need surgery?
my 8 mo old yorkie that i adopted last month had normal ALT enzyme levels 1 mo ago
1 mo later alt levels were in the 800s and pre and post bile enzymes ABOVE 30 (no exact value) took her to an internal medicine specialist he wants to go portal scan (Scintigraphy) for the liver because he strongly believes its a shunt
could it be a shunt? my dog is asymptomatic! i thoroughly read all the symptoms and she has absolutely nothing shes a happy little puppy. I am going to get her this scan but its 1030$... and her surgery is 3000-5000$ my question is if shes asymptomatic should i put her through all this suffering? |
if no symptoms the alt can be elevated due to medicines, toxins, etc but the bile acids are much more accurate - If my dog was not having symptoms of liver shunt at all which mine wasn't and her alt was normal but her bats were 73, 3/54, 3/26 on low protein diet then i would not do scintigraphy and i would redo blood work for full panel in 6 mos and do low protein diet. Now if mine was having symptoms and bats over 100 I would do scintigraphy over ultrasound and get to the heart of the problem