[christiers]

Originally Posted by Ellie May

When you say anesthesia would have been required for a biopsy or ultrasound, so you mean an ultrasound guided biopsy or just one to visualize the liver? IF it's the latter, anesthesia does not have to be used unless they just cannot hold it still (which is not the majority of the time).

I'm not really into the biopsy route if the dog isn't already opened up (for apay or whatever), but there are other things that can cause high bile acids and it's really the only way to know for sure. I'm thinking of one (not too common in dogs though) that would require higher protein, not lower. So while (imo) a biopsy should not be rushed into, there are a few cases that it is needed with high bile acids if things aren't adding up or whatever...

Dr. Hess (from U Penn) had just expressed that if they did the ultrasound, I would have to leave her overnight because of the anesthesia so they could monitor her. I wasn't comfortable there, so after I heard leave Coco overnight, I told her not today. I wanted to speak to my husband first. I had no intention of leaving Coco with them, so I didn't question further. The trip to U Penn was only to appease my husband because he was in the room when our reg vet had stated they (U Penn) did great work with liver shunts. He had told me if I wasn't comfortable after meeting the doctors there, we would go to UT. But after speaking to our vet again, a holistic vet (who really encouraged the RAW diet, looked at Coco's labs and said nothing was wrong with her), changing her diet back to regular we decided to do the biopsy when she had her baby teeth pulled. With the switch back to the reg diet her stools had become quite loose and I began questioning the opinions of the specialist at U Penn and the holistic vet.

That is how we came to the diagnosis of MVD.