 I have a 7 year old who had liver shunt surgery
I'm still have not uploaded pictures of Ziggy, but he is our Liver Shunt baby. He was diagnosed when he was 9 months old and had the surgery when he was 10 or 11 months old. He too would not gain weight. That was our first sign. His urine was always very dark yellow too. Looking back, that should have been a warning sign. I would feed him a scrambled egg every morning, we had my husband's brother stopping in the afternoon to feed him, we were so frantic. Our vet suggested liver shunt and we refused to accept it. When he finally got toxic and started walking like he was drunk, drooling, fighting with me, just not normal, we rushed to the emergency vet who confirmed our worse fears. It was liver shunt. Our vet sent us to a vet specialty place in the northern suburbs of Chicago. They were wonderful. Ziggy's LS was repairable. The tech told me "you will have a brand new dog." And she was right! Ziggy is now a robust 7 pounds and is very happy, active, and playful. He's has the cutest Yorkie face I've ever seen too (pictures soon, long story). There is hope and no reason your doggie can't do as well as Ziggy after surgery. I agree the $1,500 sounds a little low. We paid around $3,000 and that was in 2006. The surgeon told us to feed a low protein diet for life but other than that, he's fine. A recent blood test showed his liver was functioning great. Our vet was impressed with his "numbers" what with him having the liver shunt. We feed all our dogs K/D (I know it's not the best, but we feel we should follow the surgeon's advice) and no rawhides. We found these wonderful dried sweet potato chewies and Ziggy loves them. Follow up with your vet, do some research, and get your baby on medicine. There is medicine that helps the symptoms. We had to get it filled at the Walgreen's. Ziggy stayed on that for 6 months following surgery. After we brought him home from the surgery, we wondered what have we done. He was stitched from his "junk" up to his chest. He was whiney for that first day and by the next day, it was as if nothing had happened to him. Good luck. I know how you feel, so helpless and scared. Stay strong and keep us posted! |