Our little sweetie was dx'd with a liver shunt the month she turned five years old. Apparently it's typically a congenital issue, and most are caught in the early years but if the dog doesn't present 'normally' for liver shunt, it can be missed.
Missie used to vomit every 2-3 weeks, and otherwise was fine until we took her in for blood in her urine back in September. Since then, she's had to have the liver shunt repaired and a kidney removed; I guess a liver shunt can lead to kidney stones as the toxins are filtered properly. If we'd only known sooner, we'd have had the liver shunt fixed before we did. Now she's running around healthy and with more energy than we've ever seen, but having only one kidney, we have to watch her closely. She sees a specialist 2.5 hours away every 8 weeks or so to have an ultrasound (as there's still a stone in the remaining kidney that we have to be sure isn't moving/blocking/causing infection) and she's on daily medication to prevent the buildup of further stones and bladder stones, as they had to clear out her bladder too.
Yorkies are tough little animals! |